Busking?

It's Him - 2015-05-20 09:34:33 UTC - Parent #

Can I start by saying that you are thinking about this in completely the wrong way. Busking is about performance rather than what tricks you do. You should be reading all the articles about building a character, hatting, finding suitable pitches etc rather than what tricks you are doing. If you are going to focus on tricks then it should be along the lines of higher, fire, faster or danger i.e. what the public thinks of as difficult as opposed to what is actually difficult. You will get much better reaction from a diabolo high throw than three on the string unless you can build an act that makes it worthwhile to do. It is why buskers very rarely juggle more than five. Remember that anything that brings you up above the level of a crowd means that you can get a bigger audience (and therefore more money) which is why there are so many giraffe unicycle acts. 
Also the best way to learn about busking is to actually busk. If all you do is to juggle then be prepared to not make much money.
Nigel

lukeburrage - 2015-05-20 11:06:27 UTC - Parent #

One of the clearest examples of that last point I remember was from about 2007, watching Thomas Dietz at a street show festival (there with a group act) try to get a crowd with some solo juggling. I've never seen that many people not give a shit about 7 ball pirouettes and 5 club backcrosses in my life.

Cedric Lackpot - 2015-05-20 21:23:48 UTC - Parent #

I've said it before on r.j more than once, but it bears repeating - I saw Sean Gandini in Peterborough more years ago than I care to remember, busting out a solid 7b cascade for a street audience. I want to say that he died, but at least if you actually died in the street one or two people would take notice. He didn't even manage to die, he got nada, a complete blank.

And if one of the greatest innovative technical jugglers of our time can tank with hardcore tricks, then so can anyone else.

For OP's benefit, here's the skinny : You have to be interesting, that's it. If you ain't interesting then there's little point getting out of bed; and if you have discovered the curious alchemy of being interesting, then do so with three balls or clubs. No one except you cares about five or seven or pirouettes or siteswaps; everyone except you cares about knives, axes, and eating the apple. If you refuse play to your audience then you won't have an audience.

It's a really tough lesson that many aspiring young jugglers find difficult to swallow.

emilyw - 2015-05-20 14:36:52 UTC - Parent #

I've seen plenty of street performers build an entire act out of one trick!

It's not the tricks that are the hard part, it's the crowd gathering, the audience connection, the heckler handling and the hat lines and the energy building and all that stuff you unfortunately can't practice in your house. You just have to get out there and do it. It will be appalling the first time (and the second and third and twentieth time) but so far as I can tell, good street performers are just bad street performers who didn't give up. The sooner you start being a bad street performer the sooner you can get it over with :-)