Non-monetary tips given to buskers

Subject: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Marion
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 02:37 AM

So what unorthodox stuff have you received while busking? Or what have you given to buskers?

I've been given:
- loaf of bread
- closed can of pop
- fresh basil
- coins from a variety of countries
- coupon to buy a slice of pizza and get one free
- some weird little plastic thing I couldn't identify
- note containing advice on thumb position
- my favourite: 85 photocopied pages of evidence for life after death, delivered to me without comment by a girl in a rabbit suit

I've politely declined:
- hot dog
- hamburger
- open can of pop
- evangelistic tracts (when I said no thanks, she said, "You could be doing this... for eternity!")

If I don't have any change, I usually offer buskers subway tickets. I don't know what to do with all these foreign coins I've accumulated, maybe I should just pass them on to other buskers.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 02:50 AM

i,was,busking,in,driffield,east,yorkshire.an,was,given,a,religous,poster,
and,a,leaflet,about,god,by,a,strange,religous,bloke,he,lokedd,a,bit,mad,he,semed,very,exitable!
my,keyboard,is,broken.john

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST,mcgrath of altcar
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 04:52 AM

I regularly receive bones and bowls of water from kind customers. ( They might intend them for the dog though)

Also (french) Luncheon vouchers, Yoghurt, Foreign currency, Sugar, 4 ounces of boiled ham for the dog. Cups of tea. (priceless!)

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Watson
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 05:24 AM

"Have a drink on me", he said, pressing a tea-bag into my hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 06:19 AM

Mars bars, boiled sweets, party poppers (used) a childs soother (dummy) old 50p coin, cigar, a marble.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Mooh
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 07:39 AM

If memory serves, my first time busking got me half a sandwich from a young lady who probably just felt sorry for me. Union Station, Toronto, 1974(ish). Too be young again...

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Mooh
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 07:40 AM

Um, "To be young again...". Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: alanabit
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 08:25 AM

The ones I can recall right now:
                Guitar strings, cigarettes, hash, other drugs (always flushed down the toilet), several wrist watches, a new pair of boots, sweets, rolls, bread, cans and bottles of beer and soft drinks, jewellery, a social security voucher for a visit to a Hamburg brothel (where was that when I needed it?), chips, coins from more lands than I have ever heard of, fruit, vegetables, flowers, cassettes, pens, personalised writing paper, penknives, invitations, letters, pamphlets from all sorts of strange religious groups, guitar picks boxes and bars of chocolates, books, a bomber jacket, photographs...
      I'll probably recall some more later. I wonder what Larry and Steve Rich will add to this thread?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 09:13 AM

I usually get info on sessio9ns in their locale - and pass-on one tip I was told - try to pick-up the rythm of the feet of a likely contributer, it is a mirroring thing and immitation is always flattering. Unless of course, you play the Laurel & Hardy tune!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Kim C
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 09:45 AM

Don't quit your day job?

(just kidding!!!!!) ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 11:24 AM

Smiles and questions, and love inquisitions
Encouragement mostly, ehan the braggartly boastly
Coins from afar, from young childeren found dancing
As infantanious amazement leaves their parent's romancing

Winks, blinks and nods with rhythmic bods
And food by the pound quite organic
While lovely maturity, with feminine obscurity
Finds a juicy rejoicy wo'manic

New gigs and numbers, and requests from the hummers
Who still can't remember the titles
Balloons in a heart shape, from clowns without heart ache
And tips about snogs in folk bibles

Flowers and strings, our imagining things
Musicians that blend with the masses
And, the best of it all, for my heart to enthrall
Are good people that neck in the grasses

So while money is good, to have what we should
The rest is good reason for busking
For the people we touch, without sharing a crutch
Will provoke a much lovelier basking
ttr

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 11:30 AM

looks like the cookie monster ate mine again... ;^D

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Frug
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 02:55 PM

Always remember seeing a funny thing one day in Birmingham (UK). An old black guy used to sit in the underpass blowing hell out of a harmonica..........boy was he bad. One day a well-to-do lady gave him a parcel and walked away. I walked by and heard the guy cursing and swearing something rotten. I asked the lady when I bumped into her at the train station what she had given him that made him so upset. She was a bit taken aback and said that she passed the guy often and really wanted to help out and admired his spirit and wanted him to get on .........so she had gone and bought him a book........."How to play the Harmonica"

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: greg stephens
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 05:51 PM

Herbal cigarettes(shoplifted by the child who gave them to me, passing them on because they were disgusting). Packet of johnnies. Chocolate, and many other sweets. Illegal substances(of course handed in to the nearest available constable).Sherry and mince pies. Bottle of wine.Improving tracts. Spit(from an unpleasant child, or possibly music critic).

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 06:01 PM

Here are some handy ones...

"Don't play in the rain, it's bad for the guitar."

"If a pigeon shits on you, it's good luck." (for the pigeon)

"Your fly is open."

"Your G-string seems a bit low..."

And some handy questions...

"Got change for a twenty?"

"Do you play 'Seasons in the Sun'?"

"Wanna trade that guitar for an old Kent?"

I was once given a little gold peace symbol by a girl who also wanted my autograph. I was surprised, but agreeable. First time anyone ever asked me for it. I do not care much for busking.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Cluin
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:27 AM

A group of young girls dropped a condom (no, not used, it was still in its original packaging) in my case as they walked by, giggling. The girl I was seeing at the time hated them so I passed it on to a friend at the bar later.

And a fellow picker dropped a nice imitation tortoise shell pleck in the case as he walked by. I kept that one for a while as a good luck charm. I think it's still in the old Sucrets box I keep my extra picks in.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Ely
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:49 PM

1) Apples, onions, zucchini, and a loaf of bread--from vendors and customers when we were playing at an outdoors farmers' market in Decorah, Iowa

2) One slightly used Dum-Dum lollipop--from a small child at said farmers' market

3) Extra musicians--I and two friends of mine were playing at a street fair in Missouri (on banjo, mandolin, and guitar) and suddenly every grandfather in town who owned a guitar wanted to play with us. I guess they were just glad to see twentysomethings playing old-time music, but soon we had a banjo, a mandolin, and five guitars, including one extremely loud twelve-string Martin. None of us were playing the same tune/rhythm/tempo (because we couldn't hear each other above the Martin) and I've never heard such a racket before, but at least all the Grandpas had a good time.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 03:14 PM

Didja get to keep the grandfathers? :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 05:08 PM

the teeniest, tiniest ceramic pitcher... on a cord for wearing around the neck. wore it 'till it broke, was glued, broke, was glued, then broke into millions of pieces and was laid to rest. i've been given guitar strings, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 05:19 PM

Hello, emily!! How nice to hear from you!! Long time no see!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Gypsy
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 10:07 PM

Wonderful, HOT coffee on a cold day............

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 11:25 PM

A "prophylactic - condom" is always a good contribution

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

If they ain't met the night's rent .... you know what they being next.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 02:03 AM

I never went busking on purpose, but often was invited to perform when I entered a pub having my guitar with me, or a friend with a guitar. So I got:
In France: Red wine galore
In Germany: White wine galore, in beer areas: beer galore.
Best happening, autumn 1963: When 4 of us went out one evening to try the new wine in a university town an elderly gentleman asked us for a student song. For every song he stood us a round. After the sixth song I proposed to check our walking abilities, and we had to stop our performance immediately in order to reach our home unharmed.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: alanabit
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 02:19 AM

That reminds me Wilfried. In December, people have sometimes brought me out a glass of Glühwein. I can't drink much alcohol, so one glass of the hot liquid warms my insides nicely, but is definitely enough. On those occasions when I have been driving, I have alway left a good hour and a half before I got behind the wheel again after one of those. Down in Linz in Austria once, somebody brought me out a mug of that hot punch which they drink in winter. Can you remember what they call it? They left me the mug, which had the name "Cafe´Arabia" on it. When had I finished my set, I duly tried to return the mug to the cafe´of that name, but they told me it wasn't one of theirs. So I got to keep the mug as well!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 08:43 AM

In Holland....dope, dope, and more dope.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 10:14 AM

Hi alanabit - There are a lot of names for different kinds of Glühwein or punches. I can give you a short and surely incomplete list of names used here, but in Austria there can be used local names not known over here.
punch = Punsch (East Indian: five)with water, tea, lemon, arrack, sugar (the classical preparation.
If the sugar is dripping in burning, we call it Feuerzangen-Bowle = lit. tong bowl = burnt punch.
Nowadays instead of tea a strong red wine is used, and rum instead of arrack

Any hot spiced wine is called Glühwein = lit. glowing wine.
Now obsolete distinctions were made in former times according to the colours of clerical garments:
- Bischof = bishop, from white wine, and
- Kardinal = cardinal, from red wine.

Prost
Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: alanabit
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 11:45 AM

Thanks Wilfried. I thought it was something like Punsch in Linz - but that was a few years ago and I wasn't quite sure. Of course, there are plenty of regional variations of bread, coffee, beer and dialect even within Austria!
I have seen the Feuerzangen-Bowle made, but I have never tried it. I think that tends to get made up specially for particular customers, doesn't it? I love the smell of Glühwein, but you have to have a very clear head if you are drinking it!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: M.Ted
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 03:48 PM

Someone gave me a broken nickel plated clarinet once--a lot of food, a deerstalker cap--someone once tried to leave a kitten in my case, but I gave it back before they got away--Often was invited to parties and given places to stay--once I was invited stay with a group of students in a hotel room at the shore--when I woke up, they'd all gone, leaving a large unpaid phone/room service bill--

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 04:35 PM

One pitcher is worth a thousand words
And a chord will play every song...
One singer can teach of the bees and the birds
And a listening heart can't be wrong
ttr

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Marion
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 11:58 PM

Good story, Frug.

I mentioned in the opening post:

- my favourite: 85 photocopied pages of evidence for life after death, delivered to me without comment by a girl in a rabbit suit

I just skimmed through this and was interested to learn that in heaven, everyone is 30 years old, "the perfect balance between youth and wisdom".

Marion, Young and Wise

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: hesperis
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 01:59 AM

Yay, I got something interesting on my last busking attempt... at first I thought it was a quarter... probably the person who gave it to me among other loose change thought so too.

But... it was a token for the "Detroit & Canada Tunnel" for "One Fare". I guess it'll be useful if I ever want go to Detroit.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 12:31 PM

wwhich probably isn't very likely right?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: hesperis
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 03:48 PM

Nope. *g*

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Jun 03 - 03:53 PM

I taught my late musical partner Mark B. how to juggle and he got a lot of mileage out of that. He would throw his Epiphone Texan high into the air and catch it again to the gasps in the crowd. On a good afternoon he made twice what I made in a top Hotel (The Royal York).

I never had the nerve to do that with one of my good axes, but as my students will attest I still spin THEIR guitars!!

Watch an early clip of Uncle Dave to see how he handles the banjo in a similar fashion.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Marion
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:57 PM

Rick, I totally misunderstood you when you said a while ago that you paid for lots of trips by busking.

Dumb question for American buskers:

Since we have $1 and $2 coins in Canada, getting paper money as tips isn't that common a problem - same for those who play for euros. But in the US you must get dollar bills all the time - what do you do with them? It seems a little uncouth to stop the song to pick up or weigh down the paper - but the length of a song is plenty of time for bills to blow away in. Do you tend to collect tips in a deep container instead of your cases?

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Marion
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 02:31 AM

A little boy (maybe 7 or 8) dropped a flower in my case. Awwww...

Alanabit, I think I'm going to need more explanation of this one: a social security voucher for a visit to a Hamburg brothel

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 02:39 AM

a social security voucher for a visit to a Hamburg brothel
This is a widespread joke in Germany. The German Welfare System hands out money for the needy and bonuses for certain goods. The voucher in question is a fake resembling the original form with only one difference: The goods granted. Jokers all over Germany just change the name of the town, insert their own, and hand it out to their friends.
LOL!!!

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 04:51 PM

My former and I once took a trip to Key West Fl. We were near broke and I decided to try a little busking at Mallory Sq. at sunset. I tuned up the dulci and found a place to sit. Mostly, I got complaints from other buskers that I was killing them because people were crowding around me to see what strange instrument was making such sweet sounds. So, I moved to a remote spot to keep everyone happy. The crowd moved with me! All the tourists on the square wanted to see my strange little instrument. And play it. I raked in over $700 that evening. When I closed up shop, I went around to the other buskers and dropped $20 in their cases, just to be neighborly.

I don't run into much busking here in my little corner of S.E. PA. When I encounter a busker, I always leave a generous tip.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 01:10 AM

The lepor left the prostitute with the tip of his.....

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: hesperis
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 07:17 AM

I got an offer of marriage the other day. lol!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: alanabit
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 12:27 PM

Thanks for that one Wilfried. I was always baffled! It happened over twenty years ago and I always smile when I recall it. The institution which would purportedly have offered me this agreeable service was in Hamburg - and I was not inclined to travel all the way up there from Köln. There were both Deutsch Marks to be made and young ladies to be met in this town. All told, I think I probably had more fun here. I think if I went into one of those institutions now, the girls would take one look at my thinning, greying hair, offer a chair rather than a bed and ask me if I was feeling faint and needed a glass of water.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 03:54 PM

Walking Eagle - great idea, giving the other buskers $20 - that's class! Was it an Appalachian or a hammered dulcimer you were playing ?

Our four piece was busking at a Farmer's market last saturday when a little boy ran up out of the listeners and started stuffing coins in the sound hole of our guitar player's new Martin - while it was being played! I think the kid's mother had suggested our open guitar case, but the kid got confused! For an instant we thought he was attacking the guitar. It was an uneasy moment... Our guitar player stands about 6 foot 5 inches and here's this little kid standing on tip toes pawing at the front of a fairly expensive instrument. Turns out it was about 75 cents in small change and no harm done.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jul 03 - 04:25 PM

Marion, indoors, use of case is common. Outdoors or in bars a can is usually used.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Marion
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 01:30 AM

Thanks, Sorcha and Wilfried.

Les, my Ukranian fiddling friend tells me that when his Ukranian fiddling grandmother used to play at wedding receptions, the custom was for guests to push coins through the f-holes while she played. It can't have been too good for the sound - or too good for the fiddle to shake the tips out!

I was amused when a lady came out of the store, gave me ten bucks, showed me a lottery ticket, and told me: "I decided before going in that if I won anything I'd split it with you..."

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 02:02 AM

I got a Budweiser 'plastic Paddy' armband garter once.......

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Deckman
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 06:08 AM

This thread reminded me of a bad joke I recently heard. If you want some excitment next time you're listening to a busker ... take some money OUT of the guitar case and tell him that you DIDN'T like his music! CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 04:55 AM

Frug, that's a great one.

I once got a banana peel, another time a business card of a shoeshine.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 08:45 PM

Les--it was/is an Appalachian Dulcimer. Folks were going nuts over it!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Ely
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 11:25 PM

I did not get to keep the grandfathers. Too bad, since I don't have any grandparents left of my own.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-monetary tips given to buskers
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 28 Jul 03 - 03:03 AM

In one hour, £20, a can of strongbow cider with 50% extra, a chip and that's about it....

I've not busked since, it's too cold and I prefer doing gigs to busking - a lot less hassle!

A friend of mine has been threatened with a gun whilst busking and calmly played on ignoring the person. (and it wasn't because he is a bad player).