Mandrake01,

point taken.

You should make a selling DVD out of it.

They said The Cellini book was awful too because of all the spelling errors. Of course, none of the guys that said it was crap were actually street performers.

If you are worried about spelling you might want to try another type of entertainment. Because trust me when I tell you, bad spelling is just the tip of the annoyance iceberg when it comes to street performing. If bad spelling bothers you, your first run in with a bucket drummer will have you homicidal.

Check out the table hoppers section. Table hoppers in general are excellent spellers, and never run into bucket drummers. They also dress better (for the most part) than street performers. They get all the hot chicks too!

Finally, Jimmy, brother, I've never had a problem understanding you. Love you man, and keep writing it down!

Best,

Dan-

Tabel hapers cant spel eyether.
Jimmy's stuff is real good. I enjoy reading it.

-Robrt

Bucket drummers are annoying, but yesterday afternoon I had an experience that topped a bucket drummer. A man was walking down the center of the mall singing "Jesus Loves You" and "Amazing Grace" at the top of his lungs. When his voice got tired, he played taps on his harmonica. He happened to walk by right when I had my first decent tip. The advice from this forum "to have something to say for every situation" crossed my mind, but nothing came to my lips. To make it worse, when he saw my crowd he just got louder and more disruptive. I thought, "well, he's just exercising his right to free speech just like you are."

Perhaps I should have run out and done a silent act to the tune of "Amazing Grace" like Jimmy would have done.

Wayne,

In that situation the best, general purpose, comeback would to have been to look at him like he was a weird, and possibly dangerous, alien creature, and without breaking YOUR eyes away from him, stage whisper out of the corner of your mouth to your audience, 'DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT! HE'S PROBABLY FROM (insert closest rival town here) and lost!."

That is a good one to have in your pocket for disruptions like that. When he hears your audience laughing at him he will move along....or flip out and physically attack you in a homicidal rage, either way, you win! Welcome to the street.

Best,

Dan-

Hi Jimmy your latest post on your blog is great. I am at the moment finding my feet on the street and been thinking how I can take a show in a case or even better my pockets, so I can rock up early and as it get busy with street busker do bigger and better I can pop of shopping and then go back when it’s a bit quieter. These observations and comments have inspired me massively thank you.

Yellowcustard,

thanks.

what your looking to do is pretty much what I've been doin for awhile, but I would suggest you browse around my blog's older posts and pick and choose some titles you like. a lot of guys start at the first one and go from there.

the reason I'm saying this is because the blog is set up weird so you can't really see a table of contents and I'm not sure what to do about that yet.

when I was workin spain I had no bag I just wore my suit and when I needed money I would just stop walking on the sidewalk and bang out a show and then go on about my business.[of course that's europe not here we know how hard that is here]

here I like to care my dr.bag w/ a small sign and rope in it. I slap the sign on the out side w/velcro lay out my fat 15' rope and go to work. the bag is also good for caring water and mints and if I don't want all that stuff in my pockets I can throw it in there too.

While I agree that the mis-spelling, lack of capitalization, and sometimes missing punctuation doesn't seem to have much, if any, of a negative effect on the presentation, I think it is a sign of just being lazy. Most of the time capitalization is easy, as is most punctuation, and with the add-ons one can get decent spell checking.

Nothing wrong with being lazy, or being lazy in certain ways, Thomas Edison claimed that being lazy was the key to his inventiveness, if he wasn't so lazy he wouldn't have become an inventor. But saying that the mistakes are part of the process is just denial. Just admit you are too lazy to get it right.

Having said all of this, I do think that the blog is a great resource. Thanks for spending the time and effort to post it, Things like this blog, and the Café have really increased my enjoyment of this art.

I wonder if they were suspicious of mark twain

I read all the posts tonite, a lot to think about....and more importantly do

I stopped doin' the cups and balls after watchin' Jimmy on YouTube and readin' his posts. It's not that I wanted to copy his style, it's just that I had never thought of the possibility of performing without a table.

It just hadn't occured to me.

I built a nice table, but it's great to have the option to work without it. I still get a hat load in, and I still use a close-up pad even during a half-circle show. I won't get into the details of that on this thread though.

All I wanna say is that Jimmy's posts have changed my way of thinkin' about my performance. He's a saint for offerin' all that to us. Thanks Jimmy.

Thanks chad,

I'm hoping that everyone can learn how to perform with out a table and expand our art.

I got the idea from cellini, he believed that we should move away from the table for a bunch of reasons I'll be writing about it later. it's something I'm proud of after being tied to a table for all those years it's liberating and openned up so many venues.

the table a lot of times is just a mini stage but if you can look at the ground as your new big table that impowers you, you're no longer limited to the edge of your table.

there has been a bunch of guys performing without tables a lot longer then me look at sonny holliday or eric evans or "toot" the students of cellini.

Man!! I cant lie I just love reading this stuff.. and I was wrong for trying to get you to use spell check jimmy. I em SARRY, you big goof..

Posted: Oct 26, 2007 1:14pm
" "fake it till you make it" is different than believing you could be the best.

do you wanna settle for just makin it? "

ill carry that quote with me forever as it just applies to everything!

Great, great stuff I love it.
Mario

If your just starting and you wanna learn street performing you'll need to go to the oldest posts on my blog and start there.

I like my table and such but I do not allow it to be my anchor, nor is it my shield.

It can be a pain to hump around but an asset all the same.

What I miss about the table is the feeling it gives me. with my rope wrapped around on the ground it gives me that "i'm a professional in my office" feeling.

Jimmy,

I request that you PM me if every you should be interested in a performance table.
I don't sell tables...but I do make them on occassion.

Iv seen one, you do a fantastic job chad!