Busking isn’t the same game as performing live. You’ve got to be loud.
Part of that is literal but attracting and retaining an audience to turn out a show on the street takes a lot more than turning up the volume.
As a street artist, you have the time it takes for someone to walk about three paces as they decide whether they’ll reach in their pockets for change or stop to watch. If the show’s not compelling -- if it’s not loud enough -- they’ll keep walking.
“For me, you’ve got to be loud,” says Kyley Gagnon, who played banjo on the streets for years with her guitarist husband, Patrique as their main source of income. “And being friendly to people too. Just taking the time to acknowledge that people are around, giving the old head nod. Not just sitting with your head down.”
Anyone who has busked or watched it done could tell you the craft is in building momentum. When someone pitches money into the hat or the case, it motivates others to do the same. When someone makes herself an audience, a crowd gathers around her.
The next level is being interactive enough to keep that crowd.
David Louch and Becka Rose form Hand Me Down Circus, a Montreal-based act recruited to play the Busker's Festival on the corner of Bay & Algoma Streets. Louch said street crowds are extreme in the way they give immediate feedback.
“We like to think we’re good at keeping them,” he says. “You get used to parts and if anyone’s leaving during that part, then you change that part and try something new. It’s ever-evolving and you keep the show alive.”
Every trick magician Martin Wonderland does is tailor-made for his audience members once he pulls them in. Adults love the “cut and restored rope” routine. Then there’s his Canadian flag trick that puts children in the act and their families in woo.
“I end up completely erring the first two tries,” he explains.
“The third try, that child becomes the hero of my show. That’s very important. When I make some child the hero of the display, that child’s parents think I’m a hero and the whole audience thinks I’m a hero. It’s the child that’s the hero.”
There are exceptions to every rule and there’s no exception in live entertainment like clowns. Clowns don’t need to pull people in and they don’t need to retain an audience. Regardless of the performance’s climate, crowds come to clowns knowing what to expect – and expecting to love it.
“A clown isn’t performing. A clown is a clown. We’re not standing on a street corner performing clowning. We’re clowns,” says Zoe the Clown.
“It’s a hard concept to understand but when you’re a performer, as soon as you walk off that stage, once your audience sees you walk off, you’re not performing anymore but a clown is always a clown.”
The Third Annual Valleyfresh Busker's Festival will continue through Sunday.
