I dunno man to me Busking is a job and one that makes me nearly 35 to 50 bucks an hour. I would keep things professional if I were you because word will get around that you are a player and eventually you'll get booted off your pitch. I know one guy that does the same busking as me (we used to work together) and he ended up nailing the market owner's daughter. Well one day we were doing our thing and this semi-hot young girl shows up and starts screaming like a banshee... it was not cool as we had a line of like 20 kids and parents. He tried to calm her down but she went into this epic rage and more 'f' words came out of her then I've heard in a rap video.
I would advise against it especially if you take your craft seriously. Also avoid talking about anything sex related... I get perverts every now and then that walk up to me and ask me to make them something dirty to play around with. That would just look like sh1t on me and I'm pretty sure it would offend and disgust a lot of people. A good trick is to direct them over to your competition.
You are always in the public eye and if you want people to keep looking and dropping money, save your game till later. Instead hand out your business card. I have mine attached to my rig. Another great way to get your name out there is to get a button puncher and punch off your name/email/phone and give them out for free. People love free stuff and you can get buttons for less than a penny. The button puncher (for a good one) might run you $200 but its well worth it. Also a T-shirt press and Hat Press is handy because then you can stick your logo on your clothing for next to nothing... Everyone loves free stuff... buttons, t-shirts and hats allow people to walk home with your name, permanently. You can easily make $400 a gig if you are good at what you do.
I invest about $2000+ a year in my costume/rig/pumps and models so I take my job pretty seriously. I would say, do not busk if you don't want to get blown out of the water by the professional guys. I make sure to eliminate all of my competition on arrival and make it so that when they set up near me, they have to compete with the best of the best. Magicians/Clowns/Musicians are all fair game... if you want to get respect and money, you gotta be a threat to other people. You've got to add as much value as you can, in previous years I had an ex-girlfriend dress up in a HUGE friendly monster mascot costume. You will get people running from far and wide to get 'free' pics with the monster and you together. This is when having that T-Shirt press comes in handy because you can throw a t-shirt with your logo over the monster and when people get those free pics, they are also getting your name/number and email to go with it.
Since I live in the same province as two of the world's best buskers in my craft, I've got to really ramp things up.
If you've got a girlfriend or even just a buddy who's a semi-hot girl. Dress her up like this and tell her to walk around you in circles while you are playing your music:
As for me, I wear sh1t that puts Mystery to shame.
I would advise against it especially if you take your craft seriously. Also avoid talking about anything sex related... I get perverts every now and then that walk up to me and ask me to make them something dirty to play around with. That would just look like sh1t on me and I'm pretty sure it would offend and disgust a lot of people. A good trick is to direct them over to your competition.
You are always in the public eye and if you want people to keep looking and dropping money, save your game till later. Instead hand out your business card. I have mine attached to my rig. Another great way to get your name out there is to get a button puncher and punch off your name/email/phone and give them out for free. People love free stuff and you can get buttons for less than a penny. The button puncher (for a good one) might run you $200 but its well worth it. Also a T-shirt press and Hat Press is handy because then you can stick your logo on your clothing for next to nothing... Everyone loves free stuff... buttons, t-shirts and hats allow people to walk home with your name, permanently. You can easily make $400 a gig if you are good at what you do.
I invest about $2000+ a year in my costume/rig/pumps and models so I take my job pretty seriously. I would say, do not busk if you don't want to get blown out of the water by the professional guys. I make sure to eliminate all of my competition on arrival and make it so that when they set up near me, they have to compete with the best of the best. Magicians/Clowns/Musicians are all fair game... if you want to get respect and money, you gotta be a threat to other people. You've got to add as much value as you can, in previous years I had an ex-girlfriend dress up in a HUGE friendly monster mascot costume. You will get people running from far and wide to get 'free' pics with the monster and you together. This is when having that T-Shirt press comes in handy because you can throw a t-shirt with your logo over the monster and when people get those free pics, they are also getting your name/number and email to go with it.
Since I live in the same province as two of the world's best buskers in my craft, I've got to really ramp things up.
If you've got a girlfriend or even just a buddy who's a semi-hot girl. Dress her up like this and tell her to walk around you in circles while you are playing your music:
As for me, I wear sh1t that puts Mystery to shame.