Sunday, May 02, 2010

The Busking Life....You CAN Quit Your Day Job...

AllTheThreeChordTunes
ThatFitVille


....And Johnny Mac, the creator of BuskerWorld, who has travelled the world and made an actual living doing it, tells the NYT's FrugalTraveler how:

Did you ever run into any legal trouble?
The thing I quickly learned was that a lot of spots weren’t legal, but it was how you played the game and how you communicated with the law enforcer. If you had a license, you were okay, but it didn’t mean you couldn’t busk in other spots where people hadn’t busked before. So my way was to explore areas where people wouldn’t expect a busker, and that meant the law as well wouldn’t be expecting buskers. There wasn’t a lot of hype, there wasn’t a lot of trouble, but the local people got to know you.


And sometimes it's about more than making a little money, but not always.....


Did people give you nonmonetary gifts as well?
Absolutely, all the time. In Amsterdam, you can use your imagination! There was one time when I had some of my music stolen, and I told someone who was going past, and the next day they came with a whole lot of new music for me. I’d get mothers picking me up and taking me to dinner to meet their daughters. Amazing things happened. Just about every place I went to, I’d get offered gigs. Again, that meant more money because you didn’t have to pay meals, quite often you didn’t have to pay accommodation, and you might get a small amount for the gig — or you might get paid really well.


It's the ultimate in DIY I tell ya.

The ultimate.

OK?

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