ooh-Pin-Her Part Tree

Stage time translates into a deeper seeing into the reins of our common human bonds.

Opener… Street Theater 1980

Get real you overzealous flame throwing heartbreaker or sit back down— life is short.

Landscape Lending Library

Tomorrow would be all tap dancing, feather boas and spangled showgirls Eight weeks was in my rearview mirror. Homeward bound I ate up the last miles of two lane blacktop. Topping off my emptiness pangs, I soaked up the sweeping horizons of blue sky, white clouds, green sage and red soils. Empty high desert sated […]

Slogging Dog Days of Winter

Uphill Staircase Easement from Winter I’ve never been a January man. The slog through the dog days of this season is for another kind. I’m from California. We do facelifts, tennis and brunch on the rear sundeck. My week in Arizona cheered my seasonal affective disorder for a week. I’m back here in this paltry […]

Sidewalk Show Exposé

Ghirardelli Square circa 2001 Street theater is about profitably stopping people dead in their tracks. Two becomes 4, 4 turns into 8; eight becomes an engaged audience of fifty. Survivors of this hustle have an eye, feel the vibe— know how quick they’ll draw a crowd and how long they dare to hold them. Change […]

Sidewalk Show

Winnipeg 1987 One of the hardest hand to mouth games ever invented in this world of hard knocks is busking. No contracts, no off site gigs, just pure hat and more hat shows. Anxious family and friends thought I was headed toward a cobblestone catastrophe. The lightning bolt street performing epiphany struck fresh and wild. […]

Micro Mini Street Riff

Stopping for Nothing Buskers have to keep the experience growing. An audience will notice this increase. Success depends upon demonstrating that the performance is getting better right before their eyes. Emotions intensify, the number of people watching is larger, a trustable decorum arises, we can laugh, we become more and more confident that this […]

Code of Street Performing Conduct

Love Your Audience There is no getting off the road, there are no breaks— you can’t undo what you’ve bet your life on. One of the hardest hand to mouth games ever invented in this world of hard knocks is busking full time. No contracts, no off site gigs, just pure hat and more hat […]

Show Biz Bargain Basement Fire Sale

Banging Another Out The wanderlust in the heart of a street performer is curiosity writ large across the world. Many buskers remain moored to a city for decades while other acts travel town to town from one place to the next. In summer I preferred roving from the northernmost Canadian cities and as autumn took […]

April Fool’s Day

Nothing but kindness and gratitude. Makes a cynical man near weepy and melancoly.