Street performance help

ok search has been done on here and on google and i am still stuck.

The man who runs Nuneaton juggling club is talking about putting me in a street entertainment competition? All i have to do is a 10 minute spot entertaining the crowds, All the other entrants are singers or guitarists. thing is its next saturday and i have not done anything of this kind before.
i could probably run up a costume once i find a sewing machine off a friend but honestly at the minute i am just in shock.
I could swap toys, but all i do is staff and poi. cannot even bring the fire out and don't know much staff. its different when you are actually street entertaining as people generaly just walk by and either throw money or insults, but this is just standing there and letting them watch !!!!!!it doesn't make sense, i can spin at workshops, shows etc but the thought of this scares the out of me

hey that means the man who runs the club thinks you rock and wants you to show your talents....as for the show you'll do fine as long as you have fun ^_^

The trick to street performance is interacting with the crowd. You make them stop because you are offering them something that they don't get from the televison - interaction with a human being.
So don't just put a hat down, spin poi and hope that people give you money, talk to them, make jokes with them, get them jumping and shouting. Your show doesn't have to be that technical, as long as it capture's people's interest and entertains them.

10 mins really isn't very long to build a crowd, put on a show and hat round, so you need to think of a way to make your crowd building entertaining.

But my experience doing street is quite limited ... so I'm not exactly sure what to suggest

To be honest, its a lot easier than you think it will be.
The first time i had to compare our street show, I was ing myself, but one you get out there, its pretty fun.
When you are in the center of a circle of people who are all looking to you to entertain them, you suddenly have a lot of power, and it gives you a lot of confidence. Talking to people becomes a lot easier.

Best advice I can give you, never take no for an aswer. If you ask someone to do something, make sure that they do it. That way, you get the crowd's respect.

And maybe try to think of a character ... its easier to be confident when you pretend to be someone else

pm tomorrow with all my summer's knowledge from busking.......

Yeh, ask Fluffy.
Her advice got me through my first street shows this summer

fluffy, anychance you could post a copy of all that knowledge, as I know i'd like to read it and i'm sure it would help allot of other people to.

and froggy. Go on, go on, go on

my only advice, dont look like a robot and just do the poi. As Kontaktstab said, you really want to interact with the crowd. Humor them, give them something to laugh at and be shocked at the same time. Some moves can entertain a crowd (Anti spin flowers, and rumor has it that really quick 3 beat weaves does the trick.. ) and also... Something very very important is the children. Theyre easier to entertain, and they beg their parents to submit some money in the hat dont worry about it though, i am sure you will do fantastic! just have a good time!

Best of luck to you ms. frogette

If you can work it into your routine, try to get someone from the audience up into your show (not easy in a poi routine I know). They are the audience's representative, and the audience experiences the show vicariously through that individual. So be nice to them and get the audience to give them a round of applause. The audience will feel more part of the show and be more willing to give money

***Special thanks to Bob's busking worskhop at the 2005 EJC for that piece of advice

What about one-handed butterfly, that's always a good one to show off, maybe one-handed anything if you want, but ALWAYS show the crowd the trick with two hands first.

hello.

The pm I sent to GF was quite specific to what she was asking, and not a general busking/street guide by any means!

I can write some things that it helps to be aware of but it'll turn into an essay, so if you still want it then that'll be a task for tomorrow.

Now, I sleep

I did a quick workshop in street performance at a convention. It was a very general one and not spinning based but I learned a few tricks from it. This is what I've learned from that and from my own experiences as a musician/busker/performer and from watching other people.

The guy who gave the workshop (I don't know his name, sorry!) said that the key was to capture your audiences attention before you start actually doing anything. Apparently a good way to do this is to have a LIMO - Large Interesting Metallic Object, which could be a unicycle or a chair. The idea behind it is you spend a few minutes moving it around randomly as though you're setting it up or looking for a good place to start doing something, so people start looking.

Since you only have ten minutes, you need to capture everyones attention really quickly and as you'll be spinning, you probably won't have a LIMO. Another way to get an audience quickly is to ask for their help in setting up. Grab someone who looks like they won't mind and ask them to hold something for you. If you can get a family, that's even better because it means more people looking which will attract more people passing and the kids will probably get really interested, meaning that the parents will stay and watch. Or, put some music on.

Once you've got a few people, introduce yourself. A really simple format for street performing is to tell people exactly what you're going to do and then do it, so you're almost giving the performance in the style of a lesson to the audience. Get your audience involved from the start. An example introduction would be:

"Hi, my name is ______ and I'm here today to do a quick demostration of spinning. Does anyone here know what I'm on about? Have you seen any of this type of thing before? Yes, no? Right, believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who enjoy swinging things around their head and not all of them are in mental institutions..." etc.

Start swinging whilst you're talking - if you got someone to hold your equipment, ask them to pass it to you. So you could start with basic circles whilst telling people you're going to show them something called poi.

I was told by one of my friends who does stand-up comedy that he plans his routines by ending with his funniest joke but starting off with his second funniest, then he spends the in-between working up to the finale. That's also a good way to plan a street performance; work backwards from what you want your finale to be.

Also, tell the audience what you're doing. Tell them when you're about to attempt something difficult. Get them to chant or applaud. Hold a move for a few beats. Vary the tempo of what you do, so do a mixture of slow spinning and fast spinning. Making moves really big is also impressive, so big circles and giant weaves and butterflies add interest.

If you can, get an audience member as a volunteer and do something around them. I've seen performers ask a volunteer to crouch in front of them and then they'll do a weave around themselves and the volunteer or a butterfly that bounces in front of the volunteer and behind the performers head.

Don't forget about the safety aspects as well. Make sure you have enough space to move, have helpers nearby to keep people from moving too close and make sure you look like you're enjoying yourself.

Hope this helps.

Fluff - dunno about anyone else, but I still want!

Clairebe - thanks a lot for sharing! Your volunteer idea reminds me of one of the first times I span fire - me and another dude did some interlocking 3 beat weave action.

I reckon it would be a good gimmick in a performance to get a volunteer out of the audience (prolly one who already knows the weave! - maybe one who you've taught earlier in a workshop if that's the kind of event it is) and do some interlocking weave.

Also something I just learned from a bit of publicity spinning I did this lunchtime - spinning to someone playing (a) hand drum(s) makes the performance 500% more interesting.

Some excellent advice here - on a related topic does anyone know how you'd get permission to busk in a high street or something at night with fire - I saw it done in Mexico with 3 people, 1 staff, 1 poi and 1 devilstick, and if you are playing with fire. I was thinking that at some point in my gap year I'd go and do some busking, starting with tails and developing into fire show with staff and poi. But I'd need a location and information...the advice on this thread is excellent.

Or I could run a small stall somewhere, buy up some poi wholesale and then sell them at a profit stallwise, with me as the walking advert. Any recommendations on numbers you'd need for this?

As you can see, I'm still throwing ideas around...

And good luck to Frogette!! Have a great time

ive not done any street performing but lately ive been taking my poi to work and when its quiet ive been outside the shop praticing and ive pulled crowds, mainly because poi isnt that out there yet so not many people have seen it before.

if the other entertainers are singers, musicians then its something you see every saturday in nuneaton town center, poi in its self will pull the crowd

do a 5 minute peformance then ask for a volunteer to have a go, try teach them a basic and watch people be really interested in getting into poi themselves, oh interaction just answer questions people ask which will probably be, how you get into poi, wheres it originate from, is it hard, ect

Your council will probably insist you have third party liability insurance, which is MEGA expensive. It's much better to do fire on private land, or organised gatherings.

The fire is the attention grabber, stopping people instantly, once a crowd is formed it naturally grows bigger.

Interaction may be the key of entertainment but when I spin I focus so much on the poi I dont even notice the spectators. You can however involve children, a friend let a child grab his staff and that was big fun for everyone ...

You should try create some sort of drama, ideally according to music. Show them the flames, move the poi around a bit for them to see its real ... dont jump into twirls right away.
If you mess up a trick, do it again, you get the biggest applause when the third attempt hits.
When the crowd laughts, they laugh with you not at you, so laugh with them and poi on.

You must have all fire gear soaked and ready to use before you start, once you lit up no breaks are possible other than grabbing new gear, ideally already lit. Any no-flame situation breaks the attention. That means also you must have a torch, imagine how daft it'd look if you try making a lighter work in the wind while 200 poeple watch ... make your own torch from a piece of leftover kevlar and an old jam glass mug filled with lampoil.
Ideally you dont play the heads till the very end, but go and put them out in time (wet towel).
Make sure heads are shaken off very well or people will come complaining after being hit by the tiniest bit of fluid. Also leaving a mess harms spinners rep...

I think you must be 2 at least, one to safeguard the crowd from coming too close, assisting in putting flame off etc, also that way you can alter the plays.

I havent busked yet (was hired ) but I was told its important the hat appears while you're still playing.

Indicate the end of the performance by the artists bowing, get your applause and then people disappear within seconds, hence too late for hat.

Overall its fun, most people see poi first time ever, they are impresse by flames and dance, so no need for elaborate tricks unless off course you want to play them. Your passion always shines through ...

My 2 cents.

As I don't perform myself, I have no advice to give, but to say good luck, and to reccommend that you check out performers.net They have a full library full of articles about all the questions that have been asked - building a crowd, using volunteers, getting permits etc, and some forums which seem very friendly where you can ask advice from people who do street performance for a living. I hope it helps

well after all that worry etc the comp has been cancelled so its just performance to music they want now... but i want to thank you all for all your advice and i think this thread shold be kept open too so it will help others.

Hell i am still going to work some of what i was going to do anyway even if they have cut it down to 5 min, which really isn't all that long. But our juggling club should be getting a donation for doing it so its all worth while.

Well....... its done.
yes I did it a bit change of plan at the very last minute as I had to come with a quick routine to music and had about 45 min with the actual song but I went on did my thing, impressed the Mayoress and the people who watched. I am going to be the local papers too.
Personally I felt it was a mess and far to repetitive on the moves I was doing, I did manage to get the crowd clapping in time with the music and did my best to keep them interested in what I was doing. I even managed to turn around so I could show them the behind the back stuff from front and back.

I did think it went quite well, and not bad seems as though I had been awake since 3 am on the Friday morning (a total of being awake for 30 hours and spinning with out too many cock-ups I find impressive)

Thank you all so much for you help and advice on this.

Congratulations, see you are talented and perfectly capable

Whenever your worried about doing something else new, just think about how well this turned out, and I bet all your nerves just went when you started do strutt your booty

yeah the buzz i got from it was wicked. there was band on after too and they were playing the most amaizing 1920's/30's style swingy blues type music. was very very veru good and would of been fantasic stripper music so as i was poi-ing along to it the crowds drew in again (even though it was after we had all finished and most had gone home) we were just messing around to the music and i did make people laugh by saying "and thats the start of a whole different kind of performance which really isn't suitable for the eyes of children" getting a crowd of people laughing is a great feeling and well you know my mind's always in the gutter just going with the flow.

well done froggy, i knew you could do it and by the sounds of the technical hitches you had you done a wicked job

*bump*
So this is not for sure at all, but I've been put on call as a performer (nonfire) for Brady Streets Buskerfest. I had called like a week ago and hadn't heard anything. Now, I need a performance concept,& costume-esque idea. Now my slot is 2hrs but the performance doesn't need to fill it all. They didn't say if I'd have a corner or be a moving act. Since I'm a fill in I don't have a lot of details

I've busked once or twice before. I like getting the kids involved. This is a professional event. I didn't quite realize what I got myself into. Maybe.

Ack what did I do?

Help, PLEASE

And does anyone have a video that maybe shows some good skills, or small crowd friendly performances

Hey Fif try going to performers.net
It is a huge and bountiful resource and wonderful for this type of stuff.

Now, what *exactly* do you need help with?