You can be the world's best performer and it still may not stop people on the streets or put more money in your hat....

Here is a link to a video of one of the world's best violinist, Joshua Bell performing in a N.Y. Subway. You will be amazed at what happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMyXfdk_Fp8&feature=share

This was a real boast for my ego as I remembered the many years performing on the streets wondering if my performance was good enough...it was not until years later that I realized my time as a street performer is what made me good...therefore providing me a very successful career as a professional magician.

I hope this video is an encouragement to you who are working the streets or as an atmosphere entertainer.
You could be the world's best and not know it...time will tell.

First off it was Washington D.C. not NYC but that dosen't matter.Second off this is like comparing apples to oranges.I music busker is just back ground music and they don't even try to "build a tip or edge".A magic busker has show with a beginning middle and end.People have to stop to watch a magic show but they can just listen to music as they walk by.

Don, I understand the difference between a street musician and one performing a show.

But I think you missed my point.

I was talking about the quality of the talent within the performer.

The quality does not matter. Its like live elevator music unless you are directed by the performer that this is an event.
The worst performers make a lot of money. A street musician must know the dynamics of stopping a crowd.

He got three people to stop and listen, one of whom seemed to know him. I noticed a number of folks dropped something (money?) in his open case when they passed. I wonder how much he made. Still, as Don says it was more background noise and not a show. Who cares about quality when they have a train to catch and might be late for work?

The full Washington Post story will answer many questions:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con......23video1

Steve, Don did understand your point. Yes the music was beautiful but he was selling apples. I have seen some really crappy magicians draw a good sized tip, nothing like Don or Bobby Maverick can draw but still enough to make $20 in 10 minutes. That's the oranges. Two totally different things, magic & music, the only thing they have in common is the letters M & C

This is like 4 years old...
Did you hear Obama won the election?

NO!

Yeah I heard.

There was a Violin player whenI was a Kid who played in the subway in NYC, he was good, then one day I saw him on The tonight show with Johny Carson. turns out, he was first seat in the New York orcistra, he would play in the subway for the fun of it, as he loved to play.

now this guy in DC is not a busker, nore are any of the people who set up this experament. would any of you set up there? with doors betwen you and the out side, and between you and what looks like the main waiting area? the location was set up to fail.

I'm with Don on this one. This "experiment" was flawed from the beginning. Josh Bell is a talented artist and the premise was to see if talent alone is enough in this environment. The answer was "no" mostly because Josh and the Washington Post didn't factor in the "busker mentality" that even a poor performer can make money if he knows how to work a crowd.

We have advantage over Mr. Bell as most of us here know (or should know) what it takes to succeed on the streets, and the bottom line is it has very little to do with our technical abilities.

In the strange world of the street we work in..
I guess the ability to Draw a crowd, hold,entertain & pitch for money
is a talent we have to various degrees..different skills for us all as seen in the video..

"would any of you set up there? with doors betwen you and the out side, and between you and what looks like the main waiting area? the location was set up to fail."
Knowing where to set up is vital, indeed. "Location, Location, Location," as the property people say.
On the other hand, sometimes it's good to try new locations and see what happens. But, still, the foot traffic has to have a suitable amount of walkers, and appropriate pace to be prepared to stop and watch.

I wish they´d turn this one around,.. let me have his Heinz Hall stage in Pittsburgh, his hype,.. and a half hour with his audience. THEN we´d have a story.

,just woke up,
gallagher.

That's a million dollar violin, btw...

"I still accept Hope but I don't want anymore Change!"
I wrote that the other day. Not sure if the audience is going to get the reference but maybe they won't give me pocket change?

Try $3.5 million

I think you guys are looking at this wrong. The 'experiment' was not flawed, the whole point was too pick a very inconvenient location and see if people would notice a genius such as Joshua Bell in the midst of their extremely busy morning.

"In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"

I don't know how many of you actually read the entire article, but if you do you should see that they knew exactly what they were doing.
Even if the experiment was flawed it's too different from magic busking to draw parallels and say that he's doing it wrong. I'd like to see how many of you could make $32.17 in 43 minutes from a trickle show in that location.

They probably did. They probably enjoyed the heck out of it while they were walking by. But they weren't in a position or a time when they could stop and enjoy the music for itself. I don't think a regular busker could have formed an audience out of that group either. (Of course, he would have realized it was a bad spot and not tried.)

So this guy tried busking and based on some educated observations by experienced buskers we've determined he was a ****ty busker. Who knows maybe it was his first time out. If someone with a bit of street experience gave him some pointers he might have made a bit more money or produced more transcendent experiences (I don't know what the kids want these days).

My wife, who is a paninst, on watching this comented that the music choice was also not very good. Not that it wasn't good music but that in terms of the context not so hot. His song was written for a certain time and inside a certain type of concert hall. The acustics of a subway station would make it sound wrong I think. It was like he was doing the musical equivalent of a zig zag lady illusion. I would be interested to see who people would respond to either modern music or jazz improvisation matching with the rythem of the subway station.

I guess it's context. Magic to me feels like it belongs on the street, that's why busking feels like a pure art. When you go to a theater and sit in the dark and watch lights shine on a stage you kind of expect to see dis-realtiy, but out in the world surrounded by trees and streets and cars and people, magic can take on a sense of the real.