I usually do either rings and cups and balls or rope and cups and balls. That's all I have time for. It fills 20 or 30 minutes.

I sometimes draw the edge with the rope or rings, sometimes with some closeup coins or cards.

Jim

Howdy,

I am currently located in Amehrst Nova Scotia - Just outside of Halifax -and I will personally attest to the busker fest being the SHIZZLE! - I have had the pelasure of performing here for a little while and let me tell you - the people are friendly, the buskers are ready to please, and willing to talk shop over coffee.

If your coming down to Halifax - let me know I would love to hook up with some fellow Cafér's.

I believe a straightjacket is the exception that proves the rule. Straightjackets seem to increase a hat like no other trick. Yours Bill

I did quite a bit of street performing last summer in a very difficult location (small private courtyard), as busking in a public space is illegal in Bar Harbor, Maine. No kidding. It is not possible to draw a big crowd in this location, as you can't be seen all that well from the street, but people do pass through and you can snag them if a couple of people are at your table.

Most of the time, the only material I performed was Fast & Loose. You would not believe how strong this is until you do it. I used play money ($100 bills), which I handed out to the participants and won back. I covered their bets with real half dollars which I would ocassionally lose to them if the moment seemed right. Almost always, these would end up back in the hat.

Thanks so much to Whit Haydn and Chef Anton at School for Scoundrels for a very educational and lucrative product!

Pictures at:

http://www.memoryelixir.com/archive5.html#street

Don't miss the link to Peter "The Glassman" Bennett's story from this site.

Big hats to you!

Yours,

Paul

Well I can start with simple rope trick, Shell game, Dippy Duck, maybe head guillotine or straight jacket or full load Cups and balls. I might even balance Rocky the Racon on a tray which sits on top of a ten foot tall pole while I play Amazing Grace on a kazoo.
Mario
:dance:

I open with the straight jacket Then do sword through neck and finish with Abbott's chair suspension. 3 main tricks is all. I have found that where I perform (Clearwater Beach) it makes no difference if you do 10 tricks or just 3. They all pay the same. So I took the best 3 tricks I do and routined them together.

Ok, I'm new here (not new to magic, been doing it a year) but I don't know what busking is. I think its another term for preforming for money on the street. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Zman, you're right about your definition of busking.

I'm glad this thread popped back up. I'll answer with what I have in my act right now, and hopefully some of you old salts will give me some advice for changes or reinforcement that I've made decent selections:

Draw:
Juggling/Shouting/Attention-Getting Silliness

Build/Warmups:
Pen thru Dollar (first hat-line with jokes about $$)
Cigarette Routine (finish by lighting/puffing/vanishing lit)
Cut & Restored Rope (lay down to draw a line...move crowd up to line)

Middle:
Color Monte (another hat line...not playing monte for $$--performing for $$)
Linking Rings (short 4-ring routine)
Professor's Nightmare
Torched and Restored

Closer:
Cups and Balls (final hat line shortly BEFORE finals are revealed)

Berkley,
To me, this seems like a really long show with way too many effects for a street show. I do 20 minutes with a multi-phase cut and restore rope and my cups and balls routine runs 15 or so by itself (or longer) depending on how many gags I feel I can put it. I alter the speed of the cups routine and the number of gags based on how involved I feel the audience is.

Like your monte hat line.

Jim

Jim,

Thanks for the tips. Now that I think about it, my show does kind-of seem more like a skill demonstration than entertainment. I'm sure I can trim it down a bit.

Joe

Good luck with it, Joe. One of the most satisfying things I learned about working on the street is that my act just gets better and better. Routines that I thought were just right, change for the better.

Jim

Joe,

This would be a GREAT show right here. Just these three things. If you can juggle and be silly you will absolutely and unequivocally draw a NICE edge.

Once you have them if you do a nice multi-phase C&R combined with Prof. Nightmare that is all the middler you need. Slydini's rope routine rocks hard on the street, as does George Sands, Panama Rope Trick, etc. Rope is a good middler.

Closing with the cups and balls? Well, that's a pretty hard trick to beat. That is why so many of us close with it.

For the record, your opener is VERY strong; do not discount it. There is not nearly enough silly in the world and people eat it up, especially if you can juggle! :

Best,

Dan-

When I'm masquerading as a bum, I wait for my cardboard sign promising magic to attract someone, then do the time-machine watch prediction...hopefully that gets a few more to stop & look...then I'll do an stealth-pen-vanishing-reappearing bill routine, and what else happens really depends on who & how many stay to watch, but in my arsenal are
D'lites (color-changing)
time machine
DeKram deck and 'anywhere fine-print' cards
Kevin James' floating rose
stealth pen
Rinkey-dinkey
Eclipse card-bag trick (a whopper!)
3 pre-set, pre-placed H&S soda cans
and card through window, via a 24 hour convenience store.

1) Burling Hull's Simplex chain escape;
2) Full-view escape from Irish-8 Darby handcuffs and Indian 'British Colonial Period' Darby Leg Irons;
3) Straitjacket escape.

Steve

Yeah I always make sure I get a CTW in my show as well. When performed right...HOLY MOLY! Get your buisness cards ready!

I always, and I mean ALWAYS include the knife through Arm in all shows I perform. Blood and all, I've never had censorship issues, I make it as gory and believing as I can.

Swallowing the Razor Blade trick is a great effect to perform on it's own. I have some times, ( When I was first starting out ) Set up a stand with a sign entitled " Witness the Incredible, You will not believe your eyes! $1 for 2 minutes of sheer entertainment" I had 3 tricks behind the stand, that was it...3 Card Monte, Swallowing Razor Blades and a thumb tip. - NOT ONE SPECTATOR LEFT THE STAND DISAPOINTED. AND MOST..MOST, even tipped me a few extra bucks.

Anyway at the end of a 6 hour day - ( Bloody fun day ) I had over $100. It was amazing!.

I don't know what the moral to this story is, but...For aspiring street magicians. Or any Newbie into magic, The point is : You do not need expensive, ground-breaking, diobolical mechanical gimmicked state of the art technology magic to be a winner.

All of that comes in one word. "PRESENTATION"

ENTERTAIN THEM!

We were in Baltimore Maryland and saw a street
act do among other things a subtrunk for his last
trick. Anyone else ever try this on the street?

Did they pull it off? The street really doesn't offer the best layout for illusions like that. There are some places where it could be possible. However, you have to unload it from your car, carry it to your corner, make sure no one is standing behind you. Too much work for me.

Slydini's rope routine has never really worked for me. It's like they have seen that before. I don't like it all that much....and even with the humor it doesn't make it for me...thats FOR ME....for others it likely works very well.
Cellini did it for 20 years.

koz

Rsummer27,
Yes they pulled it off. It was in sort of a town
square setting. They also had a small p.a.
system for music. They carried the trunk in on
a cart. You can perform it surrounded. It's a top
version.

I am wondering what would be the best closer - the Cups and Balls or a Strait Jacket Escape.

I am sure that these are two different schools of thought, and so it may be unlikely that I will get a response from someone who uses them both.

I would like to use both in my routine, its just a question of where in the routine they should be. Can anyone help?

Chris