You want the audience to enjoy your show, but you also want them to remember it.
There are all sorts of tricks you can use to make that happen. But I don’t want to give away everything. I’ve decided to share just one tip that I think improves everyone’s street performer show-and this is an easy one.
You know how performers sometimes have something like a magic trick where they pull something out of their pockets? Here’s how it works: When you do a street show, there is nothing in your pockets. If a spectator guesses what you’re about to do, he or she will have time to figure out what you’re actually going to do before you move into position. So the better way is to have nothing in your pockets at all. It’s a simple change that makes a huge difference-both in terms of entertainment and in terms of remembering your show by people who saw it.
In a street performer show you are competing for the attention of passers by. The best way to get their attention is to make it worth their while. So, one good way of making a street performance show good is to make your own set. In this sense street performers are working-class entertainers competing with each other as much as they are competing with the hot new bands or DJs.
The second thing that will help is to be professional. Street performers need to learn how to master their art, just like any other profession. Written material and video tutorials are very useful in this regard because they provide a kind of “fourth wall” between you and the audience, offering a performance space where you can experiment and refine your act without much fear of embarrassing yourself in front of strangers.
If you want to impress people with your street performance, here are some tips.
– Wear comfortable shoes. You don’t want to be limping around or having to stop every few minutes to rest your feet.
– If you perform in a public place, wear clothes that won’t get dirty, so you can change after the show.
– If not performing in a public place, consider wearing a costume rather than street clothes. It’s hard to be inconspicuous if you’re wearing a white shirt and jeans.
There are very few tricks that can’t be improved with practice, and street performers are no exception.
To make your street performance easier, you have to feel confident that you know the basic moves. But it’s hard to know if you’ve got the basics right when you’re standing there scratching your head. This is why I recommend watching other people do the moves, and not just paying attention to how they do them.
Ideally, you want a group of people who can all learn the basic moves at once, so that learning a new move doesn’t take months of practice. The best way to figure out what works and what doesn’t is to watch lots of people doing them. If someone in your group has good ideas about how to improve things, then by all means change it.
Clothing for street performers should be light, comfortable, and quick-drying. It should not be see-through or otherwise revealing. It should not reflect light directly back at the audience, as that can blind them.
Some performers use an unobtrusive headlamp, but most use a blacked-out bicycle helmet with an attached lightbulb mounted above the mouth.
The most common mistake is to wear clothing that is too loose and baggy. Street performers must be able to move in order to be able to do their show. If they are encumbered by hot, heavy clothing that doesn’t allow their movements, they won’t perform well: they’ll be stiff, their movements will look awkward, and their routines won’t work well.
Street performers should also be careful about color: red clothes are difficult to see against the dark background of a stage; blue is harder still because of its tendency to reflect light from stage lighting; yellow is hard to see against the dark backdrop of other street performers’ clothes; and so on.
If you want contrast between your clothes and your background, try a black background with white or bright color stripes or dots on the fabric of your shirt or pants (but no white shorts). When you’re onstage it
It is easy to get discouraged and give up when you are out on the street performing. The most important thing to remember is that what you think of as a street performer is only part of the show. You need to think of yourself as an entertainer, and when you are entertaining people, they are your customers. When you’re working on your street show, you have to keep in mind that no matter how good your tricks look from the stage, they won’t work if the audience can’t see them. If the audience can’t see your trick, your trick doesn’t exist.
Unfortunately not everyone who sells or performs magic tricks has been trained in public presentation. Many magicians are self-taught and never get beyond the beginner level where they perform with props such as coins or cards or playing cards (like a deck of cards). The common thread among all these people is that they don’t really understand what it’s like for an audience member to view their act. They don’t understand how important their performance is to them, and consequently it shows in their performance.
To be successful at performing magic tricks, you must make it clear that they are magic tricks – not just some household thing with coins at the end. It’s easy to write off this suggestion
Street performers are in a different business than most of us. Their business is to keep people entertained, and they need to keep their audience interested. The usual way to do that is to be funny, but it’s risky to try to be funny when you’re not funny.
There are a number of ways to get around this risk. One is to have a gimmick (the guy who climbs on the light pole and scampers up the power cord, or the guy who does a magic trick). Another is to be really good at something else that people pay you good money for (the juggler who’s really good at juggling). Another is to do something that’s uncool: like juggle in front of a motorcycle gang or play “Santa.”
