Any Buskers/ street performers

[ondaone]

Hey guys

A couple weeks ago I meet a fella That lives up in the theater district (Stratford Ont.) and he makes his living busking around the theaters, he has been doing it for 25-plus years he is also a clown, he goes by the name Tip the Clown, He plays guitar,ukele,mandolin,horns and whistles and sings.(he use to have a one manband setup with the bass drum on his back the whole nine.)

anywhoo he is down around my neck of the woods for a couple months staying with my buddy that plays mandolin .
I have had the pleasure of learning from and working with this amazing entertainer. we are playing all these great old swing,ragtime ,folk and celtic song. WHAT A BLAST, playing stuff like "it don't mean a thing" and "Puttin on the ritz", DigaDiga doo and the joint is jumpin is so much fun, lots of walking bass lines.

we had practiced together a couple time and took it to the streets last night, we work a nice walking park near my place and stopped at a Foutain that is in the center of the town Four Corners, we play at a resturant patio down street from there and the gladly paid in beer,

in all over a four hour span we made 96 bucks three beers and got to make about a hundred people smile, it was alot of fun. Watching people dance with the grandkids and sing along , It really reminded me what playing is really about.
having fun and sharing a good time..

probly going to work the waterfront in Windsor this weekend ,

anybody else a wandering bassman....

or have similar experience, if not you should try it,


cya
jimi

[neilG]

96 Canadian dollars? And Canadian beer. I don't know, man...Seriously, that sounds like a lot of fun. I played on the street in NYC when I was in school and 20 bucks each was a good day, although that was in the 70's.

[bejoyous]

Right after I graduated from U of Toronto, I joined a group that played in the subway stations. The reverberant acoustics made us sound like a whole symphony orchestra's string section.

We were a string quartet with bass instead of cello (who really needs them anyway, eh?). We played stuff you'd hear at a wedding - Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, Little Fugue in G Minor, Handel's Largo, the Pachabel Canon, etc.

We'd play the set many times over because you had a new audience every 10 minutes!. Often I'd look up and we'd be surrounded by a ring of about 40 people all standing there with a smile on their face. We even made a recording and sold about 100 tapes.

We'd usually worked the afternoon rush hour but sometimes we'd go out in the morning as well. Afterwords we'd go to a coffee shop and divide the kitty. We made between $35 and $70 each depending on the mood of the crowd that day (weather, sports results, upcoming holiday, etc.). Not bad for an hour of "work" where I could practice my Mozart bounce, long tones and girl watch.

This gig lasted from the end of university to the next fall when everyone went their own way. I still have a copy of the tape we made and listening to it brings back pleasant memories.

I wouldn't want to do that forever though. But then again, isn't playing in a concert hall just busking in a nicer place!

[Damon Rondeau]

I did quite a lot of busking when I started up with DB. I looked at it the way a pilot just starting out looks at getting into their line of work: you need flight time. The classroom and the simulator are great but the real thing is the real thing. Any time at all spent at the controls is good time.

I live in kind of a funky neighbourhood and every now and then when I'm a touch bored I think of picking up the bass and heading down to the corner. But the boredom thing never lasts very long.

[earthlypunk]

Yeah busking is a blast. So far I've only done it a few times but I am really excited about. I hope to do some busking with a tenor sax player doing some bop stuff. Should be pretty fun. Only problem is I don't have access to a UB for a while so I'm gonna try and do it with an EUB and an practice amp! It should be interesting

[Tony F]

I spent several weeks busking in Amsterdam, in Holland. We were relying on playing in order to eat at night, so we had to play for several hours each day to get the money to stay alive. It was a great experience (any time spent in Amsterdam is an experience!) but it got old pretty quickly. Once we realised that if we needed some down time we couldn't eat that evening, it just became work.

That said, I've got great memories (slightly fuzzy memories in places) and it did great things for my playing.

Cheers,

Tony