Educating thew audience is paramount. I have seen people take photos with various artists ( some were statues, musicians, etc, ) and not give anything because they..are you ready?..... thought they were out there just for the fun of it.

I enjoyed Will's DVD very much and I like him. Kozmo's Tales From The Street's is actually a detailed course in working the streets.

If you had to feed a family, I can't see another way of doing it other than Kozmo's approach of crowd gathering, hat lines ( follow the rule of three;-) etc.

But, if you were young ( or money wasn't the #1 reason to be out there ) and wanted to perform on the street, but didn't feel comfortable doing hat lines, etc. I think Will's approach would be a no stress, fun way to do it.

I think the foregoing is a good way of summing up this debate over performance styles! Very well put!

I have to agree that if you want to make a living performing street magic, well a good living anyway, you have to learn to ask for money. Restaurnts in America put on the bill a little thing showing how much a 15% and 20% tip and suggest the latter if you felt you got good service. Why do you think you can do well working for tips without asking if even restaurants are asking?

I worked the streets, mostly one weekend day a week based from home, for 4 1/2 years, influenced by Jimmy Talksalot, Kozmo, and Gazzo [but not face to face] before I got to be serious about hatting folk. It tied in with realization [mainly helped by getting into a big city and becoming confident working on the main street there] that I could busk anywhere, my show was organized and good, and it really was worth something to me and to my spectators/participants. Now I do hat seriously.

Any help for aspiring or working street magicians is useful. Sorting out what is useful to you as an individual and putting it into practice is what's needed.

Kozmo vs. Will Stellfox

if you judge on the style of these performers you are thinking wrong. I don't want the style of kozmo or Will I want my style. these dvds are there to teach you the art of performing magic in the streets.

kozmo is the streetperformer. he attracts a crwod and builds his show.
will is the david blaine type of performer. performing close up tricks to a few people.

so decide what kind of magic you want to perform.

Amen.

Watch Cellini the master on streets

I need to get my hands on both of these DVD's. I still have a lot prep and learning to do before I hit the streets...

Kozmo,

Can I buy your DVD set directly from you?

I believe if you go to:

www.kozmomagic.com

You'll find the DVDs available for sale

Imgic,

Thanks, I just bought it!

I have both DVDs and there is great info on each. They are different, but not at odds.

Actually, Stelfox does educate the spectators that he is expecting payment. But he does so subtly and during the course of his routine. Personally, I like his style very much. He is the "Anti-A-Hole." Plus, he has lots of intelligent things to say on his DVD about "phases" for your act; the types of people you're likely to meet and how to deal with them; some great lines and bits that are useful in different situations; realistic financial planning (if you're planning to really make a "go" of performing for a living, which I'm definitely not); and he offers his work on two great effects as a bonus. Very happy with this DVD, and I look forward to hearing whatever else this thoughtful, positive young man has to say.

I spent an hour or so watching him work a week or two ago. He's got some great ideas that are not in his DVD, and that I won't reveal either, that help him get better hats. The one thing that is sure, and that's been mentioned earlier, is that he's doing roughly a close up act. His current act is short and to the point. He doesn't spend/waste time saying jokes, asking people to get closer/further, and so on. He does weave effects so as to keep the audience around, and performs very quickly, in five to 10 minutes max. Several effects include audience involvement and people are gasping a lot.
His crowds that day were from 5 to 12 people, which is good given that he's performing on the sidewalk, back to the street. As soon as the show is over and he's gotten money, he resets, and within seconds, he's already working on gathering another crowd, and he'll do the same show again and again.
His style is very different from that of the other magician buskers in Vancouver, but what I can tell is that people don't have an opportunity to leave during the show because of how he weaves the effects, and the show is short enough that if you stop, you can watch till the end and not be late to wherever you were going. I believe that his approach is "better make a lot of short shows for small crowds with a ''guaranteed minimun income'' that a huge show with people that could pay if only they had time to stay till the end." From what I can tell, it's not working too badly...

P!

So where do you want you career to be? doing short shows for small crowds or as long as you want for people that are loving what you provide? depends on the pitch. depends on you...

He has a third video out now which continues where the second left off, and shows his entire act (five shows for five different audiences) from start to finish. Haven't seen it yet, but supposedly he goes into personalizing a hat line, and using a plant to help get the hat going. http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S20398

What do you mean by a plant to get the hat going?

Apparently, he uses a shill or a moee modern term: stick.

I don't feel like using a shill is something to be proud of. It just feels scammy. I mean if it works for him, then power to him, but I don't know.

Using a shill to make an effect work would seem a lot more "scammy" to me than using one to seed a hat. If the seeding works as an alternative to being verbally aggressive, I'd at least like to see what he has to say on the topic. Haven't watched Stelfox's new video yet, but I've enjoyed the other two and like his style.