I must say that I spent many happy days, once upon a time, busking, though I always called myself a street singer--you have to be hungry for the attention, and you have to get itchy fingers when you see people milling around--

You will never go far wrong if you develop a sense for the kind of activities that need a bit of entertainment--street fairs, art fairs, flea markets, any kind of market, especially outdoors, where people mill around will welcome you--

You might even get an offer of a few dollars (or "quid" if you like that sort of thing) from the sponsors of the event to come back--They often have to drive vendors off with a stick, but don't know where to find entertainers--

Interesting instruments, like hammered dulcimers and such things are always a plus, and of course, it helps to play and identifiable sort of music(cowboy songs or Irish things, or ragtime or old jazz) better if people are familiar with it--and, for some reason, it helps to wear funny hat!!!

My record take was the equivalent of about $200 in today's dollars, taken in in 30 minutes--I would have been great, if I'd stopped at thirty minutes, but I went for thirty one and got arrested, and was eventually driven across the bridge to the next town, told never to come back, and tossed from the police cruiser--

I started doing the streetsinger thing one summer when the roadhouse where my band was booked to play burned to the ground. This event precipitated the kind of band conflict that is currently the subject of one of the other current threads--which ended with my being left with my guitar and backpack at a service station near Saugatuck, Michigan.

It seemed like as good a time as any to try "busking"--