Street Preforming/ Fundraising

Tripp · Post by **Tripp** » 28 Mar 2007 09:48

Megan and I did it at Ozzfest 2005, I think. We made somewhere around 17 dollars in an hour.

MatS21 · Post by **MatS21** » 28 Mar 2007 10:25

Yeah really try to talk with janis if you want to do some busking, I talked with him a lot about his buskings and he gave me lots of advices that all seems very good from his experiences.

ShredOnLawn · Post by **ShredOnLawn** » 29 Mar 2007 09:35

I had great success in front of the train station in Amsterdamn in 1999.

Coven Gardens in London is suppose to be like the best place.

La Rambla in Barcelona Spain paid for myself and 2 friends to live on the beach and eat comfortably if the three of us would busc for 2-3 hours each afternoon. It was fun but gave us shin splints because of the uneven cobblestone style streets throughout Europe.

The key is making eye contact, smiling, and having a good collection hat or shiny bucket or something cool that won't get stolen.

Do not under dress.

Use a brightly colored footbag.

Talk to the audience a lot.

Dress in the colors of that countries soccer team.

Pretend like what you are doing is the best thing ever.

Use Freeze Stalls.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 05 Apr 2007 08:01

I have only busked a bit in my time, but i've spent a fair bit of time hanging around people who busk so heres a few things i've learnt.

- Put a messily scrawled sign saying your name and that you need money to travel to worlds.
- Put the money you earn in your bag every so often - you don't want to look rich!
- Wear rags (a pillowcase with 5 cut holes is really good)
- Smile and talk to the crowd every so often, telling them your name.
- Let kids play with your footbag, if you win them over, you've won their parents money.
- Basically look like you're working really hard but show that you're enjoying it at the same time.
- Get a couple friends to hang around you cheering and putting a couple coins in the hat every so often - It makes people feel bad and give you money. (Don't forget to buy those poor friends some BK after the session).
- Try to be the only one performing. The more footbaggers busking, the more intimidating you seem to the croud. Being alone makes you look both meek, unique and therefore skilful.
- When a jap tourist comes along with a video camera without donating, make an ammendment to your sign: Videos: $2/minute.
- Do lots of fun tricks like pinchers, head stalls etc.

If you follow this advice religiously you should turn in at least $50 an hour.

Kljopa · Post by **Kljopa** » 05 Apr 2007 09:10

Thx for the tips guys!

London · Post by **London** » 12 Apr 2007 12:14

I was down at my local beach today andit was really dead i hadmy hat on theground i wasent busking but after about half an houre i got a $1 not much but the beaqch was nearly dead i cant waittill the beachis busey this summer

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 14 Apr 2007 02:17

Lol thats a bloody long sentence

... that I can't read. Not flaming or anything, i just find it amusing.

Maybe people didn't pay you much cos they thought you were an ape from the wild with those speaking skills

jokes mate.

CIC flurry · Post by **CIC flurry** » 15 Apr 2007 01:15

There are lots of people getting money for things around here - especially downtown and during festival season. Sometimes there's an appreciative crowd, but more often than not, a lot of people try to avoid eye contact with such people, because they don't want to give them money. They feel like they're beggars.

I personally wouldn't want to do it. I feel like footbag and myself would be portrayed in a bad light. It probably doesn't have a bad stigma in other places. Or maybe it's just my perception.

People HAVE randomly given us money before. We're like - wtf? and they won't take it back.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 15 Apr 2007 02:14

Footbag looks like whack stuff only buskers would consider doing.

When I first found out about footbag I approached Dan Ednie, who I thought was a hobo lol.

ednie · Post by **ednie** » 16 Apr 2007 16:46

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 17 Apr 2007 14:29

CIC flurry wrote:There are lots of people getting money for things around here - especially downtown and during festival season. Sometimes there's an appreciative crowd, but more often than not, a lot of people try to avoid eye contact with such people, because they don't want to give them money. They feel like they're beggars.

I personally wouldn't want to do it. I feel like footbag and myself would be portrayed in a bad light. It probably doesn't have a bad stigma in other places. Or maybe it's just my perception.

I think this goes back to what Oliver was saying. You have to smile and talk to your onlookers, don't just jump around with a hat held out asking for money. It would also help if you had a sign that asked for $ to go to Worlds, so people don't think your a hobo.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 18 Dec 2007 15:00

I found this today. It's a full fledged busking blueprint. Everything from picking a spot and getting attention to keeping a crowd. It should serve as a great busking manual.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Money-Buski ... forming%29

BTW MODS, there are multiple busking/street-performing topics. This was the newest one. Some of the others are useful, some are not. Could you maybe combine them?

Thanks,
Ben

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 18 Dec 2007 15:45

I'll merge this with the other major busking thread - dyalander

Also - when people have something they want the mods to do - you're far more likely to see it get done by PM-ing one of us rather than posting in the thread.

Benzilla · Post by **Benzilla** » 19 Dec 2007 13:44

Eric Weber and I did this when we rode 4 miles to a mall to buy seed bead and we were 6 dollars short because they didn't sell them in separate packs but these big jumbo boxes full of other stuff we didn't need/had no use for.

We failed miserably, that may be because eric made a little box out of his sweatshirt that really didn't look like anything but a sweatshirt on the floor. It sure was hilarious though..

gMoney · Post by **gMoney** » 23 Dec 2007 20:30

It sounds pretty fun, but I definately can't busk with my current skill level, although I'm planning on it when I get better. I don't think of it as giving footbag a bad rep, and definately not a worse rep. Remember, people think it's all dirty, pot-smoking, dirty, lazy, stoned, dirty hippies, and seeing a couple cool tricks can easily change someone's mind, imo. I'd probably end up making a stupid sign that says like "NE3d mOney 4 A new sIGn" because that's just the way I am

I do think it's a good idea to have more than one person there and to use bait money. Also maybe a good idea to sell demos or hand out business cards with "footbag.org" on them or something, because some people will be interested. I also thought this was cool, from that wiki Ben mentioned:

One clever busker dramatically increased his donations by placing a miniature basketball backboard and hoop over his hat that people could aim quarters into.

Anybody know a good substitute for a hat? A shoe maybe? Half of a soccer ball? Just wondering.

maverick-morley · Post by **maverick-morley** » 14 Aug 2009 10:28

brian relly wrote: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.

holy cow! im quitting my job as a carpenter and taking up busking! lol! NOT!

have tosay though i considered doing this when i was with my mates and they were busking with a guitar, but i didnt have my footbag shoes on so i didnt!

didnt wanna look crapper than i already am!