Getting A Raise At Your Busking Job.

How does a Busker get a raise at his job?

That sounds crazy, right?

That only sounds crazy if your not a Pro.
Today we will be talking about how a new guy can increase his pay everyday. If you want to know how the Pros are staying alive busking full time, you will need to understand the relationship we have with our shows, as our bread winners, and the basics of how we put them together and adjust them, to win our bread.

A Pro knows how to control his income by adjusting his show.

The Character And Our Mysticism.

Most of the new guys looking for a teacher hunt me down for this one reason, The Character.

I am going to be writing a series of articles on how to find A Character. Today's article will be focusing on using our mysticism to find our characters.

All magicians have mysticism, and ours is definitely tangled up with trick theory and show character. So get ready because this is where it gets weird.


Today we are going to talk about Magic. So suspend your disbelief, and put away your science and skepticism (all great subjects, but only secondary today) because today we are going to talk about something more important to a magician, and that is Magic.

Where To Get New Material And How To Put It Together.

Some people learning the street for the first time, are tired of using canned lines, and are looking for their own material. They want to know what to say to the people, and how to tell their own story. They want to know where the heck the full time guys are getting their material.

Full time guys, are looking for new ways to get new material and new ways of using it to improve their shows. So today I thought I'd talk about my method for getting more bits of funny business, and what I do to put it all together.

Putting The Pieces Together To Create Your Own Sidewalk Show.

All the time I get new guys asking me, how to write their own show.

I always ask them, well what would your show look like, and what would it be about.

The other thing I tell them is, that if you know the structure of a show and you know your Character, that Character will write the show for you, the Show will write itself, especially with enough stage time.

If you know the basic structure of how a show works, stage time will grow your show into a full time show.

They usually look at me, like a deer in the headlights, and that's when I realize, they do not know what a Show Structure is, or how to move the pieces around to put one together. So I thought today, we would take a crack at it, at least as I understand it.

A Show Is A Story, With Nuts, Bolts, And Strings.

Essentially any show is a story.

In order to understand the construction of the story we call The Sidewalk Show, one must first know the nuts, bolts, and strings, that hold it together.

Today we are going to be talking about the skeleton and the body of a show and how it is a story. I feel this maybe one of the most important articles I have written in many years and may solve some very big problems for a lot of people.

I'll begin with terms and definitions, and then move on to how they work together.

The Pros And Cons Of Getting Rid Of The Table.

Barcelona, that's not my table.

Now anyone who is familiar with my work and my crazy opinions knows I'm against using a table.

The reason for this is mostly, me trying to get the other street magicians to think out of the box.

The fact is, tables are great, no really. I very rarely use one, but I still do sometimes, because I miss it.

There is something about standing behind a table, that makes me feel like a genuine operator, at work, at the office.

And I miss that.

There are a lot of good, and yea, even great reasons to use a table. So today I figured we'd talk about what happens if one sheds the table, Pros and Cons.

Jimmy's Virtual Hat

Out on the sidewalk, I spend a lot of my days asking for tips at the end of the shows. We call this Hatting, because the people usually come forward and put money in the hat.

When I'm asking for money, I usually like to tell them a little bit about myself and let them know why I'm asking for money, well this is my little spot on the sidewalk of the internet, so here goes.

What do Buskers mean by Roaches, and what's a Roach Show.

Well gather around kids and let grandpa tell you a story.

Over the years I have been asked to write about this, I have been reluctant to talk about this subject, because it is a derogatory term used secretly amongst performers, about a person with bad behavioral tendencies standing within the audience. I have always felt this is a bad state of mind to have as a performer, especially when approaching a show.

Also, as a performer myself, who wants their audience to trust them and like them, I would not want this to be taken in the wrong way. Never the less, roaches are a reality, and are one of the things a performer is subjected to when they go out there. So, finally, against my better judgment, I'm going to take a stab at this.

Asking for money in a close up show on the sidewalk.

Over the years magicians have asked me how to ask for money at the end of their sidewalk shows.

In my opinion the best way to end a close up show on the street is with a great finale monologue routine asking for money. Not only does this finish up your show professionally, but it also educates the audience to pay you.

I call this routine a "Hat Routine", because in it I direct everyone to put money in my hat at the end of the show.

Preventing walk offs, in a close up show on the sidewalk.

No matter how good you are, you will notice people walk off randomly through out your show.

To prevent this I use a method called "Machine gun holding"

On the street, your character and presentation are everything.

Showing a move or a puzzle wont hold anyone's attention for long, but showing magic will.


Presentation is different on the street then in a gig or with your friends. The street is full of distractions.

In order to present magic properly on the street;

How to get a close up show started on the sidewalk.

I think the best way to do a close up show, is to have an appropriate size audience move into close up position immediately and ready to watch, so you can have an intimate experience without interruption from the chores of, trying to stop people one at a time, constant crowd building, or constantly ushering.

I like to get most of these necessary chores out of the way in the very beginning, before I even start my show.

To Lure With Spectacle And Our Mysterious Society

A Street Magician’s Manual -by Jimmy Talksalot.

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DESCRIPTION - Originally the book was released in paperback form through a publisher. As a re-release I have revised it, printed it, and bound it myself, all by hand in my workshop. The style and handling design, is that of a Mid 20th century field manual.

I AM JIMMY THE GIANT SLAYER.

one time,

some giant angry man broke through my audience and stormed through my show and broke out through the other side.

.....of course I said something.

something really bad about him.

unfortunately he heard me and broke back into the crowd,

so I screamed and ran,

thankfully he chased me.

around and around we went, weaving in and out of the audience, he almost caught me so I hid behind a fat old lady and kept dodging him back and forth by using her as a shield.

he backed up into the middle of the show cussing at me.

I was in the audience behind the lady and he was in the middle of a circle of about 300 people when he realized where he was and froze up silent and still.

only swaying a little bit, like a flower in the wind....beautiful.

beautiful, because I realized he had stage fright.

and he had it bad.

so I went out marching at him with my chest out lookin like a braggart.

I walk up about 3 feet from him and in a loud voice said, "alright you! ready to settle down and get into the audience where you belong?"

he said, "yeah, ok."

I pointed at the audience and he ran into his new place with them.

shortly after, some other guy was heckling me and I said, "look mister you don't wanna play with me, you see that big guy right there, he's my friend and if you mess with me he's gonna mess with you."

and my new giant friend told the heckler, "yep..don't make me come over there."


you see he was good at thumping people, and I was good at what I did, and by respecting and bring attention to his abilities I made a friend.

i think, in a busking show you should always be building a crowd from the beginning of your show to the end.

IN A VILLAGE, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.

usually when I get a heckle, I look at the guy and tell him, "I know what i'm doin....i'm not stupid!"

if he persists I just begin agreeing with him and start relating to him using very backward reasoning until he realizes what he has gottin himself into.

which of course, is that it has become a 2 man clown act and I have made him the leader and my new inspiration.

this leaves him trying to figure a way out of the mess and give me back the show as quick as he can.

sometimes they are really smart and will become submissive to my childish commands.....sort of like when the whole village pretends that the village idiot is the mayor or head of town council or chief of police.

one time this didn't work, because I was dealing with a serious bubba redneck in new Orleans who out stupided me and was relating to me as a peer.

this scared me, because I realized he was a real idiot and had a natural unlimited arsenal of god given material over me.

so, I became submissive, to show him I respected him as an authority.

I let him say his peace, I waited for the audience to settled down, then I waited till he was looking around wondering why everyone had been laughing.......

then I noticed his powers were weak, because he was thinking.

seeing he was vulnerable like the last crippled deer running behind the herd , i pounced like a wild cat!

looking very frustrated, I said,

"LOOK! there's only room for one idiot on this corner...and that's ME! you need to go down the way and find your own!"

he said, "ok"

after he walked down the way (looking for a corner I guess), I had to wait for the audience to settle down again before I could finish the show.
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WON SECOND PRIZE AT SAINT WENDEL

biggest thing to happen to me as a street guy.


for the first time in my life i was judged by my skills as a street guy and not by how good of a festival show i did.

which was good for me and Gary Animal (who won the best comedy award), because we were workin from our pockets with no sound equipment nothin!

infact it was difficult for me to get rigged up with a mic for the gala appearance on stage, because i was doing tricks that use my mouth and a lot of body and clothes action.


there were acts ten times better then me for the festival, but they judged me on my street skills.


the others were;


1. prize 2012: Ted McKoy (Scottland), 3. prize: Brando y Silvana (Argentina).


and let me tell ya there was no way i stood a chance against ted, this guy worked with cellini on the road and completely mesmerizes his audience...he was funny, but this was no question a magic act. he's an older guy and he has serious powers over the audiences suspence of belief.


He did simple, small, and mostly original tricks done big and impecably. it was a huge honor to work with this master, definately one of the last of the old masters...gives me chills, just thinkin about it.


this festival was the single most important thing to me. the past line up for this festival was real street guys, all the masters. i had absolutely no intention of winning any prize i just wanted to hold my own. infact when gary animal told me i had won 2nd just before i went up on stage for the gala i thought he was tryin to pull my leg so i'd botch it, (me and gary had become good friends at the festival and were jokers).


after my gala performance i almost broke down emotionally infront of the audience thanking them for welcoming me to the festival and all it meant to me.......they thought i knew i had won, but it was anounced in german so it wasn't later till i had figured out that i was a winner.


the photo of me is at the gala.


throughout the festival i worked around the town streets.

there's a bunch of photos and stuff of it on my facebook.

the gala is a last chance time for the people of st. wendel to see a little bit of what the international performers can do, and it's the place where they announce the winners.
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