Famous people who started as buskers?

[Peter Voice]

Barry Humphreys AKA Dane Edna used to do street in the 60's. Not busking but superb dadaist street performances with incredibly strong but subtle humour.

[clara]

i did hear tell that the original blue man group started on the street.

everyone else i think of have only local fame.

[Frisbee]

Menedez.

He is pretty well known of.

Even if you do not know his name,
a lot of everyday average people have heard of the guy who bounce juggles on a piano.

[lucky john]

Danny Elfman with Oingo Boingo at the time they were The Mystic Knights Of Oingo Boingo

[zoobie]

some very obvious names missing...

i looked in wikipedia.com for this last year

found 7 names

now, there's 25...

some no doubt wishful thinking

[scot]

scot nery

[Mat Ricardo]

Interesting you mention the number of "famous people" on the Wikipedia entry. I wrote and admin that entry and try to keep it in check - quite often new, very non-famous, names get added and I delete them..lots of egos around...some from this very website...

Though I'm far to classy to mention any names of course...

I'd actually argue a few of the names that are there, but the only thing that was there before I wrote the entry was a list of 4 names, so I didn't mess with them.

[scot]

Moxy fruvous is tops!!!

[Rachel Peters]

And they started on the streets of Hamilton. "The Hammer" -- My old Stomin' grounds. Steel Town representin', yo. ...ok. I'll stop trying to be cool.
I was going to list them, but feared no one would know them.

There aren't many buskers in Hamilton.
There's one white-bearded classical guitarist, a pan-handler who hits a bucket with a stick, and a tin-foiled conspiracy theorist who holds up a cardboard essay, which I have yet to stop long enough to read.
I would have loved to have been in Hamilton in the days of Moxy Fruvous.

(Interestingly enough, Hammer Town has stars painted on the sidewalk, all over the down town core, specifically set aside for busking. ...but I rarely see anyone on them. Maybe they've worn off by now.)

[jester]

The Queen of England started out as a busker....

[Rachel Peters]

"Wrester", Rowdy Roddy Piper busked with bagpipes on the streets of (I believe) Manitoba, at the age of 12. Or so says the weather man on Canada AM News.

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

Lucky Diamond Rich

Me! And still doing it! LDR

[USA BREAK DANCERS]

Gazzo named a few that I came up watching when I was a young busker on the streets of New York. Most of them I seen working in Washington square park around the early80's to early 90's.

I'm glad he mentioned the King of Washington square Mr. Charlie Barnett he was the king to me at least because he was the only performer I knew who could snatch a crowd from a Break dance show with out a microphone or props just his crazy self and his comedy. Tony was good but he never snatched a crowd from us I give Tony much props he's a legend in my eyes but you got to give it up to ma man Charlie. May god bless his soul he was a great man the best I ever seen.

Ok back to the topic i'm sorry.,
I was suprised to see Gazzo missed a couple for example
Rick Avilez who is also not with us anymore a comedian Who became the original host of Showtime at the Apollo and later got a leading roll in the movie Ghost and Water world.
Speaking of the movie Ghost Whoopie golberg also did some shows in the park, Dave Chapel, MC Hammer never worked the park but worked the streets of Oakland, mostly at the Oakland A's games, Here's a biggy Laurence Fishburne, Yes! he had a Roller skate act he went by the name "Slow mo" in Washington Square park....Love you Gazzo no disrespect.

[fettucinibrother]

Wow,
Charlie Barnett...there's a name i have not heard in years. I saw him destroy huge crowds of people in NYC at a few different locations. I heard a story one time to the effect of... Charlie was called to audition for SNL, when he went in to audition, he was supposed to read some script and tragically he could not...he was illiterate. Sadly they had to pass on Charlie. It's a shame because he was a comic genius. They wanted to cast a "person of color", so the next one on that list just happened to be Eddie Murphy....and the rest is history. I heard this story from my good friend Elan an eccentric silent comic who worked the streets of NYC in the 80's and early 90's. On one of our last trips to visit Elan in NY, we happened to see Charlie working a subway stop. he was strung out really bad, but still totally destroying the tough NY late night crowds. It was sad to see him, right after his set, shaking and twitching, counting his money right there, knowing that he was going to get his fix right away. It was like I was seeing a ghost, even though he was still alive.
Of course Tony Vera is a whole nuther story.
Thanks for triggering that memory synapse.
Alfredo

[USA BREAK DANCERS]

The story about Charlie landing the Saturday nite live gig before Eddie Murphy is true. As far as his addiction to drugs no comment anybody who new him or ever worked with him already knows the story.

Julio,

Thanks for your reply Alfredo.