A friend of mine told me about a bar in town that has a huge line up all night the first day of classes. Has anyone ever thought of doing a gig like this?

Might go well, might not!!
If its only busy because college has just gone back you may find it a tough audience. Young, Drunk, Broke...not the best audience ever! If they are lining up to go into the bar, then they won't want to spend their booze money on a street magician, and if they are coming out, they have probably already spent their booze money!

Would be a good crowd to test youself with, as they will really test your ability to control a crowd!

I agree I've tried that once when I was performing Fearsons floating cig trick at my campus club, it went well, I only made like $10 bucks in tips, everyone else wanted to get wasted.... Special now it's Frost Week here.... don't even try to ask students for tips, they just want to get drunk

Not all students want to get drunk, however, keeping this in mind bar gigs are only profitable when the bar had hired you. This being said, the best way to get hired by a bar is to be seen performing outside and making people laugh.

Magic is not about the money its about the love of magic, and the money. But the bar gig could be a good way to get further gigs.

Maybe. But these students are there to get each other drunk and to fool around. And what kind of gigs are you going to get from them?

"Hey, man! Like that magic is way cool! Can you perform at my party? You can have all the beer you can drink!"

Tell them you are doing it for beer money and I bet the tips go up. It's worth a shot.