Hello,

This past weekend (Saturday and Sunday), I was scheduled to do walk-around magic at a local festival. So I did (obviously). I was not planning on working for tips necessarily, but I wound up doing it anyways.

About as soon as I got there, I was walking down a row of booths that were set up. As I got toward the middle of the festival, away from the three band stages that were set up, the booths seemed empty because none of the spectators were around that area.

But one of the guys running a booth (Bill) called me over and asked me to show him a trick. I did, he liked it, and he decided to give me a table to set up next to his booth. Now, remember, I was not planning on doing this, but I suddenly now had a close-up table with no tip hat or full-show ideas. But I still decided to set up shop right next to Bill.

I guess Saturday was more or less like my practice day. I would stand out in the middle of the street where the patrons were walking, and I would juggle. It would catch some people's eyes, I would ask them to come see a magic trick, start off with something simple. If they seemed particularly impressed by that and there were a few more people watching, I would move on to something else, and so on.

Now on Saturday, I wasn't asking for tips, but some people gave me some anyways, so I ended up with about $10-$20 by the end of the four hours I was there. Great gas money.

On Sunday, however, I came prepared. I had a tip hat, and I had some lines ready to go. So I set up shop next to Bill again, and we became the dynamic duo. I would attract people to the middle of the festival, get some tip money, and then Bill would immediately jump in and advertise his business. It was a great one-two combo.

At the end of the night, I ended up with about $50, which might not be a whole lot for a busker, but it must be plenty for some kid like me who has never tried it before.

As for practical things I learned about busking:
1) My rope routine is my best all-around act. Kids, adults, drunk or sober, my rope routine attracts TONS of people and gets a big "WOW" reaction at the end.
2)Svengali is a great routine for building audiences, because it's unique and exciting, it makes people curious.
3)If I get one little kid's attention and force him to pull his parents, siblings, etc over to my booth, I can pull out the Magic Coloring Book and show it to him, and suddenly every other kid in the the area wants to watch me, along with their families.
4) I didn't do it enough this weekend, but I know that it's okay to ask for tips directly.
5)Tip lines make people want to give you tips. For instance, my big tip line happened whenever I did the Magician's Insurance Policy trick. I would pretend that I couldn't find the spectator's card, then I would say, "That's fine, though. I have an insurance policy that covers me if I mess up. Yes, even magicians have to pay for insurance, and I earn money from wonderful people who's tricks I mess up." Point to tip jar.
6) Bill taught me a few things about advertising myself. Well, first of all, because he was using me to advertise for his business basically. But, in exchange, he would stand out in front of his booth while I was juggling and start hollering at people to come watch my magic act, or come back later to watch my juggle chainsaws (which I have absolutely NO experience doing LOL)

And there's so much that I learned, and now I have great confidence to go out and do it again if the time presents itself.

G'day Satellite

Sounds like a great positive experience with lots of learning - I take it that you were being paid by the organisers to be there so the busking tips were a bonus????

Bob Latta (aka Troppo Bob)

Well, yes and no.

I was asked to perform at this festival for free. I thought to myself, "Sure, I haven't done a real gig in a while, I'll give it a try."

But, as the weekend went on, Bill told me that he'd give me a call and give me $100-$200 bucks for helping out with his business. And he offered me another gig at a big festival a bit further away from where I live. So, kind of

Great experience! If you ever decided to do other shows you could use Bill as a reference to drawing in business, in the form of a call or reference letter.