Just a few seats left

[Butterfly Man]

Ah yes, there’s the good, the bad and then there is Gazzo ... stories aplenty, so right you both are. To be sure, compiling, collecting and capturing the essence is the challenge.

Great input & insight by all, to be sure ... but as I scroll through the yellow pages of my mind, I’m beginning to see the invisible thread that has woven the fabric of our vocation together into the cloak of our humanity. We are the mirth makers, the laugh seekers, the magical creators of wonder. Above all else, we wanted the freedom of choice to select the way we dressed it up and sold it to the patron saints of reality. Does anyone else see Brady in a tu tu here?

So, now it comes down to decision time and, to be sure, I intend to give this project as much time as it might take to do it justice (or injustice, depending on the act). No, I have no preconceived notions and am quite willing to give it as much forethought as I did when I walked into that fateful tattoo parlor in ‘77. But it would be oh so nice to have a hand to hold this time so ... (Dylan quote here) I would not feel so all alone...

Now, as I dip my toe in the water, I shiver at the enormity of it all. Am I qualified, too close to be objective, willing to alienate those that I call family? Well, it didn’t stop Hotch, did it?

Here’s my plan ... I’m gonna go south ... to the Jodi fest in ChCh in a few weeks, then hook up with Dom (who will set me straight) and afterwards visit Peter Voice in Melbourne (who’ll bend me back again). During this time I will amass a mass of OZ/NZ history/photo/bio stuff that should help me realize what mistakes I’m making, (always test your stuff out on people that don’t know good from bad, I always say), then return to the states and decide if I’m just fooling all the fools with my foolish notions.

Here’s what I want: Everyone who reads this post must list 3 questions they would like answered by their favorite street act ... (please don’t try to be funny, Martin).

Everyone who answers this post will get a credit in the foreword ... those who don’t will be deleted from my mind.

Your hero

[Jim]

1. Every performer has some turning point in their lives that leads them down the full-time busking career route. Describe the moment you decided to quit all other sources of income and focus solely on busking... Follow up: What gave you the confidence to believe you could 'make it' on the streets?

2. What did you do before busking full time? (If you went straight from school, what level of education did you reach before starting to perform full time?)

3. Choose one statement that best describes what busking is to you:

•Busking is my job/a means to pay the bills.
•Busking is what I'm doing until something better comes along/stepping stone to another form of entertainment (stage, screen, etc.)
•Busking is just for fun, I have other sources of income.
•Busking is an addiction. I do it because I have to. I crave it.


There's a few ideas...

Jim

[checkerhead]

1. Who do you feel are the top 5 (perhaps top 10) legendary Street Performers and what makes these people legends?

2. Where have you had your greatest show(s), and what do you think it was about this place, event, audience that makes your show so good?

3. What is your favorite non-performance related Busker story... (ie during the hang time between shows, after shows, off season, etc. something that happened as a result of our slightly warped view of the world)?

Some more ideas for ya...

[Pokie-Poke]

1. Other than your own act, what is your favorit? why?

2. How did you learn how to busk? how long till you got it to work?

3. Close calls "no shit there I was..."

As far as puting this work into hard copy, there are few books on the topic and I would love to have one more. most of the books (ok the 2) that I have at best cover the '80s
ah the good old days

As far as the old stuff, I'll see what I can dig up on pre 1600 street performing (it wasent called busking yet)
and I would like to know more about early NY street performing, they had organ grinders licens back then, and with the curent mayer killing us off we might learn some thing to save us.
altho I hat politicks maby cover how it afects us.

Pokie Poke


P.S. the spell check hates me

------------------
The adventure cont...

[Butterfly Man]

To all my fellow street performers.

I just got off the phone with Patty Campbell ... indeed, The Patty Campbell, she was excited and supportive of the project and gave me innumerable and invaluable insights into how to approach the subject.
FYI she advises that it must be written to a regular audience and should not exceed more than a handful (or two) of acts... we will meet personally when she returns from her teaching/book seminar trip on the 14th of next month.
She also said I was welcome to use all or any part of her European transcripts and would be honored to write a prologue or afterward when the time comes.
So, this is where I stand. I am not going to write an encyclopedic version of street performers over the past 30 years (though, I would gladly offer my research to anyone interested in such a project).
What I am going to attempt is a literary work that covers some of the more colorful and inspiring acts (on an international level) I have seen during my travels. Individual stories and personal histories that might give some insight to the average reader into our world. The final product will be, out of necessity, totally subjective and though I intend to interview as many acts that are willing to participate in the project, they will all be told beforehand that their comments are subject to editing.
Whenever someone, anyone, puts something out in front of the public, he becomes subject to criticism. I expect this, and hope you will all remain my friends after all is said and done... except for Gazzo, that is, I don’t give a damn about the way he feels.

[martin ewen]

Robert

1, what was your initial training and who has taught you the basics you needed initially.

2,what, should you admit it, is your original approach to an age old occupation.

3, why, should you admit it, are you a thing of beauty.

See you in christchurch robert!

[Adam Gertsacov]

MY QUESTIONS:

1) What is it that makes your act unique? What do you bring to the circle that no one else brings?

2) What's your favorite part of being a performer? That is to say, what is it that has driven you to endure and persevere and makes all the crap worthwhile?

2) How do you feel that being a performer has made you a better or worse person? Discuss.

[Lynneski]

Some great questions to tackle so far. Here's
a couple I'd like to ask:

1) Of what ad-libbed line/moment are you most
proud?

2) Where do you look for inspiration?

3) How do help (or maybe hinder) emerging artists?

Lynne

[Frisbee]

Here are a few questions:

1.) When was it that you realized that being a busker was what you were going to do for your career?

2.) Are there any major defining conversations or people in your past that have influenced the way that you look at the world?

3.) What kind of childhood did you have, and how did that influence you deciding to join the performing world?

Thanks,
-Frisbee

[Butterfly Man]

Hey y’all ... just a quick update.
I spent most of yesterday with Patty Campbell (and her husband/photographer, David). She lives in an amazing house on a beautiful avocado farm a couple hours south of LA. She gave me her literary blessing and mucho sage advise re: the book & the interview process.
During the course of our discussion, she showed me her unpublished manuscript on the European scene (late '70's, early '80's) and I was flabbergasted with it's comprehensiveness and detail. Apparently it has lots of photos but was not accepted for publication because everyone thought it was too much information for too little of an audience ... hmmm ... makes ya think don't it?
So off I go to NZ to check out the final days of the Jodi fest in CHCH and do an interview or two ... if my plane crashes and I’m on a desert island for 4+ years, I’ll Fed Ex the project to Michael River.

[Chance]

With all the suggestions getting tossed out there, Robert, I was wondering if you were leaning more towards either an autobiographical work (telling just your own first-hand observations), or one which is more formal/investigative (ie, more like straight journalism)?

Secondly, are you leaning more towards current happenings or towards a more ancient historical work (which for you could be both, I suppose - but I digress)?

And lastly, is it coming together as a manual/resource type of work or more like a running narrative? IMHO being able to put a finger on all three possibilities goes a very long way to directing your final edit, however many pages that may be hence.

On a different question, and since no one has brought it up yet (although I am sure many have wondered), after you have interviewed and gleaned the collective memories and imaginations of so many of us and enshrined it all into the gilded pages of a beautifully engraved, leather covered coffee table book which by then must be 5000 pages and weigh 35 pounds... what, do you suppose, will our cut be?

[This message has been edited by Chance (edited 01-22-2001).]

[Peter Voice]

Chance, should Robert's endeavours make a profit, I would have thought that only those worthy of inclusion would have a claim on a cut (a ridiculous suggestion though, anyway you look at it). In your case, the word "we" is a little presumptuous don't you think. I, personally, am a non-entity in the scope of this proposal and suggest you might be too.
It's an inspiring idea and if the Butterfly Man can pull it off, more power to him. The same applies to you, next time you come up with something interesting or constructive (unlikely as it may seem), I and others would support you.
And if you're reading this Bri, Prof said if you really have a problem she'll tell you about the "peanut" cookie.

[This message has been edited by Peter Voice (edited 01-23-2001).]

[Chance]

Hey, Peter, why all the attitude? I didn't realize that in order to approach the Butterfly Man I had to survive a gauntlet of protectors. Let me also point out a few things...

You did not begin this thread-

My last letter here was not an open letter, but was specifically addressed to Robert and which applied directly to his concerns on this matter overall-

Unlike you, I did not flame, and knowing Robert as I do I am positive he took no offense to anything I said-

My letter contained not just one, but several helpful elements, although you saw fit to only create a negative subject from them-

And for your information (for which you are obviously out of the loop), Robert has indeed asked me personally to participate in this project. (Wanna see the letters proving it?)

And on top of all this (stepping into someone else's conversation unrequested, digressing from the main topic, turning innocent dialog into the opposite, showing your ass, etc.) you somehow also found time to insult me. Wouldn't your letter be better suited for the 'Blah, Blah, Blah' section?

Have a great New Year!

ps: Care to add anything positive to this conversation, or not?

------------------
Each man's given a bag of tools,
An hourglass,
A book of rules;

And each man's built,
'ere his hour's flown,
A stumbling block -
Or a stepping stone.

[Peter Voice]

Gee, chance I didn't realise I wasn't allowed comment on a thread I didn't start. It does raise the question of why you might be posting here.
Anyway,why are you on your computer before you've even had breakfast. Dying to see if you got a bite, eh? Feed your self properly, young man, or you'll never grow up.

[Chance]

Two o'clock in the afternoon where I am, Peter. And rather than continue wasting space here by continually going off-topic, I will now take my leave (yawn...)

[This message has been edited by Chance (edited 01-23-2001).]