when your on the street your on stage and every ones watching.
every ones looking for a chink in your armor.
"THE BAD GUYS" are looking to take your spot, your money, and maybe your life, so you want to have a danger element in your persona and you don't want to dress too extravigantly. you need to give off the impression that you could be somewhat dangerous if pushed the wrong way.
a good example of this is of course; Gazzo or Sonny Holliday
THE GOOD AND DESENT TYPE PEOPLE who are probaly gonna tip you are looking at you to see if your a con or a threat in some way, so you need to have a child like disarming side to your persona. it should be saying "i'm a harmless and a good man to harmless and good people, but i don't like bad people."
mimes are a good example of this.
AND EVERYONE is looking at you to see if you truly are what you claim to be...a magician, so you need that royal touch that something that says your of a higher class, a wiseman, a man who could hold himself with proper breeding even when he's wearing rags. a man capable of being a gentleman even if he's not always behaving like one.
a few good examples of this royal touch are of course; Cellini, Eric Evans, Tom Frank, Doc andrews, and Paul Nathan.
you need to have all three of these to some extent, some have more of one then the other but they all have all three at some point.
strangley i've noticed that Danny Hustle has almost all equal parts to this. i think it may be his heavy entertainment background.
stranger yet theres a guy in london named "Pepe" who pushes "child like" and "street tuff" to an extreme that can only be explained as ominous in a clown car wreck sort of way and it's no wonder why he would get the largest crowds of all.
yet he holds himself like a dignitary even in rags. Pepe has been to the best schools of theater and recieved many awards from the hoity toity theater powers that be, but he chose the street as his venue, and rejected the high institution. every now and then they come and give him awards and recognition and he throws them in the trash and says,
"when are you gonna bring money i can't eat these."
here's a tiny clip of him;
a true genius but don't push him the wrong way. it's also no wonder that him and Sonny Holliday hit it off big when they met this last summer in london.
of the three of these i think the royal touch is the most ignored by the performer in the u.s.
when infact it should be on top of the list. this is where we need it most, people think we're bums and cons here.
you can go out there in shorts and a "t" shirt and without a costume,
you can go out there and be loud mouthed rude and demanding money over and over,
and you can disregard the importants or value of our art,
you can do all these things and make alot of money, they'll pay you good, and you'll make big fat hats,
BUT THEY'LL STILL THINK YOUR A BUM WITH A GIMMICK. DON'T FOOL YOURSELF.
so many buskers out there are fooling themselves into thinking they are greats because their hats are always big.
and sure they figured out how to hustle, big deal, so what. they should go into time share sales because theres way more money there for a good hustler.
ask yourself if you made a bigger hat then Cellini,Tom Frank, Eric Evans or Sonny Holliday, would that make you a better magician or even a better busker?
of course not. because these guys have been doin it for years they have forgot more then most people know on the subject.
but there are actually fat heads out there who think their better because of their hats and i'm sure you'll be hearing responces from them here.
MAKING ALOT OF MONEY DOESN'T GIVE YOU CLASS, IT GIVES YOU ALOT OF MONEY.
YOU CAN'T BUY CLASS.
and the people watching you know this, they maybe watching you like they watch a white trash t.v. show every nite at 7pm.
but that doesn't mean they think you or that t.v. show is important to our american community. THEY STILL SEE TRASH. and americans buy alot of trash.
i've seen it go so far that some guys who can't even tie a tie and who look like junkies will call other buskers "bums" because they arn't making hats as big as theirs.
money is important, but you can make money doing any thing.
it's about dignity.
and it's saturday, so if you'll exuse me i gotta put on my clown shoes and grab my horn and go to work.
