(KEY WEST) Just when you think they've figured it all out, Key West's city hall has created still more controversy in their busking laws. Being in the news over the past several years, it may be a matter of the successful Mallory Square Sunset Celebration turf just not being big enough for the city's satisfaction.
The city along with the Cultural Preservation Society(?) now wants to charge individual buskers $20 a night for accepting tips. Federal courts repeatedly rule that permit fees for First Amendment activity are unconstitutional. Yet we see constant challenges to the right of free speech. City halls do not seem to understand that busking and street performing are immune to their taxing. Confusion appears to come when the performer is observed accepting tips. It seems any exchange of money gets some excited...

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Just got done re-editing my busking book titled "STREETWISE- A Guide to Magical Street Performing." I changed my performance and noted it in the book. It has increased my hats considerably. I've also added a couple routines, more pictures. hat lines and hat line limericks. This book will pay for itself the 1st time out. It will save time and trial and error. The magic is primarily close-up, but it will also work for the bigger performer. Check out my website at: http:// blackbeltmagician.com You can order the book directly from there using paypal.
Well, summer is about over. I had hoped to get out more, but my work schedule wouldn't allow it. I did make the Lawrence Buskerfest. It was great. Lawrence, KS is a cool town. They are busker friendly. I did get booted out of an art show in Kansas City this summer. It was the first time in a decade.
Won't be back there next year. I did some performing at the River Market in downtown KC. Did decently, but the market...

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Because I've learned already a lot about busking through reading and watching as much street performances as possible, I found out that a busking show is not created like any other formal show I created before. A busking show is more like a process, what works for the audience is kept in the show, what doesn't is kicked out or at least adjusted.
It's for those reasons I wanted to create an easy system to be able to follow up the creation / development of my show at any time.
This seemed possible to me by using the same system as software developers use. After all, we are both developing our product, isn't it?
So my first attempt to create a show will be called "Busking Show 1.0". Untill I will take this show out on the streets, the name will stay unchanged, but from that moment on will change as many times as there will be changes made in the structure of the show.
Depending on the "grade" of changes / adjustments made each time after performing the show on the...

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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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(USA) It's that time of year again when a young man's thoughts turn to busking. It's all about sun, people, and shade as we take a look at some of the hottest performing venues the United States has to offer.An article in USA Today features David Michael, a former street musician and author of Busker: Tales of a Renegade Harpist. The article mentions Michael's insight into the wide world of busking. Waxing philosophical, he elaborates about the different venues some buskers take that, were it not for street-performing, the talent would go to waste. Crowd gathering is also discussed.

Some cities are obvious. New York, Boston, and San Francisco are considered the centerpieces of American culture. Yet, we find some surprising "off-the-beaten-path" pitches that, normally, one wouldn't think there...

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