In Boston you have to get a license to play on the street. No audition necessary apparently, which explains why many of the buskers are lousy and, unfortunately, the lousy players are often more aggressive about grabbing the best spots and hogging them all day, or having a much louder sound system and thus drowning out the talented guy or gal down the street.

To play in Fanueil Hall, a touristy area near downtown and the waterfront, you have to audition. Small fee, not too bad. Very competitive, and they stick to a schedule, two hours at a pop. (If the next act doesn't show on time you can stay in their spot until they do) Problem is, they are way more concerned with "variety" than talent. So you could be the worst balloon-animal maker in the world, but get hired, but six or seven excellent dulcimer players or twenty-five fiddlers or a hundred singer-songwriter-guitarists have to compete against each other for limited spots...

I sang with two different harpists there, a couple years in a row. Lots of money made just from tourists with kids: the kids stop, mesmerized by the pretty lady singing or the handsome gent playing the harp or guitar, and the parent gives them a buck, saying "Here, honey give them a dollar." Harried yuppies usually drop pocket change. Occasionally you get tourists or even locals with a taste for what you are doing (once a guy gave us ten bucks for doing a songin Gaelic) who hang out and keep dropping dough on ya...the usual take for two hours ranges from 30 to 50 dollars; some days lots more, some days barely $20. I think the biggest take for two hours was just over a hundred one day...and once we barely made $15. Split among two people, not bad, even if it only pays for beer and snacks at the pub after...

peg