Inspired by another Thread of magician Shaun Sharpton I decide writing my progress as a busker. Why? Because it will force me to go outside more wich is good,can help someone who wants start doing it too and maybe I can get some advices from more experienced magicians. Besides that it's a good way to register my evolution and later see how I progress or not.

Before continue let me apologize for my poor English.

A little background on who I'm and where what I've done in magic. I've 36 years old , I live in Portugal, I'm Portuguese and I've been studying magic for 20 years. I start on general magic, basically doing only stage shows for adults and kids. Then some years later when I discover that I can entertain an audience with a pack of cards or a few coins only, I put all that stuff aside , start studying close up magic and spent the last years doing only that and kids shows. I did it as a professional 1 year and the other 19 as an amateur. In the last years it becomes hard for me to perform because I work in shifts. I still studying, practicing but it's not easy to perform. So I decide that doing magic on streets is a good solution, because I can do it when I have free time. There isn't an agreement, a contract, it's just go outside and entertain. I read as much as I can about it, took notes, watch other performers and went outside, first day went like this:


-First Day on the Pitch

I choose a park with good foot traffic, couples walking with kids and grandparents. I went like this:



What I did was use this oversize hat to atract there eyes and the whristle to atract there ears, basically the idea was use this to help them stop and it work apparently. In few minutes I was with about 10 persons in front of me. At this point I was already performing FIBER OPTICS using the whristle when the magic effects happened. Works well.

Then I did AMBITIOUS CARD routine, changed a card in the hands of a kid and did the torn newspaper (something I saw Sergio Barros using to help audience make noise) , the kid hold the pieces and later I did paper ball over the head with it wich not work well because the kid saw it.


Then I did make them clapping and cheer before the cups to attract more people, here I'm doing that:

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I start doing Cups and Balls routine, did some mistakes, they saw one more ball and one or two loads, but not too bad.









The most important part, the smiles on there faces:



I have to go now, tomorow I will post more about this first day, especially the mistakes I think I did, and how much went into the hat.

Hope you enjoy follow my adventure,

Helder

Small World! A friend of mine at work is Portuguese. His Parents were from Portugal.

Maybe that is rude question, but did you make any hats today? I'm looking forward to see more from you!

Cheers!

Thanks, I will be following your exploits.

I am planning on hitting the street for the first time within a month myself, so very interested in your experiences.

Nothing rude. I did a 20 minute show and they put 10 euros in the hat wich is not bad at all if we take in consideration that I did a lot of errors.

Lessons I learn:

20 minute show in this situation was too much, so I need to do smaller shows first and evaluate if I have to go faster to the end or not. Cut or add effects to draw the crowd.

The first routine, FIBER OPTICS it's not good at this point, like I did. Better something smaller, that way they have to come close to the table and I do my edge. With Fiber Optics the magic happens at chest level, they can see it farway, not good as this give them the opportunity to leave easily.

I was nervous and that shows on the hat too, obviously. But doing the show with frequency will help on this easily, second time was much more relaxed.Instead of doing only a show I need to stay on the pitch more time, hours, something to keep in mind too.

Another important thing I will start doing is asking there names more, connecting with them, helps a lot on the hats, I think.

I also I'm making some changes on the table, will post pictures of it soon.

And that's it for first day,


Helder

Thanks for your answers!

I get inspirated and I will try to start my street show soon. I'm thinking about finale, because I want to use my variation about with ropes and fiber optics's ideas as finale, but I'm not sure if this is good enought. Beside that I want use TT to gather crowd (in Poland this is not known effect for laymans), then ACR, Sergio idea with newspaper (that's brilliant!) and then finale.

Cheers and good luck!

Helder, why do you think they caught your load and the ball flash? These are things I worry about. How did you handle this?

I flash because I was nervous and also need to practice more. I just keep moving forward as if nothing happen.
These things happen, don't worry about it. The diference is if we practice more and are confident performing the number of times they happen is less, but will happen too. Practice the solutions for errors, for example what will you do when they saw the 4th ball? I just did a false transfer and put it on pouch. Make a magic effect of it. The ball just appear from nowhere. That's what I did and what's goes inside my head.

Hope that helps,

Helder

Second Day on the Pitch:

I decide to try another pitch and I went to the center of Lisbon, right on the heart of the city,here:



The arrows indicate the foot traffic and the yellow circle where I was. This is probably the best street on my country for street performing. There are lots of shops and restaurants and tourists coming up and down all day, taking photos, having fun and with money. But here we need a permisson wich at the time I went there, one year ago more or less it was a lot of money and even if we pay what they want, there wasn't garanties that they would give that permission. Today things look better, at least they elimated a tax of about 400 euros. I'm trying to get that permission now.
There are stories of cops taking all the props from performers without the permisson and fines. With a set of professional cups and table I could't take that risk but at the same time I was curious. So, what I did? Thanks for asking.

I went there with only a deck of cards and 3 pieces of rope. If they take my props, that's all they get. And if they said '' you can't be there without permisson!!!'' and would answer '' oh sorry, I didn't know''.
This is a big street and very busy, I arrive there feeling like I was David and the street Golias. ''Jesus, I will eaten alive!'' But I relax, I took a deep breath and started performing FIBER OPTICS. Just doing the routine in the middle of the street and doing some noise when the magic effects happen with the whristle.At some point I started giving the end of a rope for them to hold, ask names, a little of individual interaction and did AMBITIOUS CARD routine. I stay there about 20 minutes and got about 6 euros on the hat.

Helder

Well Done Helder you done it the more show you do the better it will get Bring them a little closer

Thanks

Keep these updates coming. Really enjoying them...

Great Job helder

Keep It Up and keep the pictures coming

kOnO

The new table, top view:




And bottom view(will use this for a cups and balls intro):




Magic Sign, nothing fancy but I like it(probably for that reason):





How it looks?


Helder

Table top looks great. You build it yourself?

Yes, finish it today. Thanks

Helder

Magic sign is great, that table looks nice, I like that idea with story about cups and balls

I love that table bottom.

Thanks Helder, big respect for anyone giving it a go