Highlights of your career …so far.

[Butterfly Man]

1. Having Jim make me my own icon on pnet without asking.
2. Riffing on a cop during the 1st Renegade in San Jose.
3. Being heckled by 40 comics and holding my own.
4. Jason Garfield asking me for money and telling him to fuck off.
5. Heckling Gazzo in Halifax and winning.
6. Getting an IJA gold medal and Bobby May award.
7. Having sex with that hot club swinger from Bali.
8. Being heckled by a cripple and making him a star.
9. Receiving the Halifax trophy from the Dutchmen.
10. Pissing on the crowd in Montreal with high pressure surgical tubing strapped to my leg.

Hmm…there must be more

[Frisbee]

I think #4 is my favorite.


no flaming tennis balls on your list?

[Butterfly Man]

no flaming tennis balls on your list?

Well, if you count #7 ...

[Guest]

Do you bite your thumb at me?

Had a kid onstage at the Great Lakes Medieval Faire on the 14th, first show new town. I get him to bite his thumb at a patron who was reading during HIS performance. Li'l bugger flipped a baby tooth right into the front row.

Glorious! Little trickle of blood accompanied by a doubled-over-w/laughter mom made a great 1st show!

Chris

[scot]

World Busker Fest was great and hard to believe experience for me at one of my lowest points. Amazing crowds pumped, town support, beautiful surroundings, wonderful people, free food from restaurants, money, performing, being around great performers.

[Rachel Peters]

[Juggling@large]

butterflys 10

id have to say number 8 fer me. i can almost see it happening.
on related note, my similar moment would be busking in asheville n.c. and a guy yells out "juggle my leg". i thought the gods had tapped me. yes i have pics. prosthetic with white tennis shoe.
spin was difficult on the leg tho. as im about to start with it, the guy says "be careful, it costs about as much as an SUV (vehicle)"
thanks. hat was very good.
hey butterfly, BTW, thanks for your uplifting words.
johnv

[Peter Voice]

In chronological order

1. An arsehole Chief by-laws officer that threatened me, causing a fight with Melb. City Council (and subsequently, state and federal government) over busking laws and winning, 1984. Unlike him, I still have my job.

2. Meeting Bev Isaac in '85 and Ulla Taylor in '86.

3. Meeting Dick Finkel (and Charlotte) Edmonton '91.

4. Working on stage with Pieter Post at Late Night Madness and Shelley Switzer's dolphin impersonation at the springs near Canmore the same year.

5. Being burned by, pissing off and nearly beating up "he who shall remain noseless" at Halifax a week or 2 later, but I met Nick and Raoul among many others there.

6. Geldern P.art festival 2 weeks later

7. Getting the first ever busking permit formally issued (4 days later with Roland Jossutis and Jenny McCracken) in a newly united Berlin after bizarrely driving a campervan straight under the Brandenburg gate, thru all the security, almost. Worked on Kurfurstendam (?) and made page 3 of Das Bild.

The artists I've met along the way.

There have been lots of other very cool things since but most of my discoveries and highlights seem to stem from these events.

I do, though, like to brag about my campaign over a flaw in Australia's GST laws when they were being introduced in 2003 and the fact that we (Chalk Circle and others) were mentioned in parliament (and thus cited in "Hansard", the official history of Australian law making) as an ammendment was passed at the last minute. If the law had passed as it stood, any artist/performer, of any sort, would have to make a taxable income of over 50,000 per year to claim any of their costs as deductions. Now, you only have to declare some/any income from your work and your costs are deductable. I liked that one.

[unklesteve]

1. "Enjoying the company" of three young ladies at once on a moving tour bus.

2. Performing in the upstairs lounge of a strip club, and having strippers stick dollar bills in MY pants. (Thank you, Keith Bindlestiff, for making that happen.)

3. Last show of the Bros. Grim Sideshow tour last summer: pouring rain, drunk as hell, soaking wet, packed tent, thunderous applause, and exposed boobs EVERYWHERE. (Thank you, Tyler Fyre, for providing the whiskey.)

4. Performing with Less Than Jake on Warped Tour. 1 band, 2 yo-yo players, 2 male strippers, 5,000 people watching.

5. Making it into Newsweek Magazine on my birthday.

6. Releasing the DVD of the Viking Tour...me and 3 other yo-yos players spending a month in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

7. Being groped by a hottie TV host in Singapore. While on camera.

8. Being on The Panel in Australia, and holding my own with the hosts.

9. Being told by a group of teenagers in New Zealand: "You're pretty alright. At least your not Australian."

10. And just a couple of weeks ago, making a joke about women throwing their phone numbers, and having a hotel key card bounce off my forehead. Priceless.

That's what leaps to mind so far. It's been a helluva run. I've got a gig pending for next month that will most certainly make this list (if I get it), and I'm sure I'll post a full report.

S