Street Preforming/ Fundraising

MaelstromEx · Post by **MaelstromEx** » 26 Sep 2005 11:11

Ok this may sound idiotic but clubs here in madison do fundraising and i was wondering if anyone has every tryed or had any luck with preforming on the street hoping that a passerby drops in some cash. I know henry has tried with almost no luck but i'd like to hear some positive feedback before we/i try it.

THANKS!

Blackend · Post by **Blackend** » 26 Sep 2005 11:24

I wouldn't mind trying to do it, but I'd always figured people would get the wrong impression and think I was a bum trying to panhandle money from them.

jon · Post by **jon** » 26 Sep 2005 11:55

hmm pretty sure both lon and ryan m. both have done this

I made a dollar once too.

DoctorJay · Post by **DoctorJay** » 26 Sep 2005 12:29

I am used to that . These days I am not doing it because I try to gain members for my club and I guess this behaviour will be negative to new players .

In tourist cities I wouldn't hesitate to put a hat in front of my session .
In Germany people do not give much .

Otherwise there are people who came to me with me and ask where my hat is and I tell them I got none I only try to show the sport of footbag and they insist to handle me the money .

I think Ryan used some show on the streets where he earns some good cash .
I only want to school and lay the down the hat from time to time .

I recommend to give it a try .

BalinorNZ · Post by **BalinorNZ** » 26 Sep 2005 14:03

I have put alot of thought into this, and I think the best way to make money from busking footbag is to make it as professional as possible.
Ryan and Lon and many other footbag players have made quite a bit doing this and it is a great idea. Ofcourse we are not all as good as they are, but here is some advice I think would help:

If possible have a friend there doing it with you who can play a bongo drum(like one of those african drums) and knock out an exiting beat while you play, it's even better if he can play too and you have turns drumming/playing when you get tired!

If you can't get a drummer having some speakers with some drumish music is almost as good!

Do it in a place that LOTS of people walk past, but there needs to be enough room so you don't bang into people (not a narrow footpath), remember, drunk people always give the most money!

Don't go too short on the shorts! Alot of men don't want to watch a guy who can almost be seen falling out of his pants!

Do tricks that people want to see, lots of double atw, double dex moves, spinning and ducking stuff, mobius, extream links like osis/blender/torque type move to blurry move(people always seem to know these are hard!).

Be good enough! You really have to be solidly guiltless and be able to perform impressive stuff like datw and swirl easily in a 20 or 30 contact run, people have a way of telling if your good or not, and won't watch if your not! (I'm sure you are, this is just a general guide)

I wasn't aware that Henry tried busking? It might be because he is quite young and looks quite young? Maybe people didn't take him seriously? Maybe the area he played in just wasn't very accepting to buskers?

Hope that helped! Let us know how it goes!

brian relly · Post by **brian relly** » 26 Sep 2005 14:21

I heard what Ryan did is just prepared a handful of routines, and burned their songs to CD. He went out there with a ghetto blaster and cycled through the routines for a couple hours - made about $250/day.

Juice · Post by **Juice** » 26 Sep 2005 14:57

The Melbourne Footbag Club do a bit of busking. They make a few bux. I don't know if its a lot though.

MaelstromEx · Post by **MaelstromEx** » 26 Sep 2005 15:07

lots of great advice, myself i am solid tiltless just breaking into guiltless, the only advantage i have is that it's fundraising for the club, thus it's not street hustling but also for a good cause!

Hopefully i can some people to try it with me this weekend. Again thanks for the advice

professor · Post by **professor** » 26 Sep 2005 16:31

This is funny, because just this last Saturday our club decided to go to the Strip next Saturday and play for some money. Last time some of the people in our club did this they got told they couldn't play on the strip, but we figure it's worth a try. We are THE tourist city. Hopefully we can make some cash for footbags and/or money for trips to tournaments.

We'll let you know how it goes.

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 26 Sep 2005 16:37

i did this in the boston subway. got about 10+ bucks in an hour. and i wasnt solid guiltless

now i do it for free (before you claim that makes no sense, lemme explain) i go to quincy market in downtown boston, which is the biggest tourist spot in boston, and also happens to be the hub of 90% of bostons best street performers who gather nightly to perform. so i find a good musical group (last weekend it was a group of about 5 guys who did percussion on plastic buckets, tin cans, etc ((stomp-esque))) and set up next to or behind them and footbag to their music. the crowd usually watches me and listens to them, and everyone is happy. especially the musical performers, actually, who appreciate MY skill, ironically, and believe it brings more interested crowds.

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 26 Sep 2005 17:13

Next week me and my friend Billy are doing a charity shred for a anti-violence group. The group is called Leave Out Violence (LOV) and I have been volunteering for them for quite some time. I pitched the idea to the president of the orginization because we are opening a LOV club at my university. The groups is trying to raise money and get membership, and myself and billy will be at their event promoting non-violent sport.

Thats how to make money with footbag!!!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 26 Sep 2005 18:58

I have done a fair bit of busking in the past - it's fairly easy and if you have a good location you can make a fair bit of money. Dylan Fry and I made about $140 between us in 2 hours on a day when I was coming down from the night before and hadn't slept at all and he hadn't either. Focus on hitting long runs but also putting in interesting moves. I always busk in pairs because it's too exausting. Doing an actual street show would be much more efficient for getting money I think. Even though I don't busk these days, people still give me money sometimes

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 26 Sep 2005 19:44

Ive done a little informal shredding with a hat on the ground and it has generated me about a dollar in spare change each time.

You could totally put together a sweet proper formal busking routine with footbag and people would eat it up. You could build it up so slowly from kicking to crazy shred and bigger stuff. Heck, since so much of busking is drawing the show out and getting the people worked up for the big finale you could take your sweet time doing "easy" stuff only to later blow their minds at the end with a guiltless combo or something.

I think the most important trait to have is *consistency*!!

DROPPING IT LOOKS DUMB!!!!!!

A bail to a toe stall looks WAY FUCKING COOLER than a drop - ALWAYS.

If you show them a tiltless/guiltless/whatever trick or two and make em look real difficult. If you did that then hit a combo of them with confidence they would eat it up! Then if you made it even crazier and *played on a beat* they would freak! hehe

yeah, there are lots of possibilities. Just make it look cool and be confident.

You gotta be puking confidence all over the place or it won't work either.

I really wanna try this out.

MaelstromEx · Post by **MaelstromEx** » 26 Sep 2005 19:46

me too, i seriously hope it works or my confidence will come crashing down like a plane with no engine......

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNN

BOOM

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 26 Sep 2005 20:06

yeah - although regarding consistancy - if you watch lots of street performers they often drop their juggling or whatever - think of some funny lines to say when you do and it'll be fine - you can even make it look like it's part of the show. Also if you just try a hard trick a few times and drop it to begin with - it makes it look even harder. Like they've seen that you're good - probably the best they've ever seen - and now you're trying something that you can barely hit. I've seen street performers on purposefully make some things look harder than they really are.

Staight jacket escapes are a good example of this - a good contortionist can escape from a normal straight jacket in about 20 seconds or less - this makes for a boring event so they play it out to take a few minutes. Skill is important but performing skills are way more important in street performances.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 27 Mar 2007 11:40

Have you ever been busking?

Share your experience!

Ill be busking alot during the summer

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 27 Mar 2007 18:13

Hehe, i was in Indianapolis this last weekened and I was thinking about busking.

I might have done it too, but i really don't think its the best application for the sport.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 27 Mar 2007 20:29

Think of it as i way to promote footbag.Since here in Estonia few people know about footbag

and if i play in crowdy places more young people will know about it

janis · Post by **janis** » 28 Mar 2007 00:48

I used to do some busking before I went eack to uni, it was a good way to get a bit of exposure for the game and earn a little bit of money.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 28 Mar 2007 05:03

Share your exp Janis ) what to do and what not do

whats better to do , etc

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Street Preforming/ Fundraising

Street Preforming/ Fundraising

Busking