Milwaukee

[le pire]

man oh man, does this town blow.

[Rex Boyd]

No it doesn't. I haven't been there for 10 years but I do know that the summer in Milwaukee is full of really good festivals.

Rex

[jesus]

summerfest was a great gig but they droped the street program this year.
danny lord and gazzo where going to go up and crash it but i havent heard how it went.
i myself am at sea and have nothing to do, boooooooring.

[pablo]

Yes and No

I've posted this info before, but here it is again...

Milwaukee is not a busker-friendly city. Don't even bother. They want something for nothing, and you will leave with empty pockets. That's the way it is, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

The good news is that Milwaukee hosts more ethnic, neighborhood, church & corporate festivals than you can count, and most of them hire performers from all over the world.

Here's a very brief list of the big festivals that might hire you:

RiverSplash
Asian Moon
Summerfest
Bastille Days
Festa Italiana
German Fest
Irish Fest
Polish Fest
Sprecher Fest

Contact names for many of the big events can be found here:

www.milwaukee.org (click on members directory)

Good luck! Just don't mention my name.

[Rex Boyd]

I have worked Summerfest which is an excellent gig, but would probably be extremely hard to busk. However I have also done a few different smaller neighborhood festivals like Pablo mentions and did quite well on the hats and good vibes from the audience. Although like I said before it was 10 years ago and things could have changed.

My real point is that almost anywhere that has a small festival of some kind is worth giving a try. Working around at one-off events like these is often as good as working the idealized "perfect pitch" like Faneul Hall or Covent Garden which by their very nature have too many performers around fighting for the good spots and times.

Good luck searching everyone,

Rex

[clara]

Since it isn't a busker friendly city, the people do not understand that this IS how we earn our rent. You end up working too hard.

The city as a whole is depressing; it's emotionally draining to be there. "Why would you DO that?!"

[le pire]

I just visited some friends who are merchants & performers at the Bristol Renaissance Faire which is right on the Illinois / Wisconsin border. People from Wisconsin readily admit their reputation for being cheap. So my friends at the faire told me that sometimes they will take a stroll in the parking lot to see how many license plates are from WI and how many from IL. That way they'll know what kind of day it is going to be.

I took a bike ride ALL over the residential areas of Milwaukee yesterday, and not only did I see many, many bars imbedded in neighborhoods, I also saw more than one pub across the street from elementary and middle schools.

One more day...


etienne

[le pire]

Originally posted by clara
"Why would you DO that?!"

I think the full story is worth putting up here...

Clara, Greg Frisbee, Rebecca & Heather from High Strung, and myself all went to Denny's for breakfast on the last day of the festival. The hotel they put us up in was the Motel 6 by the airport (classy!) so we really didn't have any other restaurant choices.

We sit down at the booth and the hostess makes some small talk. She met Rebecca & Heather the other day, and they cashed out some ones explaining that they are buskers and not strippers. She asks us what we do and Greg tells her about his upside-down straight jacket escape of doom and she stairs at him for a bit and then says with a sneer, "Why would you do that?"

Now, I don't think she was trying to be condescending or mean but we clearly were not normal and she had to find out why we would choose to live such strange lives. It's 9:30 in the morning, we are all in a pre-coffee state after three days of crappy hats and motel six. My edit button was clearly not functioning when I answered "Because it beats being a waiter."

And the eggs tasted great with spit sauce.

etienne

[clara]

It's all much funnier from a safe haven of a normal city.

Though I just found out that some kid stuck silver paint on herself and went out as the silver girl. My roommate's friend saw her, thought it was me, then reported back that "clara sucks". My roommate, knowing I was out of town, knew I have been ripped off.

But even that is a huge leap-step up from Milwaukee. Where no one ever comes in, and no one ever leaves.

[le pire]

You've heard those sad, sad folk songs about the girl who will bed any guy that promises to take her out of her shitty town... that's Milwaukee.

[pablo]

C'est la vie...

Bastille Days is notorious for treating performers poorly, which is one of the many reasons I've never worked it.

Sorry to hear that you stayed at the Motel 6 by the airport. I hope the cheap hookers in the rooms on both sides of you didn't keep you awake at night.

Let me know the next time you're here. I'll buy the drinks, and we'll trade horror stories.

[le pire]

Re: C'est la vie...

Originally posted by pablo
Bastille Days is notorious for treating performers poorly, which is one of the many reasons I've never worked it.

The pitches that they set up / scheduled were either completely unworkable or only intermitantly viable because we would either get blasted out by the mainstage bands, be in direct sunlight in enclosed areas with no breeze, or there was a tractor trailor on the pitch. High Strung was not able to set up their rig on their designated pitch because the proper permits were not obtained by the organizer so they then moved onto the only (intermitantly) workable pitch, which then made the pitch unworkable to the rest of us. We were left to our own devices and found pitches on our own, but by that time we had lost thursday shows and half of friday.

It also didn't help that their was an airshow going on all week and F-18s would screech across the sky all day.

etienne

[UCO]

Wasn't Jeffery Daumer from Milwaukee, Sounds scary.

[Frisbee]

Bastille Days

Hey gang,

This is my first chance at adding my thoughts.

Let me start by saying that I do not like to bad mouth any festival or producers.....but....

There are certain standards that we as international performers deserve...but more importantly that there are common needs as human beings that are necessary...and we deserve respect.

1.) If you want us to perform our best and do the best we can at our jobs...Motel 6 by the airport is not really acceptable.

2.) Food discounts, credits or per diems are not only much appreciated, but should happily be given, especially if we are dependent on making money from hats which are non existent.

3.) Festival producers should not make themselves come off as so inaccessible and stand offish that you feel guilty about knocking on their door to ask for some basic job needs.

4.) Milwaukee from what I experienced, is not a tipping town, they do not understand the concept of busking and that we make our living by passing the hat.
I think this became apparent before the festival started by reading an article in the paper which stated " come on down to Bastille Days Festival and heckle your favorite performer for free."

5.) as stated above, people do not seem to understand...so why not try to educate them a bit in the program...or posted elsewhere.
I have worked many festivals that post information that this is how it works, bring some money and treat your performers right.

6.) If you are going to bring in acts from different parts of the country and world, then maybe to list us in the program by our names or acts would be nice...it would reitterate (sp?) the fact that we are professionals and we choose to perform for them on this intimate and raw level of theatre.

Listing us as no named buskers or worse "THE POSER" is not only wrong, but also disrespectful.

The shows themselves where actually really great and the crowds were big and mostly fun....but it should not be a busking festival, but rather a paid festival gig or a larger per diem.

Those are my thoughts for now....more will probably come later.

-Frisbee

[clara]

I really need to get out of the house today, but before I do, here are the last (for now, no promises) of my <strike>complaints</strike> criticisms of the week.

False promises of "huge hats," over-hype of the festival.

Frisbee said it, Etienne said, it, I'll say it again: Attitude. From the listing in the newspaper urging hecklers to a family that said to each other, "Let's go watch this guy; it's free!" and the dad who gave each of his children four pennies each to give me, then hung around and took photos with me and the kids in every possible combination (for SIXTEEN CENTS), the attitude is horrible. The population isn't trained to understand buskers, and this festival wasn't about to educate them.

Along the same mindset is the attitude all around that we aren't "real" performers. That we don't deserve respect or money, or even proper listings. (I'm still recovering from being called a poser. IN PRINT! That's a rant for another time though.)

With six performers and three pitches, only one pitch was good for one person (sorry 'bout that kids; I guess I luck out because I don't require sound..)

Belligerent children, adults, and drunks of all ages. The festival was unworkable after nine at night due to the drunks. In fact, I am still working on getting the beer smell out of some of my material after a drunk bowed quite theatrically to me, and spilled nearly 3/4 of his (cheap swill) beer all over my base. Adults who tell their children "Go tickle/hit/whack/touch/poke/prod/push her, see if she's real." The adults who pushed me. I think I still have bruises on my back from whomever punched me.