The crowd build

By Vanessa Howell

The crowd build is convincing the people to watch the show, its the big sell, advertising all the amazing things you are about to do while interacting with the people passing by and not doing much of anything but making people laugh as you do it.
This is harder than it seems and in my opinion, the most important, the most difficult and potentially the most fun.

the build is where creativity coincides with the awareness of the entire pitch (common street performance term for the spot chosen to do a show)
One has to be acutely aware of the interest that you are generating in your show and character. In this, it is important to create suspense and anticipation, this is done by doing things that are funny, amusing but also mysterious.

Some examples of build techniques:
• making a noise. Blowing a whistle, shouting “show time” or playing some music
• taking time to take gear out of your suitcase and laying out your props (it helps if you look extremely focused on what you are doing like it is the most important thing in the world, sometime not speaking and not making eye contact with the passers by while doing something that looks like a big deal is about to begin (fiddling with the bolts on your unicycle, doing some intense looking stretches, etc…) will create suspense, especially if there are people already watching you. People can sometime feel intimidated by eye contact from a performer. This technique can be a double edged sword because if you are not interesting and engaging enough people will just walk on by and not notice you.
• interacting with the first couple of people stopping “hi, where are you from?” etc. and getting those people to help you gather a few more people by making them shout and clap like they have seen something amazing. Bring them in on the game and tell them that in order for you to do a show they need to pretend like they have seen something amazing.

Once you have a few people and you have generated some interest you can move on to introducing yourself and telling them what they are about to see “My name is Devin The Juggler and I will be performing AMAZING, mind blowing feats of dexterity that may seem impossible for mere mortals and to end it all I will endanger my life and the lives of everyone here today for your entertainment” or some such story.

It is important to advertise you big finale trick during your show. If your finale is riding a unicycle, or juggling a chainsaw, give a small “plug” every now and then so people will stick around. The goal is to convince people that what they are ‘about’ to see is going to be the best thing ever and the will have no idea that while you are telling them they are ‘about’ to see a good show that you are already half way through and they are being entertained and enthralled by the build.

Have fun and be creative with the crowd build, the longer you can entertain people without actually doing any tricks the bigger your crowd will be and the bigger your hat!

May your hats be full!

Devin the juggler.

Street performing basics

By Vanessa Howell

Introduction to Street performing Part 1:

Street performance is the art of gathering people to convince other people to be part of a group that is watching you convince people to be part of a group that is watching you create a large group of people that will be willing to give you money for creating a large group of people that otherwise would not have anything to do with each other.

It is, in a nutshell, salesmanship. As a street performer you sell your act, your character, personality and one big “unmissable” trick that is worth sticking around for.

In South Africa, real street performance is technically illegal, classed as type A unnecessary fun with extreme risks of over stimulating independent thought. The government simply cannot allow people to have fun as fun is difficult to tax… Unless you know the secrets of street performing, then taxing fun is very simple indeed.

General tips:
Dress nicely and speak clearly. experience shows that people give more money to well spoken, well-dressed folk. have you ever seen a shabbily dressed banker or lawyer? probably not. Hell, nicely dressed drug-dealers get to call themselves doctors and have whole companies designed to take money from people incase they need to give them more money than they actually have.

Smile. Krusty the clown sells cheeseburgers, and even he can muster a smile when its called for. Smiling shows that you have things under control and that you are having fun. There are plenty jobs out there that require you not to have fun, street performing is not one of them.

Slow down. Don’t stress if people leave in the first part, if they haven’t got time to stick around to give you money you don’t want them in your show anyway. People are rushed as it is in their lives, its easier for people to relax if your are relaxed and relaxed people laugh more.

Be funny, cute, or sexy. People have some basic reactions to performers and condensed they are: “haha” “aaw” or “whoa” I chose to try be funny by using the ‘path of least resistance’ concept.

So, these are just some basic ideas to get you started, more to come on choosing a pitch, crowd control and show format

Devin The juggler