Buskers’ Audio


Interviewer
0:00:03.5 So, your teeth, did that happen from eating fire, the kerosene and stuff?

Speaker
0:00:07.1 Are we on now?

Interviewer
0:00:10.4 Yeah, we are.

Speaker
0:00:11.2 Yeah, the teeth—basically I'm getting them done now. The teeth are ruined from the chair act and the fire act, it's take its toll. Yeah. Good property, though, because in my show, I take them out—the chair act—and people love it. I mean, it looks nasty and all that but I'm the kind of performer, I use what I got, you know. They basically want to take them all out. I really don't want that but I'm going to have to get it—at this point I can't get a date. You know what I mean?

0:00:38.9 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:01:51.9 I'm going to set my black ass on fire. All of you red necks will love this shit. And you know who you are. All right.

Speaker
0:02:06.1 I mean, when I hear people say, "I want to become a busker." I go, like, "You're not ever going to become one because that's not the way it happens." You just fall into it, you get sucked into it. And you're there, that's it, it's not by choice. It chooses you.

Speaker
0:02:21.2 Hey!

Speaker
0:02:22.5 And then, just for fun, I went out on the street, because I saw other jugglers on the Venice Boardwalk, and I went out and I just had, like, a two-minute show and I just did it over and over again all day long. And, I'll never forget, at the end of the day I made $30 in my hat. And, I was 13 years old and I made $30 like that and I was hooked. And, I've been a performer ever since then.

0:02:46.6 [Ambient noise]

Interviewer
0:02:53.9 What would you say all street performers have in common?

Speaker
0:02:57.2 Money.

Speaker
0:02:58.6 Not really. Okay, the love for the art.

Speaker
0:03:01.8 The love for the art.

Speaker
0:03:02.7 And, as I'm saying the love, they are the realest performers out there because if anyone could stop an audience on the street, you can stop an audience and captivate them anywhere. Because the streets is the hardest.

0:03:18.6 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:03:29.2 You're afraid that the people are going to walk away, because in the street, if you're constantly talking, like, every second and always constantly doing something, people just run away.

Speaker
0:03:38.4 [unintelligible]. She's doing really good, let's go even faster. You're great [unintelligible], take a bow.

Speaker
0:03:44.3 You don't sell tickets at the start of a street show, you do the show and then at the end you say, "Hey, if you enjoyed the show then I'd really appreciate a couple of bucks."

Speaker
0:03:50.9 And, there's no agents involved, there's no waiting for the phone to ring, there's no three-drink minimum, there's none of that, it's just you and them.

0:04:00.3 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:04:10.3 We're a rebel sort of group of people. We work in the street ['cause], we don't have to work for nobody, we do whenever we want to do and whatever we want to do. We don't want no jobs, no bills, no place to live, working in the street. Buskin around America.

0:04:27.4 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:04:34.8 It's not like, you know, stage performing. It's not like any other form of performing, you have to really want to perform to be out there street performing, you have to really want to do it.

Speaker
0:04:48.2 You know, the first time I showed this stunt to my father, he said, "Son, if you break both your legs, don't come running to me."

0:04:56.4 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:05:04.0 This is because some people, I think, are motivated by the money and then other people, I think, are just out there doing it. But not necessarily as motivated by the money. I know some aren't because they don't get any money.

Speaker
0:05:13.9 But don't get me wrong ladies and gentlemen, I don't do this for the money, I do it for love. Yeah, come on, I do it for love. I love money. Okay.

Speaker
0:05:28.7 Reality is kind of boring and I'm really mis-adapted, if you can say in the reality. But in those fabulous world, or the theatre, or magical as we do, it's like, "Wow, we're breathing again." "We're alive."

Speaker
0:05:46.7 Everybody, repeat after me, "Keep your head straight."

Audience
0:05:51.4 Keep your head straight.

Speaker
Nobody move.

Audience
Nobody move.

Speaker
Nobody get hurt.

Audience
Nobody get hurt.

Speaker
This is some serious shit.

0:06:01.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:06:08.0 There's no rush like it, it's a very clean high with no hangover.

0:06:13 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:06:22.8 You go out there and you see feel god-like. But you're not, you're just a normal person but it's an addictive thing.

Speaker
0:06:29.7 Maybe you do use only 10 percent of your brain, but when you're on stage, maybe you're using, like, 75 or 80 percent of it.

Speaker
0:06:39.8 You can compare it to an orgasm, just it lasts half an hour instead of half a minute.

Speaker
0:06:48.0 Then my show, and it's gone well, I feel so much loved that I feel invincible. I feel like a higher being, which is scary.

Speaker
0:07:01.4 If you got a vacation coming up, it's really important to do well on your last show because, if you do a dog of a show, then you're going to feel like a talentless [sic] looser for like, two weeks. And, if you do a really good show, it's like, "God, I am God."

Speaker
0:07:14.4 And, I was having so much fun that I didn't take off my makeup and I stayed in makeup in school that day, and then I went to the bank in town with friends, and then I went to work in whiteface. And, I [unintelligible] the first two hours at my job in whiteface. And, it was a life-changing experience because there was something that was liberating in it.

Speaker
0:07:34.1 I was allowed to have a spontaneous impulse and play it out with the acceptance that, "Well, oh, he's an artist." or "He's a mime, he's not a nut."

0:07:43.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:07:49.6 I was a heroine addict–'70s and early, early '80s–so I had to do the three-card Monte. Then I found street performing. And, I used all of my wily-ness from being a drug addict but now I wasn't on drugs. So, everything I'd learned from those having-to-find-money days, I applied to street performing, and then later to stage performing.

Speaker
0:08:16.9 So, kids, if you stay in school, you stay off the drugs, you're going to become just like me–[unintelligible]. Good luck, kiddies, here we go, final two moves.

0:08:31.4 [Ambient noise]

Interviewer
0:08:44.8 Do you remember that very first street show you ever did?

Speaker
0:08:48.0 Yeah, yeah, it was–I didn't make eye contact with the audience for, like, three months because I was so scared of the audience.

Speaker
0:08:57.0 Like, it was like–it was like walking into a boxing ring and not really knowing how to box.

Speaker
0:09:02.2 The first time I did it was the first time I ever had, like, stage fright for real. I went in the tube with my balls and I was shaking, I was like, "Uhhhhhhh…".

Speaker
0:09:14.6 Fear, that's what drove me to develop an act.

Speaker
0:09:17.4 And, you know, and people go, "Well, don't you ever want to do a street show for the fun of it, just to see what it was like?" And, the answer is, like, "No, because that would be terrifying to me to do that now." I would be as scared now to do it as I would be the first day I started doing street performing.

0:09:30.6 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:09:40.2 The first performer that I really admired because of how he, like, captured a crowd, and how he could get them to, like, stand up and just give him money, was my parish priest. You know, and, I mean, he was funny and the people loved it, when they were done, they just threw money at him.

Speaker
0:10:00.6 This is how I make my living, I'm a professional street entertainer, I don't get paid to be here, I rely only on your donations, so if you can come up and put $10 in my hat, that's…

Speaker
0:10:09.5 The formula for taking money from passerbys [sic] is the exact same one that's been used for hundreds of years. What you're doing is an old mass-hypnotist formula. It's getting the crowd to follow instructions, getting a crowd to follow the final instruction, which is to give you money.

Speaker
0:10:32.3 I want you to peel out a ten guilder note.

Speaker
0:10:35.1 If you can't get a crowd to clap their hands and scream when you tell them to, don't ever expect to give you money when you tell them to.

Speaker
0:10:46.6 Ladies and gentlemen, I came all the way from Flagstaff, Arizona to be here today, if I don't make enough money to get home, I will stay and breed with the locals.

Speaker
0:10:59.7 You got, basically, you know, the bigger the crowd, the more people watch, so you have to really, like, put out a lot of energy. That's the first phase of getting that crowd. If you have enough, like, energy, you know, people will stop because they just figure something's going to happen. And, once, like, two people stop, then two people stop to watch those two people, and then those four stop another four, and it's going kind of goes geometrically.

0:11:18.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:11:24.1 Okay, so, if you'll just excuse me for a minute, maybe just look away, I don't actually have my pants on right now. I don't actually have my pants on and I've just got to get into my costume, and then I'll get ready to start, so if you could just, like, look away, because I don't have my pants on right now.

Interviewer
0:11:43.6 What would you say to a person who's thinking about becoming a street performer?

Speaker
0:11:46.8 Don't get in my spot.

Speaker
0:11:50.8 The more–the better the spot, the more competition there is for it. So, it's kind of like a case of, either someone dies or gets really sick and stops showing up, and then within three months of being there every single week, then it kind of becomes your spot.

Speaker
0:12:06.1 Where you do it, geographically, has a lot to do with the success of the show.

Speaker
0:12:09.7 And you don't perform where there's a lot of distractions.

Speaker
0:12:13.1 Anything can upset your show, a dog, a drunk, you know, a lady fainting.

0:12:16.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:12:28.9 A lot of people come down to them and it's a pretty hard pitch because everybody's drunk and stoned because [unintelligible] and a lot of people come and die because it's just too aggressive or they just can't get noticed because there's so much else going on, you know what I mean?

0:12:42.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:12:46.4 … looks so good. Don't stop, no, don't push and shove, everyone will get a piece…

Speaker
0:12:52.0 In Amsterdam, there were so many performers who wanted to use that spot they came up with a system where they actually draw numbers to see what order they go on in. But, even with a system like that, there are arguments and fights all the time.

Speaker
0:13:06.1 Having all of these problems and it's taking me 10 minutes longer to do the whole finale than it usually does, pack up my stuff, and he jumps on me immediately and, "[unintelligible] show 30 minutes." And I went, "I am sorry." and before I can finish my apology, David jumps straight up…

Speaker
0:13:22.2 [TALKOVER]

Speaker
0:13:24.6 Just do your show and keep to yourself, alright? Alright?

Speaker
0:13:26.1 I asked her, before she started show, how long the show was. She said, "Half an hour."

Speaker
0:13:30.6 It doesn't matter, it's over, go. It's over, go–

Speaker
0:13:33.5 [unintelligible] sorry.

Speaker
0:13:35.5 – and start. I don't want to hear you complain.

Speaker
0:13:35.7 [unintelligible]

Speaker
0:13:38.4 I don't care.

Speaker
0:13:39.2 Do you want to take it out [TALKOVER].

Speaker
0:13:39.9 Just start.

Speaker
0:13:40.2 Yeah, that was basically all it was, animals fighting over their territory.

0:13:44.9 [TALKOVER]

0:13:51.4 If you're inexperienced, you get intimidated, but if you're experienced, not really many people can intimidate me. I don't know about other people, but me, I know the ropes, I know what's going on, so if someone says, "Oh, we do this, we do that." You know, "You've got to work there, we work here." I know that where they work would be the better pitch. So, I sort of tell them how it's going to be different.

Speaker
0:14:13.2 The guy goes, "Look, I've been waiting for this spot, okay?" and he grabs the guy's arm. These two clowns. The guy pulls his arm, he says, "Don't touch me, okay? Don't touch me, man." He says, "Look, it's my spot, I've been sitting here…" he's trying to reason with the guy. The guy says, "Look, you don't touch me, get out of my face, move." And he pushes him, wham. And the other guy goes, boom, he decks–and he just goes, boom, knocks the other guy down. So, people start gathering around these two clowns just going at it, like, tooth and nail, just punching and blood coming out of the side of the mouth and mixing in with the whiteface. As soon as they were done, you know, they were just, like, you know, people are pulling them off and everything like that, the tension's real high, I started my show. I said, "What a pro." you know, I've got my crowd already, I didn't even have to work it. "Ladies and gentlemen, my opening act, I hope you enjoyed them."

0:15:06.5 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:16:00.2 And this one is for who?

Speakers
0:16:01.5 The tourists.

Speaker
0:16:03.1 And why?

Speakers
0:16:03.8 Because we love them.

Speaker
0:16:05.6 Oh, now we know that they talk bad about New York kids.

Speakers
0:16:09.9 That's right.

Speaker
0:16:10.8 Well, that don't mean that everyone who live in New York is…

Speakers
0:16:13.9 Crazy.

Speaker
0:16:15.1 They have nice people still live here.

Speakers
0:16:18.3 And we are some of them.

Speaker
0:16:20.1 So, any time you come to New York…

Speakers
0:16:21.8 Think like this.

Speaker
0:16:24.1 We all are…

Speakers
0:16:25.5 Human beings.

Speaker
0:16:26.8 It's only one race.

Speakers
0:16:29.0 And that's the human race.

Speaker
0:16:30.7 And that's why we should learn to live together and be…

Speakers
0:16:35.9 More civilized. Thank you.

0:16:39.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:16:43.4 Hi, welcome to Amsterdam.

0:16:46.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:16:49.2 Got to be a little crazy, you know. All the people will get together and talk about, you know, their new house or, you know, that's the way they measure success. You know, street performers will measure their success by, you know, who's got the craziest story, you know, who's got the craziest happening.

Speaker
0:17:04.7 Weird things happen on the street, you know, I had a guy pull a knife on me here.

Speaker
0:17:09.0 You know, I had a guy drink blue lamp oil, he took my lamp oil and started drinking it in the middle of my show. And, I had to grab it out of his hand, and he was, like, fighting to get it back so he could drink more.

Speaker
0:17:19.1 And, I've had people steal my money. I was on Venice, the winos would walk by and grab it and run, you know.

Speaker
0:17:25.6 And this guy steps into the middle of the crowd out of nowhere, and he says, "Do you people want to see a full moon in broad daylight?" And he turns around and he drops his pants, he moons the whole crowd, his whole butt's out, everyone's saying, you know… And then, he, like, spread his cheeks. So, the whole crowd was all, "Ugh, ugh."

0:17:44.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:17:46.3 In the show I do a few impressions and one of them is a man sawing his wooden leg off.

0:17:50.5 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:17:58.1 And one night I was doing this, and there was a guy with a wooden leg on the front row. He proceeds to unscrew his wooden leg off and put it on the stage in front of me.

Speaker
0:18:07.7 I'm wearing shorts because it's hot in Key West, and I've got suspenders, and a little bowtie. And, I get a little crowd, and I'm doing my show. And I go down on my back, and, I don't realize this, but my penis falls out…

Interviewer
0:18:19.0 Oh, come on.

Speaker
0:18:20.6 Totally my most embarrassing moment–from the shorts–and I don't know this because I'm juggling now between my legs and the crowd's going, "Oh, my, oh, my, oh." And I stand up, and I feel the breeze and I was so embarrassed. But, I had been making four dollars a show, and that I made $12.74.

Speaker
0:18:41.4 These two blonde women, pretty hot, middle aged women, come marching down and just start stripping me. You know, putting me in the straightjacket naked. I've got pictures to prove it, alright?

Speaker
0:18:51.7 A funny thing happened to me, I was doing my fire show, and a guy had a big afro–black dude. And the torch touched his hair and the whole shit went up, man. In New York, man.

Speaker
0:18:59.3 I would dive over the hedge and it was a beautiful dive. Man, it was, like, the hedge was way up here, it was, like, dive over the hedge, beautiful comeback, I would slide down the street, dive over the hedge, and I dived right into dog crap, you know. Just right into it and right on my back, whole back of my bandleader costume. That was it, I had to stop the show because that was it, you don't get that stuff out, you know.

Speaker
0:19:21.3 You're so cool. Face the audience, Frederick, Hendrick, never mind, keep smiling, keep smiling. And, don't worry, be happy, mate. Here we go, no worries, here we go. Keep smiling, Frederick. Think about life, can be short sometimes. Have fun. Here we go, keep smiling. No worries.

0:19:44.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:19:51.3 I'm not the little circus boy that I used to be, I'm the full-on, mad, you know, alternative, tattooed man, you know.

Interviewer
0:20:03.6 You ran away with the circus?

Speaker
0:20:05.8 I didn't run away, man. My mum was quite happy to take me there. I tried to run away, but she said, "Yeah, that's cool." She was, like, "Yeah, take him."

Speaker
0:20:15.4 I remember when I first saw five balls, I forgot to clap as well.

Speaker
0:20:23.0 I had a knack to making people laugh because when I grew up my mum, because I came from a really full-on family where there was a bit of alcoholism, my mum used to get abused quite a lot. So, I would naturally want to make my mum laugh, through growing up with her so… Because she was, you know, quite upset and sad a lot of the time. So, I developed a knack to be able to make my mum laugh. Then it went on to making everyone laugh, and then it just pretty much–that was what I was into, I was into making people happy, which is what I do.

Speaker
0:21:12.4 [unintelligible] baby, treat me rough.

Speaker
0:21:17.9 Most of the performers that I know viewed themselves as unpopular as children. And, I think, becoming an entertainer is a sort of a way of over compensating for that.

0:21:27.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:21:31.6 [unintelligible] but not really, really fractured childhood. His mom and dad split up when he was very young and his mom died in a car accident in his early 20s.

Speaker
0:21:44.8 Because I was alone frequently, I was left to entertain myself. I was left to use my imagination to come up with the ways and means of filling the void that would normally be filled by families, and sisters, and, you know, family activities. And, I never had any of that. I was also, you know, Monday to Friday, what do you do? Well, you dream dreams and you play games with yourself. You come to realize that, you know, when you're 13 years old and you're living by yourself, that, "Hey, nobody else is doing this, I must be special."

0:22:14.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:22:18.0 My parents and my family have always been very supportive of my endeavors. Of course, once you get successful, everybody is supportive. You know, but in the beginning they're going, "Are you crazy, are you nuts? You're a street bum. You're working on the street." You know, that kind of thing, like, "But, people love me." "Well, they don't. They hate you, you're a bum." You know, so it was kind of insane for a while. But, once you got to a certain point, they forgot they even said that. Have you noticed that?

Speaker
0:22:44.3 Yeah, once they see you on TV a couple of times, they're like, "Oh, that's great, I love what you're doing."

Speaker
0:22:44.3 Yeah, well. And all their friends start telling them. That's when the–all the–"[unintelligible], my God, your son's a genius." "Really?" "Yeah, he's amazing, I saw him on TV, unbelievable." Then, all of a sudden he's buying me tires for my car, you know, he's, "Is there anything you need?" You know, everything changed.

Speaker
0:23:03.5 It pretty much set me apart and made me semi-popular, whereas my academic skills weren't doing that. So, yeah, it kind of helped me along through a tough time. It got me laid, too, a lot, you know. So I used to do things with cards, like, "You're thinking of the three of spades." And, "How'd you know that?" you know. And I would just use that and play it, and, I mean, I would play it big and I'd get laid from it too. And, if that didn't work, ether on a rag really helps.

Speaker
0:23:33.3 Maybe it's getting up on stage five, six times a week, seven times a week, and having a whole bunch of people just go, "Yay, you're wonderful!" and, you know, and that really does something to your psyche, I think, over the long haul. You know, do that for a decade or two and you begin to believe people. You know, "Okay, maybe I'm not so bad."

0:23:49.4 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:23:54.3 [unintelligible] finished, don't look, put your head down. Now would be a good time. Put your head down. The center of the [unintelligible], draw a line from the top of the head and through the chin, from ear to ear, the center of the skull is right here. Aghhh. Aghhh. Aghhh. How's it look? [unintelligible] that is the center of the skull. [unintelligible] here. How's that? Take me home to meet your dad.

Speaker
0:24:34.5 [unintelligible]

Speaker
0:24:38.8 Ow, aha, watch out, last year I was here, I sneezed and [unintelligible] that tree over there. [unintelligible] you can't see it, there's it's gone.

Speaker
0:24:49.3 Eww.

Speaker
0:24:50.3 I told you not to look.

0:24:51.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:24:53.7 So, what do I get out of performing? I get to get along with people for a half an hour, you know, because I can't get along with people the rest of my life. I can get along with them when I'm on the stage and they're in the audience, then we have a great relationship. If you take those same people, put them in my neighborhood and have them be my gardener that I hire to cut my lawn and he's going to hate me, you know, so… That's what I get–some relationship with the human race.

Interviewer
0:25:21.9 What is the best thing about your job?

Speaker
0:25:24.4 Freedom.

Speaker
0:25:25.2 Freedom.

Speaker
0:25:26.0 The freedom of a millionaire without the responsibility.

Speaker
0:25:29.8 Like, being your own boss, you can't put a price on being your own boss.

Speaker
0:25:33.5 I just know that when I was a kid, you know, I always wanted to live free, like a bird.

Interviewer
0:25:38.2 What is the worst thing about your job?

Speaker
0:25:41.5 Freedom. The worst thing about the job is freedom because it's an incredible responsibility, you wake up every morning, I don't have to do anything. I could eat, watch Jerry Springer every day, whatever. It's–I have to make my own life.

Speaker
0:25:57.6 There is a certain freedom, but that freedom comes at a price. I mean, anybody who says they're free, nobody's free. As long as we're all enslaved to the almighty dollar, nobody's free. And, anybody who says they are is full of shit.

0:26:12.3 [Ambient noise]

Interviewer
0:26:15.5 Now, what happens with the cops, what do they do?

Speaker
0:26:17.5 Uh, well, usually this place I'm not even allowed to play without a permit. So, whenever they put their mind on it, they kick me off.

Speaker
0:26:27.1 Street performers' world is rebelling against authority, you don't want anybody telling you what to do, alright?

Interviewer
0:26:32.8 Right.

Speaker
0:26:33.4 I mean, that's why a lot of these street performers, they just hate authority. Maybe the butterfly tattoo was representative of, "Fuck who you people think I should be, I'm going to be who I want to be."

Speaker
0:26:47.4 Because I'm ready to snap.

Speaker
0:26:50.6 One of the reasons street performers are street performers is because they can't be told where to stand and they can't be told what to say.

Speaker
0:26:56.5 There's another article here talking about how the music shouldn't be here and there shouldn't be any street performance in New Orleans.

0:27:03.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:27:13.1 [Robert Shields] is out there doing his mime act in Union Square and I don't know what the heck bothered anyone about that. People were just completely delighted. He'd go out there and just mimic people, he was extremely good at it, followed them around and then the policeman would come out and tell him, "You're not allowed to do this here." and he'd mimic the policeman for a bit…

Speaker
0:27:29.0 And then a cop would walk down, he walks down on my turf, I'm imitating people, I imitate the cop, you know. Man, that would piss them off. And, the crowd would just go nuts. I got arrested for performing without a permit, disturbing the peace, tons of arrests, actually. Every time I got arrested it made front page, it made second page, it was a phenomenal publicity campaign. Eventually the Sergeant said, "Don't arrest him! Every time they'd arrest him, it made the force look bad.

Speaker
0:27:55.8 There were city ordinances against street performing, against any form of what they call "Panhandling," which, if you do street shows, that's a bit of an insult. But, it's–the same laws apply, you're asking people for money and you're not supposed to do that. But then there's the constitution of the United States, which guarantees you free speech, and you are on public property, which means it's not owned by the City, it's owned by the public. And these are things that can be argued very successfully if you bring them up to high enough courts. These guys did it. They went out and did shows, and they got arrested, and they went in front of the judges, and they cited their First Amendment rights, they cited the Public Land Act. And they came out victorious almost unanimously–almost every single time.

Speaker
0:28:34.6 I'd like to see the politicians of this city say to these people that, "If you don't like it, you should move somewhere else, this is New Orleans."

Speaker
0:28:45.8 [This is what I'd like to see.]

0:28:47.3 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:28:56.8 [Eeiieyaiiiiii....] Now, Doug, when I put on the blindfold, look at me, I can't see you, right? So, don't do any jokes, don't do this, alright, hold it tight. Doug, that's very immature. Doug, relax, man, you'll go blind. Here we go. Doug, look at me. Doug, don't do that again, just hold it tight, alright, you can do it.

Speaker
0:29:27.3 It's an involuntary reaction.

Speaker
0:29:29.0 Doug, look at me, look at me. This serious, don't look, alright, hold it tight. Are you ready, sir?

Speaker
0:29:33.3 Oh, I got it.

Speaker
0:29:34.2 Alright, here we go. Everybody, like this, come on people, clap. Come on, people, clap.

0:29:39.9 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:29:42.3 Come on, louder, people. Don't move, Doug. [unintelligible], people. Faster. Here we go, one, two, don't move, and three. [Eeiieyaiiiiii....] Got him good. Stand up there, Doug, you did it, buddy. Everyone. We made it, man. Everyone, give this man a big round of applause for helping out.

0:30:11.9 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:30:15.2 Hey, Mom.

Speaker
0:30:15.9 What?

Speaker
0:30:16.2 Mom?

Speaker
0:30:17.4 What?

Speaker
0:30:18.2 Where did you and Dad move to?

Speaker
0:30:22.6 If it wasn't for my brother, I probably wouldn't be performing today. He's got Cerebral Palsy, he walks on crutches, and I grew up with a lot of my relatives giving him a lot of attention. As a matter of fact, when I was a kid, sometimes I would even wish I was crippled. I'd wish I was the one in a wheelchair or walking on crutches because I just wanted the attention.

Speaker
0:30:46.9 I'll do anything for attention. My God, just look at me. Look at me!

Speaker
0:30:55.0 Artists over the years have been able to disguise it with a lot of flowery talk about the arts. I think, though, that probably a clear perspective on motivations might have to do with whatever psychological need they have to be accepted, loved, for whatever reason.

0:31:15.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:31:53.9 It's an energy, like, exchange, you know, whole deal. And, some nights you have the energy and they don't have any energy, you can give to them, you could fire them up and then [unintelligible] get them all pumped. Some nights they have it and you don't. And, you can suck it off of them. You can get–you can go to work feeling, like, down and actually get energy off the crowd and feel great by the end of the night if they have it. The nights that neither of you have it are really long.

0:32:22.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:32:30.2 When I bomb, which, you know, it's like, I get angry.

Speaker
0:32:35.6 Hey, folks, I have an idea, if this is boring, why don't you guys talk somewhere else, you fucking idiots, fucking losers.

Speaker
0:32:43.2 You know, when you bomb, because you're playing–the character you're playing is yourself, it's like, "Oh, my God, they hate me."

Speaker
0:32:49.9 You losers.

Speaker
0:32:52.0 Streets are totally merciless, I mean, and that was–that's tough. I mean, you are going to suck when you start, there's just no way around it. And, you can't bomb with grace.

Speaker
0:33:02.4 It's kind of a house made of cards and then suddenly it falls down. Sometimes you make a great show and then you're building the house up and then one crappy show just make everything fall down again.

Speaker
0:33:20.0 And, I got really nervous, and I got–and I started to drop things, you know, where I never dropped things before. And, it was just like my hands wouldn't work. And, I was trying to perform and it was just this horrible, horrible feeling.

Speaker
0:33:34.9 What happens, you do a bad show, you do a real dog of a show, you walk off stage, and there's this voice that turns to you and in a wistful voice says, "I had a great gift once, and now it's gone."

Speaker
0:33:48.7 Remember, I know about black people, I been black for more than 20 years. Shit, black people run in my family, very often they had to.

Speaker
0:34:01.5 As I was walking down the street earlier today and a small child shouts, "Midget, with the violin."

0:34:05.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:34:15.2 You write a joke and sometimes you just use your mechanical skills and you write a joke and you knock it out. But, a lot of times, you find a joke. You're writing it and, yeah, you wrote it, but it's not like you thought of it, you found it. I don't know where it comes from but, you know, I'll be writing along and suddenly I'll start laughing. And, if someone were to hear it, they'd go, "Man, you know, the guy really likes his own humor." But it's not that, it's that I didn't write it, I found it. It was somewhere and I discovered it.

Speaker
0:34:43.1 Anything that happens in the street, I have many, many, many, many journals like this and I write everything down in my journals. Even if it's just, like, look at someone real fast in the face and fall down. Anything I do that worked that day in improvisation, I write down in my journal.

Speaker
0:34:58.8 I hate to seem anal or anything, but, this is research. We're now researching more [shit] about ourselves–what's good about ourselves.

0:35:06.0 [Ambient noise]

Interviewer
0:35:28.9 What do you think about people who steal material from other performers?

Speaker
0:35:32.2 I don't really, you know, appreciate that too much. I've seen my bits being completely ripped off.

Speaker
0:35:38.7 And, I used to go out to Union Square and do Robert Shields' act. I'd watch him do his act and then I'd try to do it when he clocked off and went off to eat dinner. And, it was kind of hard because I couldn't really do the mime thing and then I'd get frustrated and start yelling at people, you know.

Speaker
0:35:55.1 If you're going to steal it, steal it well, that's all. I mean, if you're going to have to steal it, do it better than the person who originated it, I mean, that's the only thing you do. But, in the beginning, young performers to have a tendency to take everything, everything because they don't know any better.

Speaker
0:36:07.5 You know, honing our team takes a long time and so, when somebody comes and takes your material, it's like, "Hey, wait a minute." However, that being said, I think that everybody has stolen a line.

Speaker
0:36:17.1 I mean, I still have people who see my act sometimes and say, "You know, you're reminding me of somebody." and it'll be Whitney Brown, you know, I mean, he was a big, big influence on me.

Speaker
0:36:24.8 Everybody I know started out trying to be someone else and eventually became themselves, that's how you do it.

Speaker
0:36:31.5 That was part of my success, imitate someone. Imitate someone who's doing it successfully, and speed up the process. Why learn fire eating and fuck it up by doing it wrong? Find someone who's doing it successfully, imitate them, speed up the process, and you're ahead of the ballgame. It was out of survival that I did that.

Speaker
0:36:50.2 You look at movies today and a lot of the comedy movies, they're all rip-offs from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton and stuff like that. You go back–and, sometimes you watch a Charlie Chaplin movie and you'll say, "Oh, that's so cliché." and then, you realize, no, it's not cliché, it's cliché because everybody went and imitated him and this is the guy doing the original thing.

0:37:07.2 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:37:13.7 [Skull], how many balls under the hat?

Speaker
0:37:16.3 One.

Speaker
0:37:17.2 How many balls now?

Speaker
0:37:18.6 [unintelligible]

Speaker
0:37:20.5 I don't know, I got one.

Speaker
0:37:21.6 Three. Should be watching here anyway. Audience, I use that lightly, look, look, look, watch.

0:37:34.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:37:40.7 [unintelligible], that's my show. Clap anyway, what the hell, yeah.

0:37:45.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:37:48.5 They said I had an aneurism–a blockage to the brain–and it left me paralyzed down one side and I had to recuperate and it took, you know, it took a lot out of me to recuperate. And, that's why I become angry for the first two years of me getting back on my feet because people didn't know what I was going through. Like I say, a performer, if they're happy inside, they do a happy show. I was very angry inside, so I become an angry performer. But it made me great money so I stayed angry, you know.

Speaker
0:38:14.9 A sad performer is only as good as his audience, right now I suck.

Speaker
0:38:18.9 Let's say your phone bill is due, let's say you have a hot date and you need money, that's when you're fucked, because you really need money and, "Will I make it, man?" you're fucked, man because you make less.

Speaker
0:38:28.1 It's the fourth and the firth and it's a Saturday, you ain't got no money for rent, the landlord's beating on the door and you're, like, "Well, I hope it don't rain."

Speaker
0:38:35.8 When it starts raining, you know, then it's real hard.

Speaker
0:38:38.7 You've got to fly south.

Speaker
0:38:38.6 Or a hurricane, or something like that hits, obviously, you can't set up.

0:38:43.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:38:46.5 The rain [unintelligible] on the floor you made two or three bucks. You get right to the end of the show and you're going faster, and faster, and faster, because you know the rain's coming and you–then, all of a sudden, boom, it just dumps on you just before–right at the finale and the crowd just runs off, you end up with, like, two or three bucks. Aw, shit.

0:39:07.3 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:39:10.0 Thank you, somebody–no, I appreciate it. That's a five. Are you gonna need change for the nickel?

Speaker
0:39:14.9 Sometimes you make it, you get the money–you get the hat–and sometimes you don't.

Speaker
0:39:18.3 No matter how good, or how famous, or how rich you are, the attendance at your funeral will depend upon the weather.

0:39:24.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:39:31.4 [unintelligible] knows the banana trick, I hope you people like it. Yeah, as much as I do. Um, um, um.

0:39:35.8 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:39:49.7 Watch them clap, do you see the men clapping, those are the men who know how hard this is, okay? They understand.

0:39:58.4 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:40:00.5 It would take a very, very special person to be able to put up with what we go through.

Speaker
0:40:04.7 Yeah, nobody wants to date a single dad with a curly mustache that climbs ladders on ropes.

Speaker
0:40:09.3 It's very difficult to have a normal life and definitely effects, a, what partners you can have in life because the partner–we're talking about the spousal level, what partner can you have that will live with the fact that you're on the road a third to half of the year?

Speaker
0:40:23.6 I have a boy right now and the hardest thing in the world is to bring up a boy, and the second hardest thing is to spend time with him. But I can't give up my lifestyle. You know, he's going to have the rest of his life, but he understands his dad, he understands that I travel all over the world and sometimes I have to be elsewhere. That's why he hasn't spoken with me in 12 months.

Speaker
0:40:43.7 My intensity with my work and my unyielding nature, as far as when I have to work, I have to work, did contribute to the breakup of my marriage, absolutely, no question.

Speaker
0:40:56.2 You have to totally live it, it's like a spell that comes over you and it's your whole identity, it's not–it can't just be something that you do. If it's just something that you do sort of on the side then you basically, you just suck, you know. And, the people who are good are completely wrapped up in this spell of who they are and what they're doing.

Speaker
0:41:13.1 I think what it comes down to is that we have such a passion for what we do that the people in our lives feel slighted, that they're not getting the same attention that we're giving to our work.

Speaker
0:41:26.3 My wife would say, whenever anybody asks her, "He just has this need to climb the mountain." You know?

Speaker
0:41:33.8 And [unintelligible] when I say this piece is called tranquility in the rainforest.

0:41:41.0 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:41:58.2 I juggle a chainsaw, a bowling ball, and an egg. I ride a 12-foot unicycle and I blow a 10-foot ball of fire out of my ass.

0:42:03.0 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:42:12.1 Well, I do dangerous stuff in the show because that's what people want to see, you know, that's what gets their attention.

0:42:17.7 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:42:22.9 But, yeah, of course sometimes it's not as dangerous as it looks.

0:42:27.0 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:42:31.1 Sometimes you make it look more dangerous than it really is to keep the crowd interested, you know? And then, other times, you know, you really get hurt.

0:42:40.2 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:42:48.2 [unintelligible] my elbow and it just went "pfst" splash open, lots of blood, kept going, did two more shows after that.

Interviewer
0:42:54.4 Did you?

Speaker
0:42:54.9 The show must go on.

Speaker
0:42:57.5 Just pretty much, each big trick has cost me some time and pain.

Speaker
0:43:02.8 Get this away from me, coming down.

Speaker
0:43:05.5 I've shattered each wrist, dislocated each [elbow], broken uncountable ribs.

0:43:09.6 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:43:13.8 You know, you discover things. Like, I discovered, never eat fire when you're totally wasted under windy conditions, you know.

Speaker
0:43:19.9 I explained to the guy that he didn't want a [guy] like this in my mouth and he still went like that in my mouth.

Speaker
0:43:27.1 Any artist has some kind of danger, you know. Look at the guy that painted the top of the ceiling. What'd he paint at, 40, 50, 60 feet in the air, upside down, on a very rocky scaffold.

0:43:40.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:44:02.3 Because your donations keeps us two out of two places, the poor house, and your house.

Interviewer
0:44:09.7 What's the most you've ever made on one show?

Speaker
0:44:12.0 Pfff, I'm not going to tell you.

Speaker
0:44:14.2 Oh, all right, it was $196.00.

Interviewer
0:44:17.1 Thank you, and where was that at?

Speaker
0:44:18.2 I'm not going to tell you where they are.

Speaker
0:44:19.7 That's the one thing you're not supposed to talk about, is how much money you make. I mean, within the band of brothers, and sisters–a couple are out there–you can tell them. Money's such a weird thing, you know, obviously, because it's money.

Speaker
0:44:32.3 I think I pulled something like $1,700 Australian dollars which was pretty good for one show and I thought to myself, "I'm a god."

Speaker
0:44:42.6 You make, like, $400 a month when you're 13 years old it's, like, what do you spend $400 on when you have no overhead. And then, as you get a little bit older, you make a little bit more money but then, you know. You can only make so much money one dollar at a time, you know?

Speaker
0:44:57.5 We think we make a lot of money, we don't make that much money, Bill Gates makes money.

Speaker
0:45:02.0 I know what it feels like to straighten out, like, hundreds and hundreds of one-dollar bills after you bring them home at night and your hands are filthy and green, and it's, you know, sticky. And, it smells funny, you know, it's got a distinct smell to it.

Speaker
0:45:16.5 Money smells like people's greasy corndog encrusted fingers.

Speaker
0:45:21.8 Money smells like success. When you're dirty and you're counting it, and sometimes you–when nobody's looking–you roll around in it, it smells dirty, and filthy, and nice.

Speaker
0:45:33.3 [unintelligible] burning. [here], [look], [unintelligible], look. All right, here. Ahh, look. I'm all right, I got it. Right here. [unintelligible] we're not going to see that [unintelligible] for a long time, though.

Speaker
0:46:23.2 The bottom line is, you could take me and drop me practically anyplace on the planet where there's land and I'm going to do fine, I can go entertain people. You can drop me naked anywhere, and I'll–within a couple of days, I'll be back into society, and accepted by the people around me, and welcomed, and that's an incredible thing.

Speaker
0:46:43.9 [unintelligible] just take us place us where some of the Irish guys our age, or whatever, that–where we live, didn't really get to see all four Boroughs in New York, we got to see states, you know.

Speaker
0:46:56.9 Right on.

Speaker
0:46:57.1 And overseas and stuff.

Speaker
0:46:57.8 Yeah, all over the United States.

Speaker
0:46:59.3 You can do what you want, where you want, and you can travel around the world, and be in nice places, and enjoy yourself, which is quite nice. And look, I actually did it. Ha, ha, I'm not as stupid as I thought.

0:47:13.0 [Ambient noise]

Interviewer
0:47:16.9 Besides money, what do you think you get from performing?

Speaker
0:47:20.3 Um, I let out all this extra juice that, otherwise I wouldn't know where to put. It's like I've always been–not hyperactive, but always kind of a show-off, I guess. So, it's just a way to let it out.

Interviewer
0:47:34.9 So, do you have to perform?

Speaker
0:47:36.8 Yeah, I have to, otherwise I'm really annoying.

0:47:42.9 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:47:46.7 Most of the time we work in Europe, which is an old, old tradition with–a thousand years old–that's been respected over there. It's like being a lawyer or being a doctor. People want people to entertain them and they like it and they pay for it.

Speaker
0:48:02.2 America generally thinks of people as–when you say "street performer" they think panhandler. In Europe, you are an artiste over there. You just walk down the street with maybe a unicycle and some properties and people will follow you, like the Pied Piper, to the Piazza or the central part of town and you can set up your stuff anywhere and they will wait the hour while you're setting up, even if you don't even speak their language. And, after the show, you get invited to dinner, "Do you need a place to stay?" You're a welcome part of their family and their life so that's quite a bit different from America.

0:48:44.6 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:48:50.2 Ladies and gentlemen, just to make–could you let go, I need a little blood in the arm. I'm going to try it using Mike's prescription glasses. Whoa! Man, you don't need glasses, you need a dog. One more lens, you could be a fly. I can see into the future with these things. Man, you ever clean these, Mike? You got to clean them up. Ladies and gentlemen, attempting to juggle three flaming torches. You want to keep it away from the face, there you go.

0:49:31.0 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:50:19.5 Ladies and gentlemen, I mean the Butterfly Man, I hope you enjoyed the show. Kids, take your time coming up here, I feel it's worth it. You folks in the back, push, shove, perfectly all right. No! I wanted five bucks, go get some more, you understand? I work hard, I ain't got no IRA plan.

Speaker
0:50:38.2 There isn't a stage of the game in entertainment where there's a retirement program, you know. We end up–either you make your millions and you save it, or you end up like a boxer, you know. You make your millions and you lose it all. Now, you've got to take care of yourself and put it away. You've got to save money, you know.

Speaker
0:50:56.4 I was pretty damn happy as a street performer but I was getting older.

Speaker
0:51:00.4 It can be scary if you make your living with your body. You know, you're getting older, you say, "Well, what am I going to do next?" when it doesn't work.

Speaker
0:51:08.4 You know, it doesn't look good, a 40-year-old man still on the streets. Because they say, you know, if he's any good, "What's he doing here?"

Speaker
0:51:16.3 You can't be a mime forever, I'm 45. I mean, there's a guy out there with a walker trying to build a wall?

Speaker
0:51:20.8 See, you're always trying for a goal, man, you know. And I think it's fame and fortune. Even if you don't make it, you know, you still have that dream that you will make it. If you lose that dream, you're finished. You know, in my mind, I'm still going to make it. You know, I'm old now and everything, but I still have that dream and that desire, you know, man. I still see it, I still see it, you know.

Interviewer
0:51:37.6 What will you do when you retire?

Speaker
0:51:39.5 Don't know, you know, hopefully, I'll die, you know, hopefully, I'll die one day in my sleep because [unintelligible] retire, man, basically, I want to [own some buildings], man, but, I got to say, I need to start saving some money [unintelligible] because I don't have a lot of money saved. A little money saved, not much, buy property. But when I get property, then what? I'm confused. I have no idea. I'm winging it from day to day.

Speaker
0:52:05.2 Right now I'm into real estate back in the Virgin Islands. I've been doing this for about 14 years and so far I've got five houses rent out back in the islands. And, once you make money, you've got to invest it into something. So, when you stop doing this, you not have to go and look for a job. You got to kiss somebody ass. You see, I don't believe in that. So, you know, right now, I'm putting away money for the rainy days when they start coming hard. Like, you know, when your ankle, you know, your elbows start giving out, you can't jump anymore. You just have something put aside where you can say, "Oh, man, I'm proud of myself, I beat the system."

0:52:50.3 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:52:54.6 Hope that breaks [unintelligible], George. Thank you very much for coming out, we are Shock Value, thank you very much. If you haven't enjoyed the show, by the way, we're Penn and Teller.

0:53:03.9 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:53:16.4 [unintelligible] check it out ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker
0:53:18.7 That's the need I'm treating out there, is the need to be the center of attention and to be liked, you know. I don't think it's a bad thing at all, I think if–I'm glad that I have this need, I'm glad that I have this sort of deficiency, I think all the great artists that have ever lived have had a deficiency of some kind that they have filled by creating great things.

Interviewer
0:53:40.5 You would rather not have that need and be content with an easier, less turbulent life; nine to five, [unintelligible], pets, insurance policy, all that?

Speaker
0:53:49.4 I think the highs are higher, the lows may be lower, but I think the highs are higher in this world, and I like that. That's one of the things I like about it.

Interviewer
0:53:57.1 Do you think there's any truth to–that performers are looking for love from the audience that they didn't get elsewhere?

Speaker
0:54:05.1 The sad clown image, the idea that–I think that, if you analyze anyone, you can find deep sorrow and unhappiness at some levels. But a basic dissatisfaction with life that's worse than the rest of the population, I don't buy it. I think that there's some people, maybe, that fall into that category, that find acceptance from a crowd, that's a substitute for something that they find in the rest of their lives. But, I don't buy it as a general premise for these people are really, they look like they're having a great time and happy and, I'm here to tell you, we are, some of us, at least.

0:54:42.3 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:55:00.4 I think it's great that the Europeans respect street performing more than the Americans do and it's a better job over there, but the fact that there is street performing here in America is a great thing. And I'll tell you something, the minute you don't see street performers in America, that means our civil liberties are being taken away far more than our forefathers ever intended. And, that's the direction we seem to be going right now. And, I just hope that it doesn't continue to the point where street performers have nowhere to perform in America.

0:55:34.2 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:55:36.9 I guess it's one of the last places where people who don't know each other will gather together and rub shoulders. I guess it's probably, you know, too overblown to say they feel a sense of community, but I think that people definitely feel a sense of, oh, God, togetherness.

Speaker
0:55:54.6 I don't do this for the money, I do it because I was born with this spark to entertain people. And, sometimes that's a blessing, sometimes that's a curse. And, that's why I do it.

Speaker
0:56:05.8 Maybe I have some street performer gene inside my DNA.

Speaker
0:56:09.7 And, it's better than anything in the world. And, no one can understand that but another performer.

0:56:14.1 [Ambient noise]

Speaker
0:56:22.2 I really like the spiritual part of it, you show up on a piece of cement and there's nothing happening and then nothing would–would be nothing happening there. You throw down a bag on the ground and you make a show happen. Every show you're nobody, you're just loser, nothing. By the end of the show, you're a hero and everybody loves you and you're a god. They walk away and you're back to being nothing again. And then, I love nothing more than the end of the day you walk back with your bag full of money and you look back and there's nothing but a piece of cement there still. The sun's going down and you're, like, "Yeah, I made a difference in my little weird way on the planet."

0:56:58.6 [Ambient noise]

0:57:25.9 [Singing]

Speaker
0:58:35.4 Oh, I just bit my tongue, sorry. One of the things was the fact that I–am I bleeding? I just bit my tongue really bad.

Interviewer
0:58:45.7 Yeah, you–

Speaker
0:58:46.1 One of the things is that [unintelligible].

Interviewer
0:58:48.0 Yeah, you're bleeding.

Speaker
0:58:49.4 Sorry, I really bit.

Interviewer
0:58:50.9 Yeah.

Speaker
0:58:51.8 All right, it doesn't matter. Actually, this is a good answer to your question. Blood is one of the things that set me apart. Boy, that hurt.

Interviewer
0:59:00.0 Do you want a napkin or something.

Speaker
0:59:01.4 [muffled speech] little piece of skin–

0:59:04.0 [silence, beep]

0:59:21.1 [Ambient noise - assorted music]

1:01:55.4 [End of file]