I’m sure the people who put money into those performers’ hats would see it the other way around. The ones getting the big payday have the “great” shows and the ones not doing so good may be able to do good tricks, but can’t necessarily build and hold an audience to the point where they feel they’ve seen a “free” show worth paying for. To an audience, they’re boring or annoying, despite what may be amazing levels of skill.
Venice Beach is a tough place to stand out, with lots of seasoned performers who are very good at what they’re doing. It’s probably hard to break in. Also, to get to the point of those killer performers probably takes a long time, and good interpersonal skills. You have to learn to read a crowd and learn to “steer” it. Over the years I’ve learned to “sense” the mood of an audience, but I’m nowhere near the skills of the experts.
What you learn from watching the great performers is, it’s not about what tricks you can do. One of the most boring juggling performances I remember seeing was a former IJA championships winner, who was juggling five clubs while reciting Shakespeare. Yawn! Even though what she was doing was super-hard, the end result had people walking away.
Unisykolist is already aware of some of this, as he seems to do quite well for someone without a show, and he’s doing moves that are fairly basic by street performing standards. That probably wouldn’t work at Venice Beach.
Ever seen this guy at Venice Beach? He really knocked himself out doing this show in 2006, and I put a few bucks in his hat afterward.
On a cool note about buskers, in the great city of Boulder Colorado you will find some of the greatest street performers (please someone from CO chime in and name the promenade mall walkway where they all perform).
The most astonishing performance was a normally clad character resembling Seinfeld. He would ask any of the American onlookers their zip code (postal code in Canada) and from this information he would name their town, city, village, no matter how small and obscure (even rural routes!).
He did this successfully for my Canadian family from the town of Minesing, which at the time had like a thousand people.
Back to your concerns though, clearly a great way of bettering your chances of donations is engaging, individually if you can, the audience. Really more skill in delivery and presentation than in riding/juggling skill.
yay leaving in 1 and a half hours time for day 3! (sunday)
ppl have lots of different opinions of how much im gonna make because the shops open at like 11 oclock am and usaly on week days they open 9 oclock. also sunday is a quite day but a FAMILY day so the council officer that told me all this said that sunday shoodnt be too bad c os theres a quiet crowed that has time to watch me busk . but i dont know what to expect ad mum wants me to do as much as i can I hope i can make $40 (my targetper day).
Activity- unicycling, not much juggling
Time- 3-4 hrs
Money made- 123$ !
Notes- 4! (2x 5$ and 2x 10$)
Crowd- very good for sunday.
Competitiion- not much
We saw some ppl we know and thay chuckd in 5$ =]
273$ for the 3 days ive made out of 5.
Letssay i get 400$ all up from busking then add 100$ that i already have and then add 200$ as my b day present so thats…
$700
originally ive been saving up for a nimus trials 20" ISIS with moments (plus postage all up 497.5$)
so i got 200$ spare i i buy the nimbus…
should i save up for a kh?
im a beginner, the nimbus is cheaper, looks sweet and i dont know if i need a kh…
It’s not really a case of saving up money for you if you can make money that quickly, so you may as well buy the best - a KH. (Nimbuses are just as good, but heavier…).
im just wondering all ther ppl are saying go witht the kh but you havent gave reason why you wouldgo with the nimbus.
2.and a coker…i dont know alot about them but i do kinda know that it goes faster for long distances and stuff and the wheel is big. iveseen ppl hopping on it but i still dont know about much about it at all.
Ill make a poll and explain the stuff
KH or Nimbus.
very good point but… im not good with trading over internt and cheques, especially with othr ppl across the world. im only 13 and we dont even have an ebay acc and we dont do internet banking.
so ive got alot of spare change so mum thought i better put in the bank so i did this morning.
i put them in money bags and now there in deposit and i can make 5.35% interest if i leave the money (380$) in there. i think i get 19$ a month but i cant be sure. i getting 2 cards in a few days in thepost =] 1 for an atm machine so i can take out money anytime! even my 15 year old bro duznt have one =]. and 1 for some deposit thing ill have to read the broshures and stuff. in skool wee were practicing a perminant sig ut i just did my anitals cos i didnt know i need a full anitials so i made it up off the spot and use this for the rest of my life…
. but i dont know what to expect ad mum wants me to do as much as i can 
.