Subject: News: Busker Permits in Tokyo
From:
artbrooks
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 03:49 PM
This hot off the Netscape Presses:
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Street Performers Audition for Permits
TOKYO (Reuters) - On any other day, street performer Yasunori Koyama would be sent packing by police patrolling the streets and parks of Tokyo even as he performs his impressive juggling act to a visibly delighted crowd.
Not Wednesday.
For the first time ever, the Tokyo metropolitan government has created a program under which buskers such as Koyama must obtain a permit to perform in public if he is to avoid police harassment.
Over five days this week, nine judges including actors and comedians will scrutinize 247 performers who have beaten 400 others in the first round of the audition to win the permit. Those who pass will be free to perform and collect money from any willing onlooker over for one year starting in September.
Koyama is one such contestant gathering in an open courtyard at the city government complex to impress the judges. He seemed to pass the test of good crowd participation and creativity, at least. Whether he wins a permit will be decided next month.
After drawing a few laughs and gasps by taking multiple bites out of the three apples he was juggling, he had his audience in gleeful horror as he squeezed his entire head into a surgical glove. Pausing for a moment to uncover his mouth, he blew into the limp glove with his nose until the fingers were standing straight up over his head and the elastic stretched close to its limit. "Three, two, one," he shouted between breaths. Another blow should pop the glove, but didn't. "Zero-point-five!" POP!
Tokyo's new project, dubbed "Heaven Artist," hopes to give performers such as Koyama the chance legally to make a living through donations from onlookers while at the same time offering entertainment to the public. It is open to anyone from mimes to musicians to magicians, and fresh permits will be granted every year. Much like Manhattan's "Music Under New York" project, licensed buskers will only be allowed to perform in 12 or so designated locations on certain days to be decided by the city. That arrangement is acceptable for seasoned artists such as Yoko and Gatsu, a pair of trained acrobats who are paid to perform. But Koyama, who makes a living entertaining on the streets, said the permit would be pointless if performers aren't free to work when and where they want. On slow days, he said, he'll only make around 5,000 yen ($40) performing all day in Ueno Park, one of Tokyo's busiest, because the police will break up the crowd and order him to stop. "The police in Ueno Park are very very strict," he said. "But they're not going to stop me from going out there, with or without a license."
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