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Whether you do venue gigs, street perform, or just go and play out in public for just because, eventually you'll end up seeing, or experiencing something different.

This is the thread to share your stories, anecdotes, observations, etc.


While performing in NYC, a woman was so engrossed in watching my performance while hurrying down the way that she walked face first into a signpost, and fell flat on her ass. It took a great deal of willpower to not erupt into laughter.

Shortly after that woman left, a seemingly normal looking lady stopped to watch me. After a few seconds of this, she asked me if there has ever been anyone smarter than Einstein.
I told her that I'm sure there have been many, but couldn't give her any names off the top of my head. Then suddenly she began very loudly demanding, and then pleading for an answer to this burning question from everyone who walked by.
Thankfully she left after 5 minutes of these shenanigans.


While performing on River Street in Savannah, Georgia I witnessed a highly intoxicated homeless man walk up to this older couple who were watching me while sitting on a nearby bench.
They had with them what at first glance appeared to be a baby carriage, but a longer look at the design would tell any sober individuals that it was anything but.

The homeless guy gave it a hard look for a moment, then went to give it a closer inspection. He knelt down, and got his face REALLY close to it, and suddenly without warning there erupted from it a viciously angry cocker spaniel barking bloody murder.
Dude about damned near jumped straight out of his skin, leaping six feet backwards instantly. Visibly shaken, he shouted something about thinking there was a baby in the basket, and hurried away.



I've had acrylics explode on impact due to wayyyyyyyyy too much use and abuse, worse yet I've had it happen several times while performing in public.
The strange thing however is the demand that these obliterated acrylics seem to generate. Every time without fail I've been approached by someone wanting them for souvenirs. I've even been offered money for them! Go figure.

Also, 3" acrylics can survive being run over by SUVs.


Unusual tips:

Food and drink:
Whether I'm dressed nicely or not doesn't seem to matter. People just want to feed skinny old me. So far I've received the following.

Various candies (my fav so far were these delicious gummy things called swedish fish).
A GIGANTIC burger and fries.
A chicken pot pie.
Red bull
Gatorade/Powerade
Bottled water

Intoxicants:
I just want to make it known that I've never once asked for anything of the sort while performing, but get them from time to time nonetheless.

Alcohol - I've generally been gifted with beer, but every now and again I find myself in possession of hard liquor. On one occasion I was even taken out for drinks following my performance, but more on that later.

Xanax - A raver girl and her boyfriend were absolutely enthralled with my CJing, and watched me for quite some time. Eventually the girl told me that she VERY much wanted to tip me, but they had given the last of their cash to some beggars.
I told her that it wasn't a big deal, and was just glad they enjoyed what I do, but then she fished around in her purse for a moment, said "hold out your hand", gave me some xanax pills, winked at me, and said "enjoy your night" as they walked away.

Weed - Been offered free smoke more times than I can count, but one time in particular stands out.

This gentleman came up, dropped a wadded up $5 bill in my hat, said "Pay close attention to that bill. It's important" and walked off.
Later when it came time to count the haul, I discovered two FAT buds wrapped inside said five.


Various balls:
Super balls - Those tiny rubbery ones that bounce insanely high, and tend to go all over the damned place. You know the kind. These have been the most common thus far.

Golf balls
A tennis ball
A softball
A hackey sack
One of those small plastic balls with LEDs inside that blink upon impact


Miscellanious:
Several tiny plastic figurines
A note on the back of a receipt that read "We want to be gods! Your art
is beautiful. Jayme + Scott"

A flyer for a clean air activist group called The Canary Coalition.

All sorts of religious propoganda - my favorites so far have been those hilarious Jack Chick tracts, but my least favorite were those that at first glance appear to be money (especially wadded up/wrinkled as they were).
The last time I performed at Waterfire, I found five of the damned things in my tip jar. *shakes fist*

A fat wad of foreign currency - Given to me while I was in Virginia Beach.
A mixture of ukranian, and romanian bills. The person who gave it to me had no idea of their worth (the romanian portion comes out to a little over $40. No idea of the value of the ukranian currency)
It's beautiful money, really. Looking at the bills, I can't help but think how boring american currency looks in comparison to the bright colors, and designs.
The problem however is that I've been unable to find a single moneychanger who will exchange ANY of it forcurrency I can use.
I've tried banks, and the exchanges at a couple international airports but to no avail. Oh well.


I've more actual stories to tell, but for the time being, I'm sick of typing.

_________________
The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls

hehe... funny busking tales.... I'm sure this is going to get some interesting responses. Where to begin....

A drunk lady practically gave me a lap dance one night after her and her friends came out of the bar in the outdoor mall where I was performing. They watched for a while, then she started dancing to the music while I CJ'ed, and kept getting closer. I was about to stop and ask her to please leave, but then her drunk girlfriends started dropping $5's and $10's in my tip chest, so I decided I could deal with it. Think I made close to $50 just from their group. Of course, interactions by intoxicated patrons has happened numerous times at Renaissance Festivals, but that's a pretty common occurance.

I play around infront of my store when I don't have customers, and I'm right on the corner of a major intersection, and have caused several near accidents from people watching me instead of the road. I've had some people do a u-turn in the middle of the road to come back and watch.

Odd tips, I've had bbq brought to me, hot dogs, probably the best one was a guy brought me a full meal from a steak house, I mean, probably a $25 dinner at least, just had it in a to-go bag, like 3 boxes of food. I get a lot of ice cream from vendors nearby.

Those are probably some of the things that stand out the most, there are lots of little memories, people that were fascinated, kids enthralled watching for hours sometimes while their parents shopped... its stuff like that that makes me know why I like performing.

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It's not about rules... its about play

Well, last night i had a guy tip $20 then pay for 2 games of pool and a couple beers because the enjoyed the performance.

Last saturday at the wedding i performed at I had a cougar ask how heavy my balls were, i only performed with one....which she then requested to hold...it was sweaty...i though about...and allowed her to hold my sweaty ball.

mostly i get an odd assortment of compliments or congenialities...mixed with either awe or doubt.

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much Love,
Dan

I've never tried busking, but this summer I started venturing outside for the first time to practice in local parks and squares.

I stay away from busy areas for the most part, so I don't attract a lot of attention, but when people have come up to me the reaction has been universally positive. I'm just about getting used to spontaneous rounds of applause from strangers.

Teenagers have been the biggest surprise. Teens get a lot of bad press in the media these days, and I think they're generally perceived as a cynical bunch as result. The first time I found myself surrounded by a group of a dozen teenagers I was rather intimiated, but they approached me with the same sort of wide eyed wonderment that caused me to take up CJing to begin with.

Kids are the best audience by far. Adults will generally watch from a polite distance, but kids will run right up to me and start asking questions: "How do you do that?", "Is it heavy?", "Is it magic?" etc. I usually find myself wishing I had a better repertoire of tricks and some sort of routine to entertain them with, but I think I can do enough to capture their attention for a few minutes at least.

The worst habit I have is downplaying what I can do when confronted with any sort of praise. All too often I end up telling people that there are far better performers out there than myself, which is all too true, but I need to learn to accept praise with less embarrasment.

So far only two people have tried to give me anything. The first was a small boy about five or six years old who ran up to me holding out a shiny pound coin. I thanked him and tried to explain that I was only practicing and said he should keep it and buy some sweets with it. With hindsight I felt quite bad that I didn't take his money. The second was an old woman who insisted on giving me two pounds, even though she looked like she needed the money more than I did. Who knew that taking money from people could be so hard!

Oh, and I did receive an offer of marriage from a teenager, which I had to graciously refuse.

It's all encouraging stuff. I look forward to being able to impress people when I reach a level where I'm actually, you know, good

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"Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There is mischief to have. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all."

I tend to take my sil-x or stage balls with me as I go about my daily life - work, walking through the mall, etc.. I've gotten decent at performing tricks while on the move. Probably the wierdest experiences I've had was at the Virginia Ren faire this summer - my family and I were walking through, checking out the booths, and I had my ever-present ball in hand. One of the ladies stops, and begins speaking with us about her search for god, and love, and expression.. and that my juggling touched some deeper sense of asthetic. She gave us a hand made necklace with a little feather attached. Quite honestly, it was a strange experience, but the only thing I've earned with my juggling so far.

Though I do have one more strange story along these lines. In Tulsa, Oklahoma there is a place downtown called the Center of the Universe. The local urban legend was that a few kids, on an LSD trip, met a "transvestite prostitute" who showed them this strange brick circle in the middle of a pedestrian bridge, over a railroad track. When you stand in the exact center, your voice echos back to you, though there are no walls and this bridge is open-air. If you stand across from someone else, you can hear the other's voice echoing. It's a trippy place.
While we were showing this site to a few friends, a year back, a man stopped, and started studying my juggling. His eyes were a little unfocused, like he was under the influence of some heavy substances. He stops, and asks "Are you the angels I've been sent to meet? Do you have a message for me? I was told by [it sounded like he said 'the voices'] to meet you here." ... and then proceeds to start telling me about the conspiracies hidden in the world about us. I said something suitably vague and magical-like.. but can't now remember what it was. Made him happy though.

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In search of higher spheres of consciousness.

So far I have only practiced in public once, at a local ppark. One lady walked by and commented "You certainly seem to be able to defy gravity" I thought that was pretty cool. But that is my only experience so far.

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Soo Ma Tai
Shaman of the Western Uruk-Hai
Viking Bastards, bringing boots and asses together since the dark ages!
http://belegarth.com/
www.stygia.org

That's pretty cool - clearly a sign you should be in public more.

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"Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There is mischief to have. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all."

After reading these I want to go practice in public, Im only a month in though so I am nervous about practicing in front of strangers, but damn it seems fun and rewarding. Maybe I will go to a park or something less crowded and practice, whats the worst that could happen....

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"To think for yourself you must question authority" -Tim Leary

...that, distracted by your artistic brilliance, an FBI undercover operative stops concentrating on the terrorist he is meant to be following, and becomes engrossed in watching you. The terrorist continues on his way, to meet with the disaffected ex-USSR submarine commander who has smuggled a nuclear bomb to the states. The bomb makes it all the way to Los Angeles, where it is detonated, resulting in the death of 5 million people, and making 1000s of square miles of the california coast uninhabitable for generations.

I'm not saying it's *likely*, but it could happen...


edit: P.S. - Hello Langley, how's the weather there?

_________________
even perfect health is terminal if left untreated indefinitely

I fail to see the problem here

_________________
Soo Ma Tai
Shaman of the Western Uruk-Hai
Viking Bastards, bringing boots and asses together since the dark ages!
http://belegarth.com/
www.stygia.org

or .....that unknowingly you stall the ball for too long of a period of time, the sun is maginified through the acrylic, burning a rope that is inexplainably holding up a piano that then falls on top of you, not killing you but making you incapable of contact juggling or anything else fun for the rest of your life. Waaaaaay worse than yours bazz

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"To think for yourself you must question authority" -Tim Leary

Haven't caused any near accidents, but I certainly have stopped traffic on several occasions.
My favorite thus far was actually last week in downtown Asheville.
Was visiting a friend at their place of work, and went outside to have a cig (For me, smoking and CJing just go together).
At any rate, there was a long line of people stopped at the nearby light, and unbeknownst to one lady further back in the queue who was watching me intently, the light went green. This went on for a good bit of time, and I found myself VERY surprised that none of the vehicles behind her were blaring their horns.
Turns out they were ALL too busy watching me to realize they just sat through an entire traffic light cycle.


So far, the single most bizarre performing incident occurred when I was visiting some friends in Gettysburg.
We were stuck waiting outside of some restaraunt waiting for seating to be made available to us, and the approximated wait was about a half hour or so.
So naturally I figured I'd attempt to drum up a little extra scratch in the meantime while chatting with my friends, set down my hat, and went at it.

Apparently street performing offended the sensibilities of this small old lady who appeared to be in her seventies. As such she came by and intentionally walked over my hat in order to provoke some reaction from me. This failed to receive anything beyond a raised eyebrow from me, so she walked by the hat, balled up a napkin she had, and threw it into the hat while staring straight at me.
Again, I gae her no reaction, and continued to do my thing.
So she threw a penny into my hat, exclaiming "There's a penny!" in a tone of voice that was obviously supposed to be somehow condescending.
I cheerfully replied "Penny I didn't have before.", and smiled.

At this point she walked up to me and began making feeble attempts at tryin to swat the ball off of me without hitting me.
I certainly had no intentions on quitting because of her, so what else was there to do but make my CJ performance double as a game of keep away?
The developing crowd of spectators absolutely LOVED it as I made the ball dance away from her swatting, while incessantly being within easy reach. I weaved the ball around her swatting arms, danced it around and over her head, and generally just clowned the hell out of her nonverbally.

She soon got fed up with this and resorted to trying to tickle my ribs! What the hell?! The crowd was in hysterics at this point, as I continued to CJ while being chased around the area by the crazy lady.
I refused to give up, and eventually one of my friends distracted her by saying "Isn't he amazing at that", to which the lady replied "Yeah he is, that's why I'm trying to get him to drop it!", and then she walked away to go sit back down.

I'd have given quite a lot for there to have been someone filming the whole spectacle. I'll never forget this, but I doubt I'll ever be able to fully, and properly explain just how damned hilarious the whole scene was.


More to come later.

_________________
The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls

A drunk/stoned/whatever guy came up to me a week or so ago and got really close to my ball during a little bit of isolation work and exclaimed

"naw dude...naw dude you're lyin...you're fuckin lyin..."

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DREAM, CREATE, INSPIRE

i've only had one note-worthy reaction from anybody, and that was when i was in the park practicing, and some kid comes up, grabs my ball, and throws it into the concrete amphitheater that I was practicing next to.

i love practicing in malls and stuff, especially around little kids. it's really funny when they see you, watch for about 5 seconds, and then go back to whatever they were doing.

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Don't worry about the world ending today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. Unless you live in Australia. Then worry.

if that had happened to me, i think there would have been a kid very quickly (and painfully) following my ball into the concrete amphitheatre.

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even perfect health is terminal if left untreated indefinitely