u/sixhexe

So I show up to my pitch. It's windy as heck! I always wear a pork pie hat. The damn thing blew off halfway into my first song. I see this crowd of people waiting to see what I do; they're all just looking at me from a distance. Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind blows me hat off. I watch as they all watch my hat blow off. Then they just looked, expressionlessly at it rolling on the ground towards them, I point emphatically and give a quick shout "Get my hat!".

Literally no one reacts. They're just all standing around in total zombie mode. They watch it blow off... directly roll towards them... within easy range of just... picking it. Then past them. This thing is going really fast, like I'm probably not able to run after it even.

I don't get mad too often but this actually made me genuinely mad, I shouted out "What the fuck man? Pick up my hat!!!"

That seemed to suddenly snap someone into help mode and they kindly picked up my hat. Bless them. I thanked them.

Anyways, I felt really bad about that outburst. It was just the... I don't know the obvious intentional lack of help from anyone I guess. Am I crazy? I always help people I don't know instantly. I guess it just didn't occur to me. That hit a sudden nerve and I kinda' blurted out my thoughts instead of handling it professionally. 😰 But all good. Lessons learned for the future.

A few tracks later into the set, it's going decent, but I'm still fighting this wind. Like it's blowing over all my gear, signs, tips. Usually I got some stuff with me to tie down but I wasn't expecting it today. So I was just kinda' trying to salvage the set. And reset stuff blowing over, like it's some kind of mobile game where I have to click on various stuff going wrong to fix it.

Suddenly, my dang hat blew off again. This time it didn't roll away in a line, it got caught in a wind vortex. I immediately ditched my bit to run and chase this damned thing around. Learning from earlier, I guess, as I'm now ( correctly ) assuming no one is going to help me. So I got my arms reaching out like a Saturday morning cartoon, I was running at a full clip too, as this stupid thing goes round and round. A cheap garland of dollar store flowers rips off my belt loop and starts flying away into the wind, flower by flower. Meanwhile, I'm chasing my hat goofily in this circle like a waddling duck just running laps to get it. Learning from my mistakes is good!

In the middle of this, I look over and there's this one kid peering over the window in a car just grinning ear to ear over how stupid and comical this all looked. He watched this whole sequence of events from the back seat of the car with great amusement. I can't even be mad at that, I just had to laugh about how stupid it all was. Oh and I did eventually manage to snag the hat back. After I ran a freaking 100m sprint.

Anyways, the moral of the story is: REALLLY hoping to get a proper heavy juggling hat soon. Or sew in a countermeasure. So I don't have to deal with wind buffeting my performing hat around XD

I'm a street performer. Curious what Canadians thoughts are. I want to prep a good setlist.

My favorites are:

Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers
Tom Connors - The Good Ol' Hockey Game
Great Big Sea - When I'm Up ( I Can't Get Down )
Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much
Kate & Anna Mcgarrigle, Mountain City Four - The Log Driver's Waltz
Fred Penner - Sandwiches
Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers' Dance

For example, say I want to automate a MIDI value:

Init State: 0 ( Off )
Button Clip Held: 127 ( On )
Button Clip Released: 0 ( Off )

The same kind of binary behavior as a mute switch.

If I put an automation clip in the timeline, it will play through that clip while I'm holding the button and then stay at that level once released. I want it to snap back to the normal value while the button isn't held, and temporarily engage while I'm holding the button down. Like how a MIDI note On/Off signal is sent.

My city is a ghost town most of the time, for foot traffic. So I only get about 10-15 days where people come out, in any kind of meaningful amount. Because of that, I mostly perform to a mix of car traffic with a few people walking by. After a couple of years, I've worked that system out pretty darn well now.

Most of my experience is based on light cycles and observing people in their cars: Scanning for who wants to engage, who likes the song choices, who's getting into it, or who's trying to grab my attention. The cars pull up, I dance for a minute or so, then they'll pull off and there's a new group after a short break.

Because of that, I struggle with getting/holding momentum with a dense, circulating crowd. For example at a block party. The walk by format has been great, and that's mostly what I've been doing.

I feel if I could gather people up with a little bit of preshow, and end with a simple pitch, it would be a much more efficient use of my dance energy and better prompt audiences.

I already know the setup does grab attention right when I get there. But the hard part is grabbing people in and holding them. Skill issue I know, but my current format works excellent with car traffic, and not so well with crowds walking around. It's a different dynamic.

I just need some tips/ideas on how to start off my show. Script some jokes? Just proclaim loudly shouting "SHOWS STARTING! GATHER ROUND", make some kind of one minute bit where I'm talking?

My dance is going to be the main part, it'll be a 2 min edited version of a popular track I know works.
I've got a really short hat bit for the end I think should work. ( I hope )

This week will be very busy, and a rare opportunity for me to actually have a fest crowd so I'd like to put something together a little more formatted than just randomly dancing songs for hours till my shoes melt to the pavement.

In the long term I'm hoping to afford a good juggling hat someday and I'll for sure be able to include that. Using really bad party stuff type hats right now, and they have lots of issues blowing away and bouncing/clattering everywhere. So it's very unreliable to rely on for a bit atm.

By extension, if anyone knows any resources on how to develop/structure an act/bits that would be appreciated.

I'm not sure what to make of this... I'm a little leery on the fact you have to audition and that, while supposedly paid, they don't specify how much. My city doesn't currently have any laws against busking, nor are any permits required.

https://downtownwinnipegbiz.com/downtown-live/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSByehleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFUVVFvdDA5UUVSamFkVURDc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHk-YFoobQaNwwrFBc6Oy3Y_r1qIiQxBvwAYDjr-4ZWTLYtqC1MVZlFqe9q0F_aem_ykx4IibjcN3CKtidcUUEjQ

Has anyone gone through a program like this before?