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today as i was setting up for a show, tall unicycle in hand, a woman asked me "are you a street performer?" , i overcame my temptation to be a smart-ass, and said "yes"... she then says "i love street performers" hands me a euro and adds "i don't have time to watch but i trust you are good?" then she walks a way...
cool... good start on a new pitch.
30 seconds later an old man asks me "how much did she give you?" i said "1 euro"
"thats it" he exclaims... pulls out his wallet and gives me a fiver.
great start to a new pitch....
i offer to do a few hat tricks to thank him and he says
"hold on... i'll get the whole group"
he then proceeds to yell to a huge group of people who come over, immediately form a semi-circle, and applaude generously.
so i proceeded to do some hat tricks, a couple club tricks and while i'm while i was doing this i noticed the old guy who gave me the fiver, had grabbed my hat and started collecting money. a lady from the group yells out " i bet you never had a priest doing a collection for you." i stopped dead.. "he's a priest?" i superflously asked.
"yep"
i genuflected and made the sign of the cross. the crowd laughs and the priest yells
"stay down"
runs over and blesses me.
he continues to collect money (and in italy, no one in the congregation is going to say no to the priest), i make some jokes, he comes back and hands me a hat full of money, says "god bless", leaves me a package and they all shuffle off in high spirits...
5 minutes, a decent hat, the package was delicious home-made gnocchi in a bacon cream sauce, and i guess with his blessing there's a slight less chance that my soul will burn in agony in beezlebub's sulfuric fires for all of eternity.
i then did 2 rockin shows...
it was one of those days that makes you think
"i love this fuckin job"
and i hereby nominate that priest the patron saint of street performers hoping that he wasn't nice to me because i reminded him of one of his altar boys...
cool... good start on a new pitch.
30 seconds later an old man asks me "how much did she give you?" i said "1 euro"
"thats it" he exclaims... pulls out his wallet and gives me a fiver.
great start to a new pitch....
i offer to do a few hat tricks to thank him and he says
"hold on... i'll get the whole group"
he then proceeds to yell to a huge group of people who come over, immediately form a semi-circle, and applaude generously.
so i proceeded to do some hat tricks, a couple club tricks and while i'm while i was doing this i noticed the old guy who gave me the fiver, had grabbed my hat and started collecting money. a lady from the group yells out " i bet you never had a priest doing a collection for you." i stopped dead.. "he's a priest?" i superflously asked.
"yep"
i genuflected and made the sign of the cross. the crowd laughs and the priest yells
"stay down"
runs over and blesses me.
he continues to collect money (and in italy, no one in the congregation is going to say no to the priest), i make some jokes, he comes back and hands me a hat full of money, says "god bless", leaves me a package and they all shuffle off in high spirits...
5 minutes, a decent hat, the package was delicious home-made gnocchi in a bacon cream sauce, and i guess with his blessing there's a slight less chance that my soul will burn in agony in beezlebub's sulfuric fires for all of eternity.
i then did 2 rockin shows...
it was one of those days that makes you think
"i love this fuckin job"
and i hereby nominate that priest the patron saint of street performers hoping that he wasn't nice to me because i reminded him of one of his altar boys...
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