audience?

[Kim]

I'm curious to know how different people judge if there are enough people on a pitch for a show to be viable. eg. watching the speed of people's feet, counting the number of dawdlers...

[Jim]

I always thought that if I could stand on a pitch and count 100 different people walking by or standing within my line of sight in one minute's time, there was more than enough people to start crowd building.

It would probably work with 50 people in a minute.

Jim

[pablo]

What is an audience?

This begs the question: what defines an audience? Is it just 2 or more people stopping to watch what you are doing? At what number does the crowd become more than the sum of its individuals?

I've performed my show for audiences of more than 1000, and less than 10 (it was an outdoor gig in May, and it was hailing!). I always play to the "back row". If I can grab them and hold their attention, I'm happy.

[Dan Tastik]

What about how hungry you are?
and how much money you don't have?

both of these are very good incentives...

[malkav powermann]

START WITH ONE

If there are not a lot of people or if people don't seem to want to stop i start with one tell them a joke or do some simple warm up trick if he looks like a normal and you have the air of performer people will stop ....
also a few times when it was slow and there were other acts hanging around we take turns being the first 5 people in the audience and the first 5 are the hardest to get so its easy from there

[Kim]

Hey Dan, that sounds like the logic required to work the streets in New Zealand.... lol

I fell off my box today.
-Kim

[Evan Young]

It just rained, all the other performers went home cuz they're pussy, and there are hardly any people on the street. Quiet.... I can build a croud out of that in Boulder (my "home" pitch). Ten people a minuite or less, if they need somting to do you can build a big croud in 15 minuits, and there won't be any distractions. You can take your time and connect with everyone there, and they will all shell out five to twenty dollars for you.
Use some variation in your croud gathering tactics. I laugh to myself when I see much bigger acts than I try and do shows when it's slow and get frustrated and fail. Then I'll pull off a better than average show with little effort cuz I aproached the situation differently. it doesn't allways happen, but hey.

[$cottbox]

Originally posted by Evan Young
It just rained, all the other performers went home cuz they're pussy, and there are hardly any people on the street. Quiet.... I can build a croud out of that in Boulder (my "home" pitch). Ten people a minuite or less, if they need somting to do you can build a big croud in 15 minuits, and there won't be any distractions. You can take your time and connect with everyone there, and they will all shell out five to twenty dollars for you.
Use some variation in your croud gathering tactics. I laugh to myself when I see much bigger acts than I try and do shows when it's slow and get frustrated and fail. Then I'll pull off a better than average show with little effort cuz I aproached the situation differently. it doesn't allways happen, but hey.

Thanks for that man...that is kinda some of the advice I was seekin on this site...thanks bro...Oh yeah r u talkin bout Boulder Colorado..I was there last summer...it was really nice with the rockies right beside the city..Plus Denver is damn well close...very convenient!!!!

[GlassHarper]

How large an audience is needed for a show?

Each act has its own style and optimal conditions. If Jackson Square is too crowded (and too loud) it is difficult for me to attract anyone to the subtle tones of my glass harmonica. I'll go find a quieter pitch.

If there are fewer than ten or fifteen passers-by in a minute's time no one will stop because few people will risk being an audience of one.

An optimal flow of people, however (and I can't quantify that although as the judge who was asked "what is pornography" responded: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it") will allow me to inveigle one peson to stop and all of a sudden there will be a crowd. That's why those five shills are effective.

Fast walkers have somewhere to go -- they probably won't stop. Strollers become my audience.

Dawdlers, on the other hand, want to catch my show in their peripheral vision. If I have an audience I'll pull it in tight around me, lower my voice and continue the show. "Uh, sir," I'll intone in parenthetically full stage voice to the dawdler, "I am a vegetarian, I won't bite, you can come in close!" If the dawdler moves on, the next line is, "Guess I scared HIM away!" Gets a laugh, sometimes gets more audience, often results in larger hat.

When I ask for requests, it isn't to the loyal few who have bellied up to the pitch, it is to the lurker on the outskirts. Someone pushing thru the audience to leave a tip for "Its a Long Way to Tipperary," is a powerful, if unspoken hat line.