Best First Day & Hogtied by Children (What is Busking?)

Today, let us talk about busking:

What is busking?
According to Merriam Webster:

A person who entertains in a public space for "donations" [quotations added for ironical effect]

A bit too clinical, but it gets the point across.
I prefer this...

According to Dictionary.com:

1. To make money by singing, dancing, acting, etc in public places in the hopes of "donations"
2. To sell articles/obscene ballads, perform music, or improvise in a theatre queue in the hopes of "donations"
3.  Buscare (Italian): to procure, get, gain; Buscar (Spanish): to look for, to seek
4.  To "cruise as a pirate"

So we perform in the hopes of donations.
According to this definition, we possibly started in theatre queues while people were waiting for their tickets or for the house to open.
Performers would entertain and hope for patronage.
My personal favorite is to cruise as a pirate. This may be the origin of working on cruise lines, entertaining as a profession on ships.

The biggest things these definitions have in common:

1. In Public 
2.  Performance
3. Hope
4. "Donations"

But what is busking really?

I didn't really know until I performed.

Try it!

Public

So what do we mean by public?

Well...public.

It can be literally anywhere.

I have seen performers in almost any setting.
Now, for it to be legal, certain restrictions should be observed.
For example, one of my friends invited me to come with him to New York, spend a day with him on the subway, asking for donations while we perform scenes from contemporary plays for the waiting audience.
This sounded like a lot of fun...

(Excuse me! Ladies and Gentlemen! May I have your attention? Please!) 

Until I rode a subway and realized that that was inappropriate as fuck.
People on subways just want to get home. Or to work.
They are unphased by panhandlers and solicitors.
And what is more, it is illegal to do on public transit.

Now, that being said, you can do it in places of public transit and meeting, like this train station and net a tidy sum if you are particular about what you perform.

(We will come back to this video in just a second)

Performance

What type of performance should busking be?

If you believe the dictionaries, it almost always comes down to music.

But it could be...

Whatever this guy is doing. Zyle? Can you help me out?

Weight sharing

A quartet (with an mother-flipping accordion!)

Circus

Unicycling

Traditional dance

Point being. 

It can be anything.

Anything that you desire your street performance to be.

Busking is flexible enough to cover pretty much all of it.

Hope

I leave this one to people far better equipped than I.

"Donations"

I dislike this word.

Mostly because donations

The act of giving to a charity, especially a sum of money

It equates performance with charity
PERFORMANCE IS NOT CHARITY.
Therefore, why would you donate to one?
PERFORMANCE IS A JOB. IT IS A CAREER.
Plenty of people make wildly successful careers off their performance and their art.

Amanda Palmer survives on people giving to her on a monthly basis.
Check out her Patreon here.

Or Beyonce?
Quick price search of her tickets is wow!
$114-2700
at the time of this article.
Do you consider that a donation to the Beyonce charity?
Some people would argue hers is a religious experience, so the case could be made, but I do not consider it charity.
Beyonce has worked and hustled hard and found overwhelming success.
So no. Not charity.
And not donations.

Patronage

Patronage is 

support given by a patron

What is a patron?

someone who gives support to an institution, individual, or artist.

It doesn't have to be in arts.
The sciences have patrons all of the time.
They often thank them for their kind donations.
And that is fine.
Some people don't have the dislike of the word that I do.
But, I prefer patronage.
The financial support of persons who appreciate what artists do and wish to see them succeed at this crazy little thing called art.

That is the lifeblood of busking.

Patronage.

This is what lets people make careers out of it.

And it all starts with the hat.

Or guitar box.
Those also seem to be super common.

Point being, there is some way to receive patronage.

And the art is what is given back.

And often a thank you.

There is often something intangible about art. 

It is ephemeral, hard to pin down, difficult to figure out.

It is easiest when something tangible exchanges hands. 

A CD, a painting, a sculpture, a sketch.

When these pass to people, they are able to give immediately.

Oh, the CD is five quid? Sure, I'll take two, give one away as a gift.

It becomes a simple, monetary transaction.

I give you goods, you give me money.

But, busking and performance is harder because it is performative.

No goods exchange hands.

So it becomes a little bit scary when your busker looks like this:

See! There is the chalice! Go drop in the dollar bill so he can pay rent this month.

And there is no goods that can exchange hands at the end of the performance (like a CD)

Yeah...

So it becomes just a little bit thornier.

Point being, it is a scary prospect to stop and watch a busker perform.

It can be scarier to donate because it is such a new and wondrous thing.

• This person is asking for money simply for performing?
• She isn't donating to a good cause?
• She isn't starving?
• She isn't telling me about how her mom is in the hospital and if only she could get on the bus?
• What is this remarkable event?

Performance.

We're poor as dirt, but we have dignity.

Well...some of us do.

Point being, I promised I would bring it up and I will.

There is this video.

Meet Joshua Bell.

Playing a Stradivarius. 

In DC Metro.

The Argument

1. He is one of the preeminent musicians of our generation
2. performing six Bach pieces over 45 minutes
3. The equivalent of what people could expect to pay hundreds in a concert hall
4. He performed for FREE 
5. Only 7 people stopped to listen
6. 2 donations of a dollar

THE UNCULTURED SWINE.

I refute this.

Amanda Palmer in her Art of Asking says look at the relationship differently, and from a busking scenario you have to.

Joshua Bell, with all due respect, has illustrated in one act, what I learned from a single performance of busking.

I imagine he learned it too.

What I learned from busking.

You have to earn your audience.

So I am from a classical acting background. 

Which is a bit of an institution. 

The audience, like cattle, are corraled into a seated posture, facing the stage. The lights are dimmed and they are forced to stare at the only illuminated part of the stage. The actors are presented. And we beg the audience not to use cell phones as it may distract from the art. It is a little...prepared. A little...full of rigor...rigor-ful? 

Looks like this:

Now, this is not every theatre, but for the sake of time, let us say that it is.
Classic performance models will almost always adhere to this rigid structure.

Now, busking is a public performance model.
So crowds can come at you from almost any angle.
This can be purely physical (it rarely is)

More likely it will include an emotional aspect (look how happy everyone is on their way to work)

It can even be openly hostile (GET A REAL JOB!)

These can be extreme examples.
But, if you are willing to take a little eyebrow raises, a few heckles, a few shouts you can really command an audience.
Either through silence (mime) or through presence (dance) or through good old fashioned soundscape (barker).
If you have a routine or something remarkable, something people are willing to watch or find genuinely joyful you can turn the tide of the physical/emotional landscape to one of wonder and/or compassion.

If you are telling a story, people may even route for you.

That sounds nice.
But, more commonly you will have to deal with this:

The backs of heads.

Because...

Your relationship is only temporary

As good as you may be, as good as the performance is, you are performing in a public place.

That means that people will come and see you perform.

They will enjoy it for however long they have time.

And then they leave.

This is one of the harder ones to deal with.

The rejection.

Except it isn't. 

Because people do not have time to stay does not mean that they don't have time for you.

And it does not mean that you have to pull them back in.

It isn't a commentary on your performance or your self-worth if people leave.

That is just the nature of the beast.

When you have an audience, keep the audience

Meaning, unless you have a remarkable act, in between the sets is where it gets dangerous for audience attendance. 

Particularly for my performance, which we will get to in just a moment.

See, people's time and money is valuable.

It should be treated as such and

I believe performers do honor that value.

However, when you are setting up, moving between acts, or otherwise crunched for time:

Audience attention wanes.

And it wanes fast. 

So after the dancers would end their fabulous performance and the sound system was getting broken down and I was setting up to go on, people would leave.

That big, healthy audience we had built would disperse. 

I didn't take it personally, but suddenly I realized I would be playing to this:

This scared me.

To no end. 

Because, I have only ever had audiences come see me.

I have never had to drudge up an audience.

New skill set!

This is where Joshua Bell and myself fall flat on our faces:

We have never had to create our own audience. Therefore, we have none of those skills in our artistic toolbox at the ready.

What I did on my first day busking

I did what anybody in my position would do.
I started barking.
I think I did a literal "Hear ye, hear ye" I kind of blacked out for a minute there.
I asked everyone to applaud for the wonderful dancers and then wait a moment while I steeled myself for a presentation of what I called

FIRST DAY.

Why did I call it that?
Because it was my first day.
And I was terrified.
I knew of only one other scenario that was like that.
School.

Doesn't matter what school you go to.
Doesn't matter what age.
First days are awkward.
They are about making friends and making them fast.
So you are willing to do anything to try anything.
So that is what I did. And I decided to perform it.

Give yourself permission to play

Really I needed that more than anything.
I needed time and space to play.
Essentially, permission to fuck up.
Which I did. A lot of.
I entered the playing space and there was a single child sitting in the front row.
I waved.
He waved.
He smiled.
I smiled.
I waved.
He waved.
He smiled.
I smiled.
We did this for a full minute.
Eventually I moved a box that was six sizes bigger than me, and invited him into the playing space.
Him and one or two other children.
They all hopped onto the box.
I had no idea my plan to make friends would go so well!

And then they turned to me.
They were confused.
Nobody had ever done this before.
I had them in the playing space.
But, we weren't friends yet.
Because we weren't playing.

I initiated some mime, but they weren't having it, they thought it was weird.
I asked what they wanted to do.

• They said sit down.
• Go back to their seats.
• Grow up.

This broke my heart.

So I encouraged them to do it.

And as each one left, I gave out a scream like the mortally wounded.

My friends were leaving!

They were amused. Amused and terrified.

They decided to help me down off of my box.

I proved too afraid.

Then, the one most anxious to grow up, the most disillusioned with my performance told me I needed to get over my obsession with this box. 

He literally pried me off of it and stuck me to a wall.

So I was stuck to a wall as he was king of the box.

The others didn't dare to challenge his authority. 

He chased me away from the box when I tried to approach, screaming like a feral tiger as I cowered against the wall.

They tried pulling me away from the wall and after that, I was stuck to the wall.

The King rolled up his sleeves and shouted I shouldn't be so attached to things.

Eventually they tied me to a telephone pole. Literally with my tie.

And then I was rescued by a girl passing by, who brought me back to the box.

And the whole thing repeated over.

That is when I learned

If you can capture the imagination of the children, you've got an audience.

They were a wonderfully attentive audience.

Clever, insightful, ready to keep playing, keep performing.

They were a lot of fun.

It broke my heart to call an end to it all.
To say we had to move on to the next act.

I think they were a little crestfallen too.

There was no big climax.

Nothing to tell us we were done.

I felt like a huge letdown.

But, we had played.

We had had fun.

We were friends.

So that was my first day.

And my first piece. 

Called First Day.

It wasn't a raucous success.

But, it wasn't a failure either.

And the moment that stuck with me was after.

A girl came up to me and asked when I was performing next.

She said she had watched her brother have so much fun and wanted to see me perform again so she could get a turn.

I had a fan.

If you perform truthfully and well, you've got a recurring audience.

And that touched me more than words can say.

For the best book on busking, asking, and the art of, check out Amanda Palmer's

The Art of Asking!

Available wherever they sell books and stuff.