(TAMPA) It was 52 degrees outside as people scurried around downtown to eat lunch today. Donning his full uniform — a cowboy hat, boots, tight white briefs and a strategically placed guitar — he sang and danced as onlookers approached him for photos and autographs.

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(VENICE BEACH) It seems Venice Beach is the starting point for some busker's fame. Such is the case of the Naked Cowboy's forthcoming revelations.Ironically, he joins another famous busker who first started juggling real chainsaws on the famous California boardwalk.

In his new book, author Bob Burck a.k.a. The Naked Cowboy, exposes his rise to busker fame and unveils a life goal in his autobiography "Determination: The Legend of the Naked Cowboy".

"I want to be the most famous man on the face of the earth," Burck tells a reporter from the The Daily Free Press. Because he was a model and a bodybuilder, a photographer suggested Burck play guitar in his underwear to gain the attention he was sorely missing while busking on Venice Beach. The rest is history.

Well on his way, Burck is also...

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It's survival of the fittest as some resort to dirty tactics in face of stiffer competition.

Outwit, outplay, outlast.
That motto from TV reality series Survivor also holds true for the buskers in Orchard Road.

The current economic downturn is certainly not music to their ears as they have seen takings drop in recent months.

If that's not enough of a worry, they also have to fend off competition from both legitimate and illegal buskers.

But more of that later. For now, the downturn is a more worrisome test of survivor skills.

Take the case of Mr Donald Wee, 51, who strums the guitar near Shaw House.

'More people are donating coins instead of $5 or $10 notes,' he lamented.

He used to earn about $100 in two hours but can net only $40 now. The former security guard went into busking four years ago when he could not find another job after he was arrested for fighting....

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(LONDON) An article in The Guardian examines where the streets have no change - and how buskers are surviving in cashless times.A recent hot topic, the article asks is it time performers turned to contactless readers? After all, dropping coins in a hat is increasingly, well, old hat.

Speaking of hats, they're down in London. Again, society is changing. Spending our money is much more convenient nowadays using plastic rather than carrying around coins and notes. Americans have gone plastic for decades but now it's becoming more of a world-wide trend.

For buskers, touchless card readers are now "the thing" since people are carrying around a lot less cash. With plastic, even if you get robbed right there on the street in broad daylight, the poor crook doesn't have access to your PIN number(s)....

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(ENGLAND) Robert Stredder has been a rootin'-tootin' gunslinger, clown, mime, plate-spinner, fire juggler, and several other characters making him Swindon, England's most popular busker.It's hard to believe he went to law school at Birmingham University to fulfill his father's wishes of becoming a lawyer. Then, a fateful day in 1963 led him down a totally different path in life. He's now been performing for almost 50 years.

At 71, Robert is without signs of slowing down. He now mostly focuses on fund-raisers for charities and organizing bicycle rides. He's rather old to be playing with fire but, as it turns out, that's what he likes doing best.

Rob fought the law and he actually won. There's now one less lawyer around these days. Be thankful for small favors.

According to Swindon Advertiser's reporter Barry Leighton,...

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