Is there a good way to film yourself performing magic for others on the street by yourself, or is having a separate cameraman really the best option?

You can do it solo if the camera is in the right place...

If you go through the live footage on my YouTube channel, you will find a variety of footage filmed both with a tripod and with a camera person.

Tripods are hard to get usable footage with, as you'll be moving around to address your audience and the camera can't follow. It also makes it hard for the viewers, you ask someone in the crowd something and everyone's head turns, but with a tripod the viewers don't turn so you lose that element of misdirection. Getting a usable clip on a tripod was mostly "luck", and was really just no where near as good as a camera person.

And you can't just say "hey will you film me?" and expect to get good footage either ... I had to train Heather on how to capture the shots correctly. ie: I ask a kid "what's your name" and everyone looks at the kid to see their response while I cop the first load ... the first time she filmed it, she didn't pan the camera to the kid, and the load was obvious. After a few days of showing her the footage she captured and explaining how it should work, she caught on and captured some of my best shows. I ask what's your name, the camera pans to the kid, he answers, camera pans back to me and the load is ready. That's not a "camera trick", that is exactly how misdirection works - when I ask the kid his name, everyone's attention is directed towards the kid, then back on me ... the camera has to work just like a live audience would.

My advice? If you have a camera person, use them ... if not, then set-up your tripod. Filming is beneficial even if you can't publish the results. I remember once when a kid came up to me and said "I just wish my retention vanish looked as good as yours" and I was like "wtf is he talking about, I don't do no retention vanish". I was able to go home and watch the footage and realized the way I turned my head during my french drop created a "retention of sight" effect, not "retention of light' ... that as long as I was still looking at the hand with the ball in it, I was indeed doing a retention vanish. I had no idea till he told me, lol, being able to watch the footage and see what he saw was important in my realizing this.

-JoeJoe