long or short

[jugglermatt1]

Anyone up for a bit of a chat of the relative merits of long , short , super mini shows .After chatting to a group argentinians , who all do super long , they say that people in argentinia dont pay unless you do an hour or so , then hat really well .A lot of Spanish performers do short burst , lasting as little as a minute or so .My shows 12 minutes or so full on . A lot of the English style is similar to the argentinians with guilty hat lines .Contract works different still , walkabout , workshop . Which is the best ?

[Spike McGuire]

It all depends on how long you can hold the audience. The longer the better because you can build a bigger crowd with more time. So If after forty minutes you still have all the same people, plus a whole bunch of new ones, keep it to forty minutes. If after forty minutes your crowd has totally rotated and none of the people you started off with are still there, you've gone to long. So do two twenty minute shows.
Seems like each town/state/country has a different leangth attention span. Just figure out how long you can keep them, and stick to that.

-----Spike

[jugglermatt1]

In the restaurant trade , when its very busy , they like to operate much faster , called turnaround time . The same theory could be true for performing . If a city is very full , by doing longer shows , you have less time to do lots , therefore you will make less cash no ?

[The Amazing Beaumanz]

My experience is that it depends on the number of acts at said pitch. In the past i used to do 45 minute shows, i thought i had to do EVERYTHING i knew how to do. After time, i realized that the hat isn't any bigger if i go 25 minutes(of strong material) as opposed to 45 minutes. Which increases the number of shows that i can do.

Just my opinion though...

[Barney]

[quote]Originally posted by The Amazing Beaumanz:
<strong>My experience is that it depends on the number of acts at said pitch. In the past i used to do 45 minute shows, i thought i had to do EVERYTHING i knew how to do. After time, i realized that the hat isn't any bigger if i go 25 minutes(of strong material) as opposed to 45 minutes. Which increases the number of shows that i can do.

Just my opinion though...</strong><hr></blockquote>

[Barney]

[quote]Originally posted by Barney:
[QB][/QB]<hr></blockquote>

Most of the time when I watch buskers it takes them half their time to gather the audience; then it's a disappointment when the payoff comes.

How is Montreal for busking?

[Charles - Corporate Entertainer]

As already stated, it all depends.

Are a number of the people watching free with their time or do they have somewhere to go?

Is there a movie starting in 20 minutes? Do they have to pay for parking? Or are most of them just waiting around for something to do?

I do a lot of busking near a local cinema, and ask members of the crowd when their movie starts. sometimes they say it has finished (go for as long as oyu want), or in 30 minutes (20 minute show) or that they aren't here for movies.

Others often offer their own positions and you can gauge it from there.

You don't need to be psychic to find out about the crowds needs, just ask them!

PS Barney, its up to you, but I wouldn't focus on 'most' buskers, I'd focus on the ones who do us all proud instead :-)

[ 12-27-2003: Message edited by: Charles - Corporate Entertainer ]</p>

[martin ewen]

How long or short?

Most successful bank robberies take under 4 minutes.
But in my secondary occupation (street theatre) there is far more elasticity.

These discussions tend towards performers giving reasons for their shows being the lengths they are. Over years you streamline your little entertainment/income generating module and arrive at a comfortable duration when all of a sudden your travels take you to somewhere where the rules are that you have only 30 mins per pitch (and your shows 40)
or 40 mins (and your shows an hour)
Oh the pain, tears stain your pillow, How dare anyone subject your art to limits, you hurl your 3 or 4 or 5 colourful seed filled sacs away in disgust (then spend 20 mins looking for them as they are all you have, well.. them plus your genius.)

I know performers (non statue) who do 3 hour shows, character pieces where they interact with their crowds who wax and wane as their hat slowly fills.

Statues are of course the Tanzanian marathon champions of street theatre, statues are where street performance and psychiatric desperation meet but also where some very powerful performers choose to work.

I’ve experimented with length. I used a 3 minute 50 second show for 6 years. It earned as much as the typical 30/40 min show. (um sometimes)
I’ve also done the 3 hour shows.
Some semblance of a beginning middle and end and content or character that engages your audience are the only constant in my opinion.

The 30/40/50/60 min shows tend to be the standard. Time spent defining a stage, creating an audience, beginning, middle, finale, bottle. (less frequently bottle then finale)

There is also the 60/70 minute powerhouse, lets make a $1000+ shows. The Dutchmen. Nick N, probably Justin Case, you have to be a master street performer in full control of your facilities and the dynamics of the moment with the ability to tweak pace, content, tone and your audiences energy level and stamina and I don't know anyone who can do it every time.These are rare shows where everything goes perfectly. But if you want a standard to aspire to.....

Sadly some performers create hour long shows out of 30 minutes of material and waiting on the pitch is similar to being stuck behind a wide load . Being an audience member would also i presume be uncomfortable but theres this reality TV quality to it, for an hour your audience stand there entranced and basking in the fact that while they may waste an hour of their lives quantifying how embarrasingly inadaquate you are as an entertainer, you are actually worth their effort because , after plonking a minimum amount in the hat they can walk away cheered that their lives seem so much richer and fulfilling compared to the spluttering shambles you call your lifestyle.

The shows length is your choice, the 30/45 minute module is popular for many reasons, its a forgiving length, you can fail during it and survive by simply moving on to the next piece of structure. It gives you an ample time to build a crowd, you can maintain a pedestrian pace for 30 minutes without loosing any but the more discerning of your audience.
My advice is go for a tight 20/25 and expand once your confidence grows.
Also decide if its going to be predominantly about what you do or who you are.

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Nice encapsulation, Mart.


At a festival, honor the time limit, for christ's sake. Time Queens really frost me, and if you become one, I'll be the first to tell you about it.

On the "real street", a young, cash-hungry act will crank 4-5 shows an hour, a seasoned performer, one, tops. They'll bring in roughly the same, at the end of the night. Follow your intuition, and respect your fellow performers.
Experiment.

[Peter Voice]

How long is a piece of string?
Long enough to do the job.

[ 12-29-2003: Message edited by: Peter Voice ]</p>

[charlatan_mudo]

"Statues are of course the Tanzanian marathon champions of street theatre, statues are where street performance and psychiatric desperation meet (...)"
Excerpt from post entitled "How long or how short?" by Martin Ewen



Well said Martin; probably the best definition of my show I´ve yet come across..