Saturday AM

I got to the street fair around 10:30AM. There was already a good amount of people there. As I walked up University Avenue I scouted for a good spot to work. I passed several musicians along the way that I recognized from the market. There is a bit of an art to finding the right place to work. Part of it has to do with knowing how big a crowd you want to draw and how not to effect the normal flow of traffic in these situations. Draw too big a crowd in the wrong place and the festival coordinators will most certainly shut you down.

You can be a street corner act, or an intersection act. I have always been a corner act. Guys doing the bigger tricks like the Bed of Nails and the Straight Jacket Escape and those that work 360 or a circle, like some juggling acts, work the intersection. I found my pitch at the corner of 47th and University. I liked my spot for several reasons, the cross street was nothing but food (ensuring decent traffic) and there was a Flex-Car (some sort of fuel efficient car sharing service) sticking out at an angle on the corner. The car helped me shape my crowd to a nice 3/4 round and protected my angles.

The forecast predicted rain and the sky was overcast, so I got right to work, "Show time!! Magic Show! You won't want to miss this one, I've seen it a thousand times, it's great"

Cellini taught me well. While I never had his work ethic, I believe I have the formula down. He taught me so many things. Get the crowd, keep the crowd, get the money. Be the first one there, the last one to leave, and never eat out.

I saw Scotty Walsh latter in the day. He paid me a nice compliment, His first show he did a $70 hat. He told me that he had me to thank for him being there doing what he was doing. Made me think about something my dad told me once, he said, "to many people. . . . you are their Cellini". Interesting notion.

I made good money on Saturday. . . I had to. It had rained all week and I probably didn't do $100 Monday - Friday, so I had to make it up on the weekend. Having been street performing for months this pre-season, my voice was strong and my endurance so-so. I would make some minor modifications the next day.