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Street Theatre Advice for Newbs, Collated Pnet Wisdom #1.
YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.
Forward:
The following are a collection of tips from various threads on P.net
(performers.net) in response to questions posed by first timers/
newbies/beginners.
These are some of the responses and are a good collection of simple
guidelines given by performers with many years experience from all
over the world. You have to start somewhere and this is as good a
place as any.
If you have further questions post them on p.net.
Thanks
Martin Ewen
So You Want To Be a Street Performer.
Advice I give everyone starting out is that your first hundred (or
so) shows are going to SUCK. So just get through them and take
notes on what worked and what didn't. After 100 bad shows,
you'll still probably have learned something new in each show.
With 100 lessons learned, something is bound to click in that
101st show and you'll be off and running.
Start a notebook of ANY idea you have (tricks, lines, promo
ideas, etc). No matter how strange or ridiculous they may seem.
Then at the end of each week/month/etc review your ideas and
breakdown the ones you might work and pursue them.
Don't lose heart when a day crashes around you ..
Be respectful.. of the people you share the space with..
performers , other street workers, close by shops.... and any
reoccurring fans you might have...
Work as many different spots as you can [all over the country]
this will help you to be adaptable to any situation and not get
used to only working one spot.
Travel,watch street performers with reputations you've heard
of,ask them questions about your show,these people know what
they are talking about.
The 3 s's.......Smile,Shave and Slow down [you have to relax
when you perform,if you are too high energy,people just leave]
Look good,you will get paid what you look like,if you look like a
clown you'll get paid like a clown,if you look like a
hippy,same.But if you look like a professional,clean props,clean
clothes/costume,well groomed,It'll help people relate to you.
Good ideas can come anywhere, so be sure to keep your
notebook handy. I used to think I would remember it, but I
usually forget…
NOTHING can replace the experience of watching an experienced
street performer as she/he builds an audience, entertains that
audience and then, after suitable hat lines, garner the rewards
from his/her years (or hours) of study and preparation.
You create a stage in public
create an audience
do a show with a
beginning
middle
and end
and ask for money afterwards.
You should somehow look like a bit of a goof out on the streets
so that people understand that you are a performer.
By placing stuff on the ground (clubs, knives, torches, babies etc.) you get
the interest of passerby's. Contact them. Tell them a show is to
start. Grab a child and place him or her where you want her.
Make a stage out of a rope. Ask the child to hold onto the rope.
Her family will stay (hopefully) Run around and get the audience
around the rope. Start the show. It helps if you have some really
crazy things placed at the ground. A chainsaw will all the talking for you.
Knives work. The best is personality, but few are blessed with
that.
Making your tricks flow into routines is also very important.
Finding a way to connect them together and connect you with the
audience.
Give it a fair chance to see if you really want to do it..
watch other performances and learn from them.. the good .. and
especially the bad... but be your own show... if you copy another
performance then you are just a copy ...
Getting out and seeing how the other guys do it, asking
questions, and just doing it yourself is really the only way to
learn.
Develop a character,
1/ Get one article of clothing that ‘is’ you, some
playful/interesting piece of clothing, hat, jacket,pants doesn’t
matter. What matters is that you are comfortable and playful
about pushing a stage to just outside your body..
2/ grab a prop, juggling ball, babies rattle, small/big doesn’t
matter, any object that gives you some deep playful impulse
(resist yourself you double entendre fuckers)
Something that, in any given moment where you feel you’re
losing it, you can grab that thing and focus on it and remember
that the idea is to enjoy yourself. Choose wisely and personally.
3/ THEN on the pitch
create a stage
Put your props out with focus and intention (builds possible
anticipation, its a tension device)
and/or mark out an area with string/rope whatever
and or pace the intended stage
and or (others can put suggestions under numbers ie this is 3)
(then we could put it in the library under ‘collective’)
4/
Create an audience
beckon interested people to the edge of what you have defined
as your stage.
Use the ‘curious ape’ technique.
(Deeply rooted in the human psyche is a curiosity borne from
self preservation. From the time we came down from the trees
onward unusual things had the ability to kill. If a person sees an
action or a series of actions that make no sense it is a universal
human principal that they will halt and focus until they have
perceived meaning. If you for example take 5 actions and
unusually stop each to continue another nothing will make sense
for round two thirds of the process when the objectives become
more apparent. In this time a good proportion of people passing
will stop to try and make out what you are doing.
I was lucky enough to have the silly people comedians do a
piece I wrote that demonstrated this principle, I was able to
stretch ‘making no sense at all but obviously doing something
focused’ to a grand total of round 15minutes--before they
realised that the dead fish were there to attract flies that each
performer was competitively catching)
Promise them a show
Create eye contact
Instigate relationships, be happy, if you try too hard go back to
(2) then resume.
Forward:
The following are a collection of tips from various threads on P.net
(performers.net) in response to questions posed by first timers/
newbies/beginners.
These are some of the responses and are a good collection of simple
guidelines given by performers with many years experience from all
over the world. You have to start somewhere and this is as good a
place as any.
If you have further questions post them on p.net.
Thanks
Martin Ewen
So You Want To Be a Street Performer.
Advice I give everyone starting out is that your first hundred (or
so) shows are going to SUCK. So just get through them and take
notes on what worked and what didn't. After 100 bad shows,
you'll still probably have learned something new in each show.
With 100 lessons learned, something is bound to click in that
101st show and you'll be off and running.
Start a notebook of ANY idea you have (tricks, lines, promo
ideas, etc). No matter how strange or ridiculous they may seem.
Then at the end of each week/month/etc review your ideas and
breakdown the ones you might work and pursue them.
Don't lose heart when a day crashes around you ..
Be respectful.. of the people you share the space with..
performers , other street workers, close by shops.... and any
reoccurring fans you might have...
Work as many different spots as you can [all over the country]
this will help you to be adaptable to any situation and not get
used to only working one spot.
Travel,watch street performers with reputations you've heard
of,ask them questions about your show,these people know what
they are talking about.
The 3 s's.......Smile,Shave and Slow down [you have to relax
when you perform,if you are too high energy,people just leave]
Look good,you will get paid what you look like,if you look like a
clown you'll get paid like a clown,if you look like a
hippy,same.But if you look like a professional,clean props,clean
clothes/costume,well groomed,It'll help people relate to you.
Good ideas can come anywhere, so be sure to keep your
notebook handy. I used to think I would remember it, but I
usually forget…
NOTHING can replace the experience of watching an experienced
street performer as she/he builds an audience, entertains that
audience and then, after suitable hat lines, garner the rewards
from his/her years (or hours) of study and preparation.
You create a stage in public
create an audience
do a show with a
beginning
middle
and end
and ask for money afterwards.
You should somehow look like a bit of a goof out on the streets
so that people understand that you are a performer.
By placing stuff on the ground (clubs, knives, torches, babies etc.) you get
the interest of passerby's. Contact them. Tell them a show is to
start. Grab a child and place him or her where you want her.
Make a stage out of a rope. Ask the child to hold onto the rope.
Her family will stay (hopefully) Run around and get the audience
around the rope. Start the show. It helps if you have some really
crazy things placed at the ground. A chainsaw will all the talking for you.
Knives work. The best is personality, but few are blessed with
that.
Making your tricks flow into routines is also very important.
Finding a way to connect them together and connect you with the
audience.
Give it a fair chance to see if you really want to do it..
watch other performances and learn from them.. the good .. and
especially the bad... but be your own show... if you copy another
performance then you are just a copy ...
Getting out and seeing how the other guys do it, asking
questions, and just doing it yourself is really the only way to
learn.
Develop a character,
1/ Get one article of clothing that ‘is’ you, some
playful/interesting piece of clothing, hat, jacket,pants doesn’t
matter. What matters is that you are comfortable and playful
about pushing a stage to just outside your body..
2/ grab a prop, juggling ball, babies rattle, small/big doesn’t
matter, any object that gives you some deep playful impulse
(resist yourself you double entendre fuckers)
Something that, in any given moment where you feel you’re
losing it, you can grab that thing and focus on it and remember
that the idea is to enjoy yourself. Choose wisely and personally.
3/ THEN on the pitch
create a stage
Put your props out with focus and intention (builds possible
anticipation, its a tension device)
and/or mark out an area with string/rope whatever
and or pace the intended stage
and or (others can put suggestions under numbers ie this is 3)
(then we could put it in the library under ‘collective’)
4/
Create an audience
beckon interested people to the edge of what you have defined
as your stage.
Use the ‘curious ape’ technique.
(Deeply rooted in the human psyche is a curiosity borne from
self preservation. From the time we came down from the trees
onward unusual things had the ability to kill. If a person sees an
action or a series of actions that make no sense it is a universal
human principal that they will halt and focus until they have
perceived meaning. If you for example take 5 actions and
unusually stop each to continue another nothing will make sense
for round two thirds of the process when the objectives become
more apparent. In this time a good proportion of people passing
will stop to try and make out what you are doing.
I was lucky enough to have the silly people comedians do a
piece I wrote that demonstrated this principle, I was able to
stretch ‘making no sense at all but obviously doing something
focused’ to a grand total of round 15minutes--before they
realised that the dead fish were there to attract flies that each
performer was competitively catching)
Promise them a show
Create eye contact
Instigate relationships, be happy, if you try too hard go back to
(2) then resume.
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