What it takes to make a living off of footbag

[atze]

Actually I wanted my next post to be about the freestyle choreography workshop we held a week ago in zurich. But organizing all the material and thoughts will take a while longer.
Until then I have this insight for all of you wondering if it would be possible to earn a living off of footbag.

We had a small show yesterday in Zurich where we were privileged to meet Ursus&Nadeschkin (http://www.ursusnadeschkin.ch). They are the two most famous circus artists from Switzerland and have played the biggest shows worldwide. They were very impressed with our footbag skills. And after the show Naja (Nadeschkin) came up to me and said:

"You know that you could be making a lot of money with your skills if you would work on a proper act?"

This is somebody with almost 20years in the circus business talking!!!

So all of you wondering if there's money to be made playing footbag, the definite answer is YES!!! And we're not talking street show money.

What it needs is a proper PRESENTATION of footbag skills. You don't even need to be the best player in the world. What you need to do is sit down and work on a true circus style act that combines skill, show, costumes, light and music.

We need to realize how truly amazing the stuff is we can do with our feet and a little ball and start opening our minds to the possibilities available. It's all a question of motivation and dedication.

I'm sure Vasek, Ryan or Peter would easily be able to perform at the cirque du soleil with the right tutoring. And probably 1/2 of the people on this forum are skilled enough to do proper varieté shows and travel the country doing nothing but footbag.

[ebo]

A circus style act would sure help make the sport more widely recognized,
and you could sure make some money out of it, BUT:

we have to ask ourselves what we want/what we are:

Are we entertainers or are we sportsmen?

I've heard the comment "You should go to the circus" from bypassers
on the streets a lot already. While the artistical side of Footbag may
fit into the whole Circus-theme, I don't think it would help the sport really.
We already have all these hippie/slacker-stereotypes to overcome -
how would people think of the SPORT footbag if we appeared in circus
arenas? Don't we want Footbag to be respected and recognized for what
it is? A competitive athletic sport?

Just some thoughts to spark a discussion.

[junkyardjew]

I wonder if olympic gymnasts think that the gymnasts in cirque de soleil are giving people the 'wrong impression' about their sport?

There is NO such thing as "bad publicity", and if you can generate an emotional bond to something like footbag through a performace, you're halfway there. Having a professional footbag player in any kind of spotlight is going to be good for the sport and encourage more people to join, ESPECIALY a spotlight as big as cirque de soleil's.

If you're wearing a costume, doing a coreographed bit with a footbag, its going to make people laugh, and its going to impress them. They're not going to watch it and think "man, that guy could never hit a seven-add", they're going to think "wow, what an incredible thing to do, I wonder if anybody else does that" and then they're going to look it up on the net, and who knows? Maybe they'll take it up themselves? I know a girl who's life dream is to become a contortionist because of the cirque.

I think that if I were talented at footbag at all, i would definitely try and make that happen.

[Just call me hagesy]

I can see where bjoern is coming from, as well as jared.

Perhaps we need to jump through the hoops to become recongnized as sportsman.

With the amount of money in sports, tv rights etc, etc, aren't sportmen thought of as entertainers in a sense.

The reason why people walk past and say, 'oh you should join a circus' is that they have never seen freestyle before. For freestyle to become recognized as a sport by the public eye, we need more publicity as well as more players.

More Publicity=more players.

[shreddaily]

What you need to do is sit down and work on a true circus style act that combines skill, show, costumes, light and music.

I would rather work on my flip nuclear and be broke:-)

but I agree w/ everything you said.

[crazydwarf]

I don't think there's any way we could perform in cirque de soleil mainly because it is so hard for normal people to follow what we are doing in footbag... and that's with them being right up close. In cirque do soleil the audience would be far away and it would look like we were just flailing our legs I imagine... I can see how maybe a smaller show could work well though.

[B_Man]

A big screen perhaps? Or maybe, if the set up is right, their could be platforms for the footbaggers within the crowd (elevated so everyone can see).

That woudl depend on the show though, and the arena it's set up in.

[C-Fan]

There is NO such thing as "bad publicity", .

I kicked a 4 year old when I was playing in a playground in Auckland a few weeks ago.

[Atom]

well before this past summer i wouldn't give credit to the idea, yet we (the .hack club) performed at "buskerfest" in dundas Ontario. we made 54 dollars per person, and there was eight of us i believe. we performed three times each day, two days in a row. they call these people who perform at the buskerfest "buskers", and they make a living of displaying their talents. some shows were simply doing 20 minute routines of drumming and making people laugh (ie drumming on some guys head while he is wearing a hard hat) or doing acrobatic stunts. hand-stands on the handle bars of a bike. one act was mostly having a laugh at the setting up of a trampoline. the idea is to draw all the attention possible and lwet them know where to give cash to show appreciation for the show because it is their living. and their doesn't have to be eight people. two guys doing things like having a battle, doing a doubles routine, juggling, pedulums back and forth. those things wood really get people throwing cash.