why???

[le pire]

Street performing has existed since recorded history. Jugglers are depicted in hyroglyphics and street performing handbalancers are woven into medival tapestries. From the commedia dell'arte to the esmerelda of "the hunchback of notre dame", litterature is replete with stories of someone standing out there on the city street declaring he will perform a feat, and if you think it is worth it, to give him a little something.

If street performing didn't exist, someone would have to invent it, because...

WHY?

Why is it necessary to society that some guy stands out there on a street corner and throws three fake knives with his two hands while rocking on a one wheeled bike?

...why?


étienne

[Peter]

Because.

OK I'm a smart ass. The reason is because the lives of most people are dull and dreary. We bring entertainment into their lives. It started as street busking since TV and radio had not been invented yet, nor would they be for several thousand years, and continues today because some of us are just plain crazy enough to stand on the street and deliver the entertainment.

As long as there is some of us who juggle, sing, play the music, be the clown or whatever each of us does, there will be the passers by that need to see of hear us to bring a few minutes of joy into their lives.

Peter, aka Paddy the Clown

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[This message has been edited by Peter (edited 12-29-2001).]

[Jenny]

BECAUSE

What is most interesting to an animal?
Another animal (with whom to potentially fight, play, hunt, mate.)

What's most interesting to babies?
The faces of other babies.

What about people?
We are Big Baby Animals.

What is theatre?
People sitting together in the darkness, looking into the light.

You said it to me yourself Etienne (and I know your question is rhetorical); your favorite part of theatre is getting to LOOK at people. In normal circumstances it is not polite to visually study strangers in public (without definite discretion).

What sets performers apart is our willingness/ courage to stand up and invite others to SEE us. Maybe we think we are special because we're doing some trick that most can't, but I believe that's mostly our EXCUSE for being out there. Partly what sets us apart is that for whatever reason, public speaking is peoples' #1 fear, next to death!

There will always be exhibitionists and voyeurs. We need each other.
The magic is in the SHARED EXPERIENCE. Coming together; Eros.

Theatre needs to happen because it CAN! A presentation and celebration of our shared human-ness, under the guise of some random inane (potentially memorable) event.

As for why the STREET; we need spectacle in PUBLIC and not just tucked away in theatres for the privileged and secluded. The meek and the unsuspecting need it too.

Bread and CIRCUS!

"The play; it was soup. But the audience; now THAT was ART!"
-Lily Tomlin, Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe




[This message has been edited by Jenny (edited 12-29-2001).]

[jonnyflash]

Well,let's see here...
I guess sometime after production methods improved to the point where there was enough food to feed more than only the farmers,the first pro jugglers got pooped out onto the stage of history.
We started out as the trained monkeys of the monarchs,to keep shit moving in the castle.
Today's few surviving monarchs,though still clinging to their increasingly meaningless thrones of divine right,have been defeated by and subordinated to the new ruling class(at least in the industrialized countries).

Some of us are now trained monkeys for the capitalist class(millionaires and bigger).
Many of us are performing for both Big Capital and the working classes.

I think we're still here and thriving because we are a medium through which
ideas and feelings are transmitted to our audiences.

Why do we do what we do when we do what we do?

Performers like us played a key role in spreading the ideals of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia,which was the first country to nationalize it's land,denying the role of profiteering landlord to the few who cared to play it.We got paid back there with arguably the best free circus schools and circuses the world has seen.Olympic gold,anyone?

Performers like us spread the ideas of industrial unionism throughout N. America early in this century, helping win some vicious and often deadly battles for minimum wage,workplace safety regulations and healthcare.
There can be no doubt that we have had an overwhelmingly positive historical effect on the world.Let's keep it up.
Happy New Year and $$FatStax$$ to all,
Jonny Fla$h

[le pire]

Hey Johnny,

Great post! Do you have any sources to back up Street performance and political Revolution? Especially big stuff like the correspondances between the Bolsheviks and Russian Circus / Gymnastics? Wow! What a neat concept! That's a topic for your PHD thesis!

étienne

[Stretch]

" Performers like us played a key role in spreading the ideals of the Bolshevik revolution in
Russia,which was the first country to nationalize it's land,denying the role of profiteering
landlord to the few who cared to play it. "

And starving 20+ million peasants in the process.

know the truth and it will set you free (er)

Bill "Stretch" Coleman

http://Stiltwalker.com/

[jonnyflash]

O.K.
Q:What do Tupac Shakur,Albert Einstein,Mike Tyson(nice tatoos),and Charlie Chaplin have in common?
A: All are socialists.

I know most US (and Canadian)citizens have been marinaded in anti-socialist propaganda for generations,because the idea of equality strikes fear into the hearts of media magnates and corporate heavies alike.Extreme mis and disinformation gets steady airplay even today,years after the successful destruction of the U.S.S.R.
I guess that's what it takes to supress the egalitarian and humanist ideas it embodied.

Le Pire,I looked for a couple hours for this one guy's name..He was a street performer/revolutionary in the early 1900's in Russia who later became a key player in the national circus.I couldn't find it,the best i could find is this bit about some performer spreading ideas back in the day,but I'll keep my eyes open.::

..Scholar Joel Schechter describes a previous incident in his book "Durov's Pig: Clowns, Politics, and Theatre." (New York: TCG, 1985)
" In 1907, the Russian clown Vladimir Leonidowitch Durov…placed a German officer's cap, or 'helm' as he called it, in the circus ring, and his trained pig ran to retrieve it. Using ventriloquism, Durov made the pig appear to be saying, 'Ich Will Helm,' meaning, 'I want the helmet.' But the phrase could also be translated 'I am Wilhelm,' thereby equating Germany's emperor, Wilhelm II, with a trained pig. 'The audience understood the pun at once and applauded it. The German police understood it too,' according to Russian critic Emanuel Dvinsky's account of the event. "Durov was arrested…. charged with treason, and banished from Germany….The pig escaped without prosecution."

Every movement to enfranchise the poor has to have tools to reach non-readers,so I guess it's only natural that our medium would be useful to this end,complimenting public speaking and cartoons/picture posters.
As far as the gymnastics goes,comparing the athlete in socialism to the athlete in other social orders,one of the athletes has no landlord to please via hours at a day job,
so they can put that time and energy toward their sport.One has access to state of the art coaches,trainers and equipment,the other probably can't afford to pay for these.One has free health care,the other does not.One has free transportation,the other does not.It's easy to see why the gymnasts and other athletes of the USSR dominated the olympics for years,leaving their less fortunate competition in the dust.Any athlete would flourish in that environment.

Back to my topic:here's 2 links to a recent example of one of us doing good work to increase equality in America

http://www.healthyoregon.com/patchnews.html]

http://www.happiness.co.uk/pages/events/newinter.htm

And here are some extremely talented muralists with noble ideals for justice...

http://www.urbanfacez.com/artisticiphers.htm

and another artist from Mexico..

http://www.embamex.co.uk/update/oct99/anguiano.htm

And who could forget Chaplin?
"....the screen's most celebrated comedian: Charlie Chaplin. For all three men this admiration was informed by a sensitivity to the political overtones of Chaplin's work; Benjamin remarked that Chaplin had directed himself "toward both the most international and the most revolution ary affect of the masses--laughter," SEE THREAD BELOW

http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/yale/9.1adorno.html

A whole bloc of politically active clowns!!

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0033/gore12.php

more Clowns with stuff to say...

http://film.guardian.co.uk/The_Oscars_1999/Story/0,4135,36380,00.html

http://www.wsumc.org/web/kairos.html

http://www.edge.org/documents/press/berliner.html

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I do it because its way less tedious than washing dishes.

Thank god the pig was ok. Great concept.

For me, wandering into street performing was a simple matter of following my instinct and a friend, Mark Farneth. I do admire people who use their ability to entertain to further social causes, and enjoy programs like comic relief. Its when soapboxing becomes a part of, or an interruption to, the show, that I take off for the diner.
People mostly just want to laugh, or be amazed, or taken away from their internal monologue for a spell. They'll always have a glance at the odd egg on the corner. Its making them glad enough that they stopped to fork over some of the hard earned thats the measuring stick: that is the transition from "why" to "rent".

[jonnyflash]

"Its making them glad enough that they stopped to fork over some of the hard earned thats the measuring stick: that is the transition from "why" to "rent"."

Very well put.I agree that a soapbox style is not very applicable to street work.None of the examples I dug up use that style.I think it should be like a vitamin that looks & tastes like a Smartie.Candy-coated ideas.
If Rage Against the Machine or Chaplin circulated their ideas through a megaphone on a street corner,
nobody would know what they think,cuz it would be blocked out by people.Their form makes their substance edible to the public.
Yum!

[le pire]

Its making them glad enough that they stopped to fork over some of the hard earned thats the measuring stick: that is the transition from "why" to "rent"."

"Rent" is hardly a reason why, quite frankly. If you are financially successful as a street performer, chances are you are intelligent and focused enough to succeed in another career as well. i.e. The time that you took towards learning to free mount, write your jokes, create your promo etc, if in this time you did something else like learning computer programming for example, chances are you'd have landed yourself a nice job.


Money is a means of continuing to do what we do, sure, but I wouldn't be so shallow as to say it is why I do it. Besides, it doesn't matter if you are the BEST street performer in the world, 'cause you'll never even come close to what the WORST NBA player makes.


I have two friends who are incredible technical jugglers (6 clubs, 9 balls) but you couldn't pay them to get up on a stage to juggle let alone stand out on a street corner and take their chances with the crowd.

The question there would be: why not?

a simplified answer could be personality.

Why do we stand on a street corner and shout LOOK AT ME to an anonymous sea? What right do we have to be watched and heard?

The chance of getting laid, now THAT's a great reason!!!

étienne

[Triona]

That's not necessarily so. I know of some street performers who are very talented and do quite well, that would not do as well in "conventional" jobs. Both of these folks are learning disabled. While they can put on a good show, tell jokes and entertain people, they can't spell and have a difficult time reading. They have compensated for their learning problems by creating a "job" that doesn't require anything but verbal and physical communication to get their point across.

[Scot Free]

could not cut it in a "conventional" job so become a street performer? I don't fcuking think so!
It's about spirit and courage not illitericy.
Most fellow performers I know don't want fcuking bee-hive wage slavery as a means to survive.
Street performing=FREEDOM

[Triona]

Um, Scot...

I doubt with your apparent gutter vocabulary you'd make it far in some "conventional" occupations.

I was not suggesting that all performers have learning disabilities. I was merely pointing out that this is one potentially profitable occupation that doesn't discriminate against those with learning disabilities.

Also, just because someone is dislexic or disgraphic (sp?) doesn't mean they're illiterate. It just means they have to work a lot hard to be literate.

I do some street performing, but am also studying for my broker's license. I figure I'd like to have a job that gives me the financial freedom to pursue my performing without worrying about paying the bills.

To quote that Janis Joplin tune "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." I have a family and quite a lot left to lose, thank you.

[This message has been edited by Triona (edited 01-02-2002).]

[Triona]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Scot Free:
Most fellow performers I know don't want fcuking bee-hive wage slavery as a means to survive.

From some of the stories I've read on this list, I think there's a good number of folks who at one point in time or another wish they had that bee-hive wage slavery. Freedom doesn't put food in your belly or a roof over your head. Be grateful that you're able to make a living at what you enjoy (assuming you are making a living).

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

"Rent" is hardly a reason why, quite frankly.

Yo étienne,
if you reread my post slowly, you'll catch that I don't put it forth as a "why", but as a measuring stick, a transition. If you really apply the old noodle to it, you might arrive at the unwritten word "how".

Maybe.