10 WORST STREET ACTS

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

recovering button pusher,

LDR

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>

[Stretch]

Saw the Donkey in '99 and again in 2001. I think he might be Korean with an English language skill deficiency.

My questions include: how does one live on the proceeds of such an act?

Would "love of the art" REALLY compel some one to do this kind of act? Or is there another reason? Like penance, or a curse, or ?????

Or is this act handed down to to ones' immigrant family members as they arrive one, by one over a period of months. As language skills improve, they move on to better things?

In other words WHY!!!!!?????



------------------
Walking tall and stretching imaginations!
Bill 'Stretch' Coleman

[scot]

The rat guy in Cambridge. Must see!!! He's one of the gutter punks in harvard sq. Puts plastic straws in his mouth and places rats on them. The rats always fall off. Back me up here, Peter, Dan.

[Butterfly Man]

"Mysterious Stan" was the worst street act I ever saw. Not only did he never escape from his chains (no gimmicks), he would fall to the ground and writhe until his clothes were covered with dirt & drenched with sweat. I once saw him fall on cement and tear a huge gash in his chin ... the show got better because there was blood all over him.

[Julia]

Hang on there Richie, didn't you just encourage Scott to go out there and keep doing it?
I reckon I am gonna contradict myself and say a couple of things that might not make sence to some people, but what the ...
There are a few people out there that perhaps should be concidering other cariers, like the*crateslugs* in San Francisco, cos maaaaan, they really hassle you for money, not in a nice way, on the other hand people like Woolfie (may he rest in peace)should in my book not be compared to the cratesluggs, He tried to give beauty, and sometimes he succseeded in doing so, on the other hand i find the soldierman on James street quite crap myself, but you should see what goes on in San Francisco.... then you'll know what bad is, i am not saying you havent seen it all, but I am just lost for words....

Anyway its getting too confusing now and I reckon people like Rumple deserve credit, in my oppinion anyway.

Later,
Jewels

[Butterfly Man]

And then there was "Perry, the Hobo Clown" ... that guy (hired by Finkle for one year only -was it '88?) could rival any act in poor hygiene ... Remember how the children would get too close, smell his breath, then back off? I loved watching the parents figure out it was not an act.

[Humanoid Gone Mad]

The Donkey is still at the Quay, I saw him a couple of years ago lfirst and now I'm back in Sydney and he's still doing the same nothing... Dink Dink with hgis bell all day.

Umong other things I do interactive staute but hey what some of the statues do would really fucking bore me ..like the donky. But each to their own you know.

Theres a guy in Fremantle, Australia. (He's what you would call a few snaow flakes short)But he's a nice enough guy , any way he watches all the shows all day and then at the end of the day he'll get out on the pitch and mimic everyones show. If theres been someone doing a crate stack he'll do crates.. The scary thing is he gets crowds and some times money probablly out of pitty more than any thing...

Also I saw a busker in Jakartar who sat next to drum which he bashed with a stick and in the other hand he held a chain that was about 3m long which he gigged back and forth. On the other end of the chain was a Baby monkey that held a tin can and staggered around in a circle collecting money from people. Thats got to be the worst show I've ever seen. It was also the closest thing I saw to busking while I was in Jakartar except for the guitar Beggers that hassel for change in car windows.

Theres a guy at the Quay in Sydney at the moment who plays tunes on a xilophone that he's made out of glass beer bottles filled with different amounts of whater , I only saw him setting up I havent heard him play.

And there used to be a crazy guy in Perth, Astralia that would Fuish down drains in the mall and play the saw with a bow which was prity cool..!


One of the things that really gets me is when parents take their kids out to play music or sing or whatever and basicaly pimp them on the street I've seen quite a few kids that dont seem to really enjoy it but their folks push them out there as far as busking goes thats a bit sad I reccon...

[scot]

Perry's here in NO

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

There used to be a guy who sang Sinatra unaccompanied, through a kid's amp and mike, in Times Square. Undeterred by his lack of musical ability, if you met his eyes, he would belt it To You: kind of disconcerting. He did it his way.

He was persistent, and usually had no crowd, but sometimes people would stop to watch, like you can't resist watching someone hit their thumb with a hammer.
Repeatedly.

He was doing what looked like a buck over minimum wage, at the time. Awful as he was, I loved him just belting it straight into their apathy and dissaproval.
There was mischief in his eyes: I may have loved him. But that's another thread.

[Moth Man]

I don't know if this guy qualifies as "the worst street act" because he was actually so good at what he did ... he whistled classical music (the real thing, no joke)... his name was Jason Serinus and he was really into it ... what made it so ludicrous was that he took it all so seriously (crooning emotionally into the mic n' such).
I casually offered a suggestion once that perhaps he should make himself a giant canary costume and a huge cage and do his act swinging from a perch ... he never spoke to me again.

[Peter Voice]

The Sinatra guy was at the 1st Toronto Circle Ball Fair in '93. I sort of liked him he was so bad he was cool but could never figure out if it was actually an act or not.

I also saw a guy (for a couple of weeks) in Melb. who sat and fished in a drain, I didn't see or hear about any saw playing though.

I wouldn't mind nominating "Bill, the balloon man", as my #1 worst. Originating in Adelaide this purveyor of rubber products sprung from obscurity in 1992 after writing to several major Aust. newspapers (and others) complaining about the international performers who were working without permits at Adelaide Fringe Festival and thus depriving him of his living selling bags of his own hot air. He caused considerable difficulty for many people. I last saw him in Melb. hawking his latex mediocracies to reluctant children. He calls himself a "Busker", he can be sort of slick, does wash his clothes and I personally think he's the worst I've ever met or seen.
I've seen lots of shit but it's mostly a matter of were it's coming from.

On a lighter note, there's a violinist in Melbourne who's now getting rather old (70's), a post WW11 Hungarian refugee, he's been playing badly since the 70's at least. Always wears a suit, sometimes tux, nice guy and he makes a bit. He's sort of like the Sinatra guy, so bad you love him but I can't help but think, sometimes, that he goes home and plays like an angel.

[Triona]

There's was a guy who used to be just on the other side of the children's zoo in Central Park (NYC)who used to wear dirty jeans and t-shirt with an American flag sequin vest. Problem was he was a good technical juggler, but no act. He used to do a bit with a raw egg where he'd have an audience member toss him the egg and then juggle it, dropping it at the end to show it was raw. One time he had a kid throw him the egg as sort of a test run, then he threw it back to the kid to do the bit. Unfortunately the kid wasn't paying attention... I've learned alot about what not to do from watching this guy. I think he moved to Canada or something.

[Danny Hustle]

I've seen it and it isn't pretty.

But,I still think my magic show is the worst thing to see in Harvard Square. Where else can you see a grown man wearing a bathrobe pull a signed silk from a stuffed racoons butt? All for a buck!

Hmm..maybe I should talk to Rat boy about a franchise..

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by scot:
The rat guy in Cambridge. Must see!!! He's one of the gutter punks in harvard sq. Puts plastic straws in his mouth and places rats on them. The rats always fall off. Back me up here, Peter, Dan.

[Mark Wess]

Ugg, rat boy in harvard square. *shudder* not only is he awful but he once tried to sell me his rat. I wonder if the people at Dunkin Donuts get tired of him stealing handfuls of their coffee stirers. The greatest experience of my life was the day that rat urinated on his face. Quite a sight to see, I dont believe I've ever seen that expresion before. I think i gave him a buck that day.

mfw

[LUCKY DIAMOND RICH]

recovering button pusher,


LDR

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: Lucky Diamond Rich ]</p>