Worth a Try

I find some of my earliest material from my show embarrassing. I would have preferred to have come out of the starting blocks with a perfect beginning. My first few years consisted of a wide range of elements. There was juggling, magic, mindreading, sketch comedy, puppetry, water-spitting, springboard acrobatic stunts, and handbalancing. I tried […]

Street Show as Heart Song

My career in show business spans almost four decades. For many years I have presented somewhere around 300 performances per year. That’s a solid number. Some years I didn’t do that many shows and in other years it is likely that I approached as many as 750. There were a chunk of years that I […]

Street Performing as Spoken Word

Dana Smith Harlequin Street Theater from 1978 My approach to street theater has placed particular emphasis on words. It is the power of the spoken word when combined with visual elements, and situational moments that can be one of the most effective tools when building a successful show. In the vernacular of the […]

The Great Romance of Street Theater

Developing an efficient way of stopping pedestrians is not so simple. It is a trial and error process. Eventually each act finds something that does the trick. Some acts are incredibly skillful at gathering an audience. There are all kinds of street shows. People present all kinds of skills. Some people work silent, others talk. […]

Finally the Finale

I wear two hats now. One is performer, the other is author. Closing a show with a routine that will thrill the audience is an essential ingredient to good street theater. Without this climactic stunt not only will the show fall flat but so will the audiences response to putting some money in the hat. […]

Friends Change

I departed on my journey inspired by the dreams of friends I made when my soul was still younger than spring. These were big dreamers. I had scrawny dreams. They weren’t even dreams, they were practical considerations, they didn’t contain ambitions, they were solutions to anxieties. I thought I’d adjust my aim so I wouldn’t […]