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strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Hey everyone. I have been so inspired in the past by peoples' stories about busking, I wanted to share my own. I apologize that it's lengthy, but I wanted to show all the fun and growth that I had over the past year. I hope you enjoy.
[list] [*]I got my first MAJOR gig in Spring of last year. It was the Miami County Fair, which is gigantic. It lasted 30 days, with me working 8 hours every day. It was an amazing experience, I worked with several of my closest magician friends, we had NO supervision whatsoever and worked/breaked at our own leisure, and the people who ran the fair were extremely happy at the end of it. We plan on working the Fair again this year. ![]() [*]After the Fair, I got another gig working a St. Patrick's Day festival. It went amazingly too: ![]() [*]After both of those experiences, I was so motivated and excited about magic that I planned a busking trip to New Orleans with one of the other magicians from the Fair. We planned on going in about 3 weeks, and I had so much built up energy and excitement that I decided to go to Denver first to busk by myself, then meet my friend in New Orleans. I had an artistic friend paint my table so it could function as a convertible sign/table, and I got on the plane ![]() ![]() [*]I found a place in Denver to stay using the website www.CouchSurfing.org (amazing website by the way, if you ever want to travel for free.) I didn't really know much about the city, but I got incredibly lucky because Denver is one of the best cities I've ever been in (and I've been around the world.) Busking was going great, and I was having a blast. Here's a picture of the pitch where I busked: ![]() [*]I was so excited about everything I even got a nifty magic tattoo! ![]() [*]My friend from Miami contacted me and basically told me he couldn't make it to New Orleans. I was pretty disappointed, I had a plane ticket already and everything. I wound up deciding that I was having so much fun in Denver, and I had already made so many friends, that I just extended my stay in Denver indefinitely. I stayed at friends houses with none of my stuff (no computer, which is why I disappeared from here lol) for about 2 months. Whenever anyone asked how long I was staying, I always said "Another week or so", but I couldn't make myself leave. [*]Randomly, a different busking magician friend contacted me and said his fiance was going to be in Denver for a few months, and that he wanted to come stay for a couple of weeks, then go on a busking road trip. I jumped at the opportunity! It was so much fun, we stopped in a ton of places (not just magic related). One of the best experiences of my life. PS: We used CouchSurfing again for this trip. Everyone who hosted us was completely amazing, and I have so many new friends now because of it. Seriously, check it out. Here's the trip we took: ![]() |
strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
(Continued)
[*]I won't bore you with all of the pictures, but here are some ![]() Pitch in downtown Vegas: ![]() Pitch in front of the Bellagio in Vegas: ![]() Pitch in front of Planet Holleywood: ![]() I forget where exactly this is, but on the drive we saw a cool cliff, so I decided to climb it: ![]() There wasn't much busking to be done in this small town in Utah, so our hosts took us out for some good old fashioned American fun: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3234......0034.MTS My friend Played in the World Series of Poker! ![]() I remember this part like it was yesterday. Holy ****. And, since I stuck around until everyone else left, I got the opportunity to perform an original routine for them!!! ![]() ![]() |
strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Some other pretty pictures from the road:
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [*]Unfortunately, in California our car got broken into and all of our stuff was stolen (Cameras, Computers, TONS of money we had made, etc). So the pictures pretty much end in Nevada ![]() [*]Once we got back to Denver, I immediately got an apartment with a friend. I live in a penthouse in the middle of downtown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snf4rpQ0VXQ [*]I currently busk, but since it's the winter in Denver it's too cold to make a living that way, so I also serve tables part time. I never really enjoyed typical "gigging" as much as busking so I'll probably always get seasonal jobs during the winter, but here soon it'll be super nice again and I can resume full-time busking and hopefully traveling ![]() Sorry for the long post, I hope it was interesting to someone ![]() [/list] |
strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Sorry for the several posts, it wouldn't let me post it all in one.
Also sorry for the [list] and such, the coding I used was consistent with the FAQ for this forum but for some reason it didn't work. A last apology for the large picture sizes, other forums I've been in auto-resize them to fit the screen, I didn't know it doesn't do that here. Anyway, hopefully someone gets something out of this thread ![]() |
MagisterFreud![]() Regular user The 18 135 Posts ![]() |
It's by far the MOST GIGANTIC post I have ever seen on the Café.
Also very inspirational. Thanks for sharing! |
MagiCol![]() Special user Dargaville, New Zealand 929 Posts ![]() |
Alex, thanks for sharing. it's great that you had a photographer who caught some very good shots of you.
The presentation makes the magic.
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gallagher![]() Inner circle 1168 Posts ![]() |
Alex,
I really enjoy your Post, thanks for taking the time to put it up. Seeing the Streets, your Pitches, the sunshine,... the Road,.. ahh,... the photo of Penn(!),.... congradulations. ,and "thanks", I really enjoy it. gallagher |
strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it means a lot to me
![]() I still can't believe I got to perform a routine for Penn and Teller. Dream come true. |
Endless West![]() Regular user A town called Malice 185 Posts ![]() |
This is incredible. Completely inspiring.
Were there any issues pitching in front of the casinos in Vegas? I heard the strip is a hassle. |
Motley Mage![]() Special user 572 Posts ![]() |
AMAZING trip! Stay safe, but ENJOY this time! Awesome post (albeit GIGANTIC!)
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strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Yeah I realize now I should have attached the photos instead of embedding them lol, it would have made the post much more readable. I wish I could edit them and fix it but I think a mod would have to do it and I don't want to bother them.
Vegas was actually incredibly easy to work. Fremont Street (Downtown Vegas) was one of my favorite places on the whole trip for busking. The Strip was also easy to pitch on, but we got worse tips. It was worth it for the experience though. But if you're busking in Vegas I'd suggest Fremont Street. I'm very happy to get the positive feedback, people responding is helping me get even more excited about everything. Thanks everyone. |
Codyreese![]() New user Salt Lake City 56 Posts ![]() |
This is really cool. I only wish there were more opportunities to do this in Utah...
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strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
Small towns were actually really good to us, because people weren't jaded to busking. It was new and exciting to them. Anywhere that there's people, you can busk
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OZ![]() New user Fort Myers, Florida 1 Post ![]() |
Alex, this was such a great experience for me as well, thank you for posting!
We do need to have another grand adventure someday, perhaps Australia and New Zealand? |
strat1227![]() Regular user Florida 189 Posts ![]() |
I've always wanted to go!! I'd leave tomorrow haha.
Let me know when you're ready for the reunion tour ![]() For what it's worth, I posted a similar recap on other forums where it formatted much more nicely, if you'd like to show someone, this link has it much prettier lol: http://www.52kards.com/forum/index.php?/......ve-been/ |
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