The Art Of Street Busking

I've always admired people who take it onto themselves whether they face financial hardship or do busking as an extra income source, there are some talented performers out there who may do it for recognition alone in the local press and want to step up that career ladder that they are passionate about by expressing themselves with their number one talent.

Of course there are those who are desperate to make a little cash on the side that the talent thing has eluded them somewhat, they are focused on the spare change and nothing else, because either they really need the money, which I can't blame them for, or that they actually think they have a talent playing the flute whilst juggling( I saw this last month and the guy was really struggling to juggle and play the flute coherently and I just thought there must be an art to this type of thing and I have come to one conclusion.

And this is it, to try and earn a little side income from busking you have to have the X-factor, that mysterious something that just makes people dig into their pocket and hand over their spare change that they really don't need, you have to be entertaining in the short space of a youtube video, it's that quick, because people have to get somewhere or are busy and so they may have to pass by an they will stop if they like what they see and hear, something that has the WTF Factor aswell!

Whilst on a travel around Yorkhire I happened upon this mini circus happening right in the middle of the town centre and by mini I meant they were little people, dwarves, midgets...(whatever the PC phrase is these days) and they were dressed like ompa loompas from willy wonka and the chocolate factory and they was doing back flips and allsorts of skate board trick it really was impressive and it drew a huge crowd and lots of buckets of change for them with a good few money notes that I could see and I thought to myself, what if they did this everyday, they would make their money!!, Although some of them probably do do it every day.

Street busking has come a long way over the years and there are various types of street performers, artists and whatever else and in any town I'd hazard a guess that there is 3 or more street performers that do it regularly as their main income.

One of the most fantastic things I've found about most buskers is that even if they are ridiculously bad at what they do, they still carry on, although what is not fantastic is the amount of abuse that they get, but then if they do have a talent it is unlikely but not impossible that they will get any verbal or physical abuse.

The art of busking comes down to a choice, another outlet for your creative side, after the internet and the online world, to actually show people what you can do is the next obvious choice.

In our town there is a Chinese guy who does these wire scupltures of animals and he's been there for years doing them, so he must enjoy it and his sculptures are quite good too.

So remember to do busking here are some factors that you must have within your own personality:

Confidence - Without this you are not going to stick it out, if people shout "Booo!" when you know you have a talent then you must take this with a pinch of salt.

A Talent - Don't show up expecting to earn money from a knitting tutorial to some rock music or else people will really take the piss!

Motivated - By being motivated you can do this throughout the week by planning different towns you can go and perform at.

Realistic expectations - Earnings are not typically great, but with a little effort and practice on your talent, then it does work out later on.

The art of busking is really something for those who need to practice interacting with people and drawing a small crowd for practice sessions, sort of like practice runs for the larger thing like concerts or organized events.

So always think about the art of busking.