First up and really well done!

As time goes on you may have a crisis of confidence. You think you can't do it, your material is poor. It is important to remember this moment you have done it successfully once so keep going.

The first two effects are great for the street. The third I am not to familiar with but don't see any reason why it would not work. Have you thought of sandwiching effect in between each prediction then doing your hat line and reveal like you do at the end. This way you can keep making a promise of reading minds and keep building up as your show goes ons.

But greta work and keep having fun

You have a sweet audience brewed there. Seriously good for a first and second day.

Looking at the structure of your show, personally I'd have added an extra trick at the beginning and removed the swallow from the beginning, maybe do it secondly.

I'm guessing you are using the balloon swallow to grab people. You could perform an effect before the balloon swallow, maybe a rope routine which will grab people. That way you have an audience built and then you give that ready built audience your balloon swallow. Either way, if your balloon swallow is stopping people it's still going to stop them no matter what.

Another idea :

ACR
Balloon swallow
Rope routine (or different routine)
Mental Epic

I've personally never finished with an epic but it could obviously work.

Well done. it is hart to strt on the street but is the most rewarding for you as an entertainer. you will learn things stage people never learn.

i would suggest that you do something on your clothes. I had to look to see who the performer is in the audience. street look is ok but have something that sets you apart. a big hat - different vest. so people can see you as theatre. as a performr.

Thank you all for the very nice and encouraging words! ;-)

I struggled around for almost 4 years (!) before I found the b••ls to go out and stand on the pitch... The first moment I was standing on that bench I just watched the people passing by and thought: "Oh man, wat do I need to say to them...if I start shouting, they all gonna look in my direction..." But after my first, let us say, 3 shows I got a feeling inside of me that said: this is it! This is what I really like!
I have plenty of experience in doing parlor & close-up at private events, and ofcourse, I love to do it. But with busking I had a complete different feeling, hard to describe...like more fulfilling or something...



I know the Mental Epic Board is very, very angle sensitive...but in my opinion, when you take good care, nobody will ever see what you're writing... I also talked only to the crowd in front of me, the crowd who would watch the show. People who were sitting behind me on the bench were always people who were waiting on their family that went to the toilet. Maybe I'll change this final after having less good experiences with it, but at this moment, I feel very confident with this as my final.

Greets.

Kim

Thanks for the encouraging words!
I was surprised how easy it was for me to get an audience. Maybe it will not go that easy every time, but it sure gave me a confidence boost on my first time on the pitch.

You're right about building the audience first before doing my balloon swallow, I only think I didn't had the confidence on that first time to start with something else... :-$ The balloon swallow was easy on my first time to get attention. I stand there on the bench and started swallowing slowly, so people stopped and watched from a distance. Then I'll stopped for a moment and gestured to come closer to the rope and continued the balloon swallow. But I understand what you mean, and I'll surely gonna work on it to implement someting before the swallow.

In my previous answer I explained already about the angle sensitivity of the MEB, but for this moment it indeed worked very well for me.

Greets,

Kim

Thanks for the advice Robert.

I will work on my clothes but don't want to lose the street style indeed. It's indeed hard to see on the pictures, but I thought people saw me from far away because the "gilet" I wear is very glittering silver (is glittering correct English? Robert, you'll surely understand it out of Dutch ) and I wear a silver glittering bow (strik is bow in English?). For my first time also this gave me self-confidence because I didn't stand out extremely heavy. But I think the costume will also evolve together with my show as my experience will grow and my character will start to get some shape.
What I want to reach is a type of streetperformer that isn't really a magical person, I want to give the spectators the feeling as if I'm just someone with a talent that can entertain them...if you understand what I mean. I like a lot Jimmy Talksalot, but I know his style of costume doesn't fit me because of my age and younger looks, and after all...I don't want to be a copy of someone else...

Robert, you have experience in real busking on the streets in the Netherlands? Or do you get hired always to perform on the streets on events? Because it was in Holland I had this experience, I started by performing in English because there were a lot of different nationalities in that place... But immediately after my first show I changed and decided to continue in Dutch (and ofcourse translate if there were any French/English/German spectators asking for it). I found in Dutch it worked a lot better and it was easier to get a crowd. You think it's always the best choice to perform in your mother language if you're in a country where it is the main language?

Greets.

Kim

Kim, yes in the Netherlands perform Dutch and change to two languages. if you speak english you should talk perfect english. if people suspect you are not english they think you are a cheat. a milly vanilly.

yes I started of on the Streets in the Netherlands. first groningen, den bosch (boulevard festival in augustus, crashed it) then I went to Germany, oldenburg, Hamburg, Kiel. later to Lindau, Bodensee, one of my favorates Oostende etc.

so I learned it the real way, as it should.

clothes: if you use glitters go over the top. think like The Toppers. create a character. people forget your name but not you look.

have fun KIM

Today I went out again!

This time I went to the city of Antwerp. There was a food-festival going on, called "Fiesta Europa", so there was a lot of foot-traffic.

I wanted to perform in front of the Cathedral but a group of musicians was already setting up there...so I went to the Groenplaats, a big square (where the food-festival was going on) about 100 meters further. To not block the entry of a Mc Do restaurant and other commerces, I set-up on a good spot (good spot for a second choice) in the stream of the people. A lot of people passed here to go from the festival towards the Cathedral and vice versa.

I performed about 6 shows of 12 minutes each and made a good total hat in my opinion. I had a very good second experience with the same setup as described before here...

I'm still so happy I went out and did it!!! I really like this way of performing!!! It's hard to perform in a burning sun, but they fulfilling feeling it gives me is more than worth of it!!!
I really had a lot of fun again today!!!

Greets,

Kim

I think this is important point. don't be in a rush to change stuff. Sometime we can be guilty of changing stuff on the hunt for a perfect set. But we don't give things a chance to settle in or really get to know the issues.

your doing great keep going

Thanks Yellowcustard for the encouraging words. For the moment indeed I keep the setting as it is now indeed. They way I'm busking now is far from perfect streetperforming, I'm very aware of this fact, but I'm just starting out and enjoy it the way it went until now. If I should change things now too quickly, I'm afraid I will lose my confidence in what I do... So I think you're 100% right with your advice. ;-)

I'm really very conscious for example about the angle sensitivity of the MEB. But until now it worked very well for me. With enough attention on this fact of angle sensitivity I didn't had any problems with it. As my experience will grow, I think indeed I will encounter the issues from each effect and that's the time to evaluate if it fits the performance or not.

The same goes with the advice about the costume I got here earlier in this topic. Ofcourse I take the advice with me and evaluate this later, because I think also my costume can become better suited for the streets. But also this worked quite good for me until now. Yesterday I gathered a crowd of approximately 50 to 60 people, so I still think this is not very bad for a "rookie" in busking (please correct me if I'm thinking wrong). The way I'm dressed now I feel confident, but as my experience will grow, my persona will envolve probably also, so my costume can be adapted to fit the complete picture...

Again, thanks for the encouraging words and very helpful advices here. Not only in this topic ofcourse, because before I went out the first time on the streets, all the topics here in this section and on other forums where visited by me countless times. The idea to go busking came to me about 5 years ago I think... All that time I was reading, watching, studying and hesitating if I should ever find the b***s to go out there and do it...

I'm so happy I did it now and I really enjoy this journey!!!

Greets,

Kim