CHET HARRISON

when i set up this blog i set it up for those artists i believed were not getting the credit they deserved.

chet is definately one of these.

he is a master musician and a serious scholar of music and has been all of his life

I met chet in the 80's. he owned a swapa tape used record store.

me and my hoodlum friends used to go in there and sell used tapes and records that we had "aquired."

some of the best musicians in town would float in there and we would all hang out in the back room.

he educated me to music.

he has forgotten more music than most of the pros even know.

the picture does him justice, because he is a sage no question.

i had not seen chet for many years, when i stumbled on him in balboa park in san diego busking.

i would say most buskers no matter what artform will use theatrics and street tactics to get peoples attention.

this is a must, because the attention span of the passer bye is that of a gnat.

it has always been said that talent doesn't make a busker a living.

but, chet breaks all the rules here.

his technique is simple, he plays mind blowing music and people stop.

when you hear him play you know his music is on a skill level not heard on the radio.

he stops people because they know he is a virtuoso.

i have always looked up to chet, so seeing him working the street confirmed that i was in the right place in my life.

chet i want you to know that you have inspired alot of people in your love for music.

i'm magician not a musician, but i know you influenced my life and how i approach art.

and now it has influenced my son's life.

he turned to music and one day he and his friends came home thrilled,

telling me they met a guy named chet who was an increadable musician.

i just laughed because i felt the same way when i met you all those years ago.

i let them know i knew you and that they should watch you if they wanted to learn from a master.

thanks for your life's work chet.

your pal jimmy

here he is on his pitch in balboa;



here he is on stage doing a mini concert;



i would urge the reader to find chet if your ever in balboa park, he is well known in the magic world here in san diego as a master at what he does.

here he is on his pitch in balboa park.

UKULELE BOONE

I met Boone some years back in the gaslamp in san diego. i watched in amazement how he could just mingle with the passer by. he could start up a little party right on the sidewalk just by telling some jokes, playing a tune, or tellin a story.

people fell in love with him right off the bat.

he made it look easy, but i assure the reader san diego is the tuffest town to busk in.

boone has probably the highest respect out there on the street because he is true street. he is not a weekend warrior. he is every day.

this is a nice clip where he tells us a little bit about himself and what he does.

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Boone is from the same stock of free spirits that pioneered this country, in fact he has told me he is a decendant of the legendary Daniel Boone. it's not hard to believe after talking to him for just five mibutes.

boone is a good hearted, adventurer, a sage, and an artist.

he could pop up any where, i've seen him workin in the most unlikely places.
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he takes his art and the tradition of the street seriously.

i've seen him help out fellow musicians and street artists in need and people always seek his advice...i know i have.

it was honor hanging out with him and i always look for him when i'm out.
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one of my busker friends did a write up of him too and i would hope you'd read it too!UKULELE BOONE

Anibal Lautaro and Valeria Maside

WORLD PERFORMERS.

FROM; Buenos Aires, Argentina.

One day in Barcelona I was walking down Las Ramblas…as people do, and I saw a well-dressed couple set up and begin to tango.

As I watched, I was struck.

I am a magician and magic moves me, and this moved me.

My friends in brief, this is what they did.

They moved like two in an over whelming love that seemed to drug them into not caring who saw what they did.

The man was handsome, but with the look of a brute.

He was a big powerful and lumbering man when he stood waiting to begin.

So when he moved and moved gracefully it shocked us onlookers.

The woman, a petite and curvy beauty who when by herself for the brief moments, looked lovely and alluring, but in his arms looked helpless and almost struggling to cope with the cage and control he put her in by his mere size and power.

Yet, as you watched on, you realize it was a trick!

Because, she almost swam in his arms and loved it.

When she was in his space she shined…it was their struggle that made her beauty shine just a little bit more.

Once when she moved away from him, I saw him give a look of interest and slap her on the butt, and she slapped his face in response and then they embraced and moved again.

Wow.

Granted, it is hard to explain to my friends who are not Latin how much their performance touched me and the people of Spain, but I hope the reader will realize that I don’t usually talk in this manner unless it was amazing.

So much so that I saw this performance many years ago and still remember and get the same feelings.

When they dance they complement each other so perfectly it draws a crowd in seconds.
The audience is literally drawn and hypnotized.

they have several routine and dances you can watch them on youtube.

here's one i think really shows off their skills



they are also teachers and have won awards all over the world.

in Barcelona many of the performers hung out together and i got to meet them.

they are the nicest people in the world.

ROD CANNON

WORK TOWN: NEW ORLEANS.

i first met him in L.A. on venice beach's boardwalk.

years later i met him again in new orleans.

i watched his sidewalk table act and was inspired to go back to close up. he built a crowd with verbal bally and bottle caps "chink a chink" or as some know it as, "shadow coins", done with bottle caps.

in his hands it is a beautiful mystery indeed. he had a nice little act, and his manips were graceful.

it's a good act, but it's Rod's character that struck me enough to write about him here.

he didn't yell and scream like the rest of us do to get a crowd, he just let the magic speak for itself. people were drawn to him because they liked him and were genuinly interested in what he was doing.

when i first came up to him in new orleans he thanked me for inspiring him to follow his dreams all those years before and now he was doin what he loved.

and it showed, the audiences really loved him.

he's a legitimately a nice guy and he brings fun and happyness to the sidewalks.

he dares to do what so many other magicians working the streets won't dare to do.....

he does magic...lol....no really.

so many magicians feel they have to use cheap gimmicks like insulting the audiences, use harsh blue humor, or steal other performers "tried and true" acts to be a success.

Rod doesn't have too do these things, Rod is creative and talented, he belongs in this field of work.

Rod just does what he loves, on his terms.

He makes people feel good about themselves and believe in magic like when they were kids.

as far as the way he interacts with his peers;

he doesn't fight over pitches, or try and talk bad or down to other performers.

working around him was great especially in the gossip and competitive world of the new orleans busking scene.

when i went home to new orleans on my last trip, there was a lot of tension from some of the egotistical performers there and Rod made the the spots we were working an indurable place to work.

i chose to work around him and i felt like i learned a lot about our artform, how to present it, and how to behave around our peers.

So look for this guy if you're ever in new orleans i promise you his act will blow your mind and leave you with the feeling that there really is magic in the world.

great performer and a good friend.

thanks Rod.

you are a great example to us magi.

we all see how hard you work and how great magic can be when in the right hands of a proffessional.

your pal jimmy

GARY KNIGHTS

WORLD PERFORMER.

MAIN WORK COUNTRY: UK.

AKA: GARY ANIMAL

Magician, street performer and maker of the Gazzo cups and Animal cups.

Gary hand machines the best magicians cups in the world. every magician covets them.

gary is also one of the best cups and balls manipulators in the world...go figure.

he is also one of the funniest guys i have ever met and he has forgotten more magic than most of the guys in the industry.

A master?

No question.

i just met him at the saint wendall street magician's competition in Germany.

he showed up with a very small bag of funny bits and pieces he had found at a dollar store type of place on his way over.

but no cups and balls.

the master craftsman and worker of cups and balls didn't bring his cups.

he told me he left them home because he was sick of showing up to events and seeing 12 cup acts cued up. so he decided to show up and throw a show together at the event.....

....at a world competition.....no really.

the show he came up with involved killing a bannana as a finale......no really.

he won an award for best comedy.

why?

how?

because ladies and gentlemen he is a master.

gary could do a show with finger puppets and bring the house down.

he had NO table.

he had NO amplifier.

and yet he built massive crowds even while other, much larger acts, were playing all around him.

he built crowds in far off out of the way impossible corners of the town while huge acts were going.

he came up with stuff off the top of his head and structured it all as he went along.

it was increadable watching him work.

he did doorways, half circles, and full circles.

i was very intimidated when i first saw him, because of his huge reputation as a legend in the entertainment world, but he made me feel comfortable right away and i think we hit it off pretty good.

i think of him as a good friend now and always brag about being able to work on the same pitch as him.

he borrowed someones cups and showed us some of his moves, i got fooled a bunch of times, it was great.

Gary's a natural on the streets, truly in his own element out there and moves on his instincts.

many of the magicians out there only know him for his fine cups that he makes, but i assure the reader he is a world class performer.

his approach is always artistic and engulfed in thought out perfection, weather it be makin his cups or performance.

i know this after talking with him for hours on the subject and watching him work and seeing the cups he makes.

frankly i think he is not appreciated for the genius he is.....but i get it.

thanks Gary for puttin up with me.

thanks for your lifes work.

thanks for inspiring so many of us.

and thanks for everything you do, for all of us magi out here.

no really.

NICKEY FYNN

WORLD PERFORMER.

MAIN WORK COUNTRY; THAILAND

TEACHERS; KENNY LIGHTFOOT AND GENO DEVILLE

OTHER INFLUENCES; TOOT, JOHNNY FOX, ISTVAN....AND ME.

when i first got into magic i had only seen one magician i thought was real, Cardini (i had seen him on tv).

all the rest seemed fake, until i met doug conn, and from there i was introduced to more artistic and real ones like Cellini, Eric Evans, Tom Frank and the list now goes on to so many others i have been privledged to meet.

Nickey is one of those guys.

I think Nickey is the shining star in our faternaty's cap. when i started the instructional blog for street magi, Nickey was exactly the type of guy i was thinkin about.

someone from a small out of the way place in the midwest who had little to no contact with information or masters in the field, who was looking for a future in magic.

one day i got a letter from him telling me he had read my blog and began working in thailand after moving there on his own from the midwest of the u.s.

next thing i knew he just exploded on the scene. a huge success. he started out building a double decker bicycle and road accross asia and performed magic in cities and little villages.

he toured the sidewalks of europe and made a huge impact on the busking scene there.

came back to the states and worked here, while visitinbg family.

nickey is superman, nothing can stop him.

he is constantly on t.v. in asia and has met almost all of the masters.

in my opinion he is the biggest and quickest success story out there.

ironically he is the most humble of all the performers i know.




This guy can clean up with impeccable costuming and play t.v. and exclusive caberet/theater or he can throw on street costuming and work street plazas and squares or even little doorways.

he works for millionars and dignitaries and he works for 3rd world peasants. his show plays in any culture from asia to europe to the states....big city or small town u.s.a.

Nickey is the one the masters talk about.

he can work silent or spoken.





he creates his own routines and equipment and props.

he didn't copy someone elses show and go out there to hustle people like so many american performers do.

He didn't have to, he is pure talent and a real artist,

he just did what he was born to do and the universe handled the rest.

i am greatful that i got to see a man like this in my life time.

He re-establishes my faith in magicians and in our industry.

i don't think our industry knows how much we need guys like this and that's why i have posted this here.

the reason i have not posted this earier is because he was so humble he kept telling me he didn't think he deserved to be put up here.....the fact is i'm honored he even gives me the time of day.


thank you Nickey for your lifes work, i know you worked harder than most.

your pal jimmy

DEVIOUS

WORLD PERFORMER.

MAIN WORK TOWN: SAN DIEGO, CA.

MENTOR AND TEACHER: JOHN CALVERT.

OTHER INFLUENCES: HARRY MURPHY, OPIE HUSTON, AND GEORGE SANDS.

Devious can usually be found in the gaslamp, in down town san diego at night or at seaport village/embarcadero during the day.

He mainly works as a close up performer doing table magic in a doorway.

when i first met him many years ago, he was a successful local indoor/outdoor stage magician living and working in El Paso, Tx, when he wasn't on the road doing gigs.

As i searched around the internet for footage of him i was very disapointed to find anything that i felt did his work justice. the reader is welcome to look for themselves, but i would urge you to see him live on a sidewalk to get the experience i am about to describe.

many of the local street guys know him and have seen his show and all agree that his show is amazing in it's simplicity and directness.

His show is about atmosphere.

Everything he does seems to be possible through 1800's technology or some sort of wierd blavatsky phenomenon. It's reasonable and pleasantly disturbing.

his simple direct work, with hand made budda papers, is brilliant....finale material.

which shows his creativity.

being able to take an old Adams trick usually overlooked by the pros and turn it into an Annemannesque transformation, leaves a magician with warm fuzzy feelings.

For those of you non magicians wondering what i'm saying,

suffice to say, he's leaving us jaded magicians with the feelings we had when saw our first magic trick.

understand; Devious is not a "in your face" wild man on the sidewalk, he's a wizard you happen on.

like a proffessor in dissertation, the show is delivered as steampunk, phantom, hypnotic, believable,and playful.

excellent act and a wise and humble guy.

and because of this he knows most of the biggest names in magic.

he constantly contributes his knowledge and expertese on the net, and magician functions around the world, i would suggest any magician should make it their business to better themselves by becoming familiar with his theories.

he is also a prolifc inventor of diabolical gimmicks, of which i have seen with my own eyes in action.

i saw a dancing hankerchief fly around and jump to the top of a light post and dance well out of reach and with no strings, surrounded and outdoors, in plain daylight....really wild stuff.

he is the type of act that other magicians love to watch, because of the effect on the audience.

he is a real magician, because he believes in magic and believes in what he does and anyone who watches him understands this emediatly, the impact this has on audiences or anyone around him is crucial to our artform.

he's not out there for the money he's out there because that is who he is.

he has my respect and loyalty.

thank you devious for your lifes work.


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i could go on and on about him.

but i won't here's HIS BLOG

GRNDL

By the by it’s pronounced Grendal.

Aka- Chris Cromartie.

Home pitch; Vegas

He has toured up and down sidewalks all over America.

So I did a lecture in Vegas and GRNDL was in the audience and I was tellin people how to work small sidewalks. The next day I went out to some of the tuffest sidewalks I’ve  ever worked and  he took me to school….I should have attended his lecture.

The thing is on every pitch in the world there’s a busker who has mastered that pitch. I get emails and phone calls from a lot of people asking what to do, when there’s already someone in their town who has mastered that town.

My advice is ask that busker.

In Vegas GRNDL is that master, he works Las Vegas sidewalks like they all came to see him. It blew my mind.

The way it happened is I was working a spot I had scouted out, he came over tried a show and had a tuff time, so he told me that I should go to another spot…..but I’m stubborn, I kicked off some shows there and it was work to stop them…..hard work. Then I finally went to his and he was kickin them off effortlessly over and over. To my dismay I couldn’t even get one proper one off……

My lesson that day is that Vegas had to be learned. All spots have to be learned….but especially Vegas…wow.

Any way I managed to make enough to get out of there.

GRNDL knew on the strip, that folks there were inundated with people hustling them and would only trust a performer who had someone in front of them first, so he’d stop a person first then go into his show.

My method of course is to stop the entire sidewalk, this worked on Fremont street, but barely worked on the strip, the correction was to either not work the strip or to bally one or two people before I went into my big bally.

Anyway,

GRNDL is a real magician.

What do I mean by that?

I mean that to be a magician, it’s more than doing tricks, you need to be a wise man, knowledgeable about the world and the universe, and you need to hold yourself like a magi.

I am not going to go into it here but suffice to say he meets the criteria, no question.

We talked for hours about philosophy, history, the occult, religion, science, theater presentation and a host of others things.

The biggest reason I say, he is the #1 sidewalk magician out there is because he’s not doin huge amplified productions with the type of show you might see at a corporate event, he’s doin a gritty sidewalk show....every day all day.

 There is no question in the minds of his audience that they are watching a real street guy.

It is so hard to convey this to many club magicians who are thinking to go out to the street with their slick appearance and corporate marketing mentality…..but the laymen know what I’m talkin about. There’s something about seeing a real street character, who belongs out there.

When the other -street element people- out there see him, whether they be thugs, hustlers, gutter punks, liquore store owners, cab drivers, bums, cops, or even other street buskers, they know GRNDL represents the street like their king.

GRNDL is not trying to fit in by wearing some worn clothes with a $50 dollar hair cut…….GRNDL fits in because GRNDL is the street.

Of course any true street performers out there know I just gave him the highest compliment….but some dandy business  magicians won’t get it and they will continue to come out and plague us with their high maintenance behavior…..and they’ll never get it….but us street guys will…..and most of all the lay public will.

His audience’s faces are lit up, they are finally seeing something REAL in public, instead of a canned show, or an armature attempt, or a pure a hustle.

You see…..

When GRNDL works, his character is natural, his show’s atmosphere is vivid reality, and you could tell he loves what he is doing with his life the whole time.

He’s street grime regal….he’s my people.

it is no great mystery that when we all went the magician’s meetings and magi hang outs, it was GRNDL who dragged me and Sonny Holliday out to the parking lot to drink wine and smoke cigarettes while the indoor magi went on hobnobbing and being seen with the in crowd.

Thank gad for GRNDL.

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Kris Bentz

Home pitch; San Diego, CA.

world traveler. All over the U.S. but He has worked extensively in California, Vegas, and Maryland. Presently in Europe.

Teacher;             

Jimmy Talksalot.

Usually in this blog I do a lot of profile and promo for the entertainers to try and give them the credit they don’t usually get…..

and I would like to do that a little with Kris, but since we have worked together on so many projects I would like to tell y’all a little about our friendship which I think may educate the readers to how our ancient fraternity works a little.

When I first met kris some years back in San Diego, he was running a wine bar and doing corporate gigs. Before that he was heavily in the corporate business world that his degrees had qualified him to do. But as some of you may know our country has been having a little set back in the area of business we like to call the recession. So he pursued his love which was magic.The wine bar gave him a nice little living while he broke into show business as a profession.

He saw me workin in San Diego and decided this could be a career so he started carpooling me to work every day and learnin buskin.

I have to say I was very intimidated at first instructing him because of his extensive knowledge of magic and the magic world. He knew a lot of magician celebrities, had chops, and knew a lot of magic.

 Heck he even grew up with Wayne Houchin.

With his formal education it was difficult to keep up with him in intellectual conversation, thankfully he was a humble guy and went easy on me when I would go off on my southern political diatribes.

Thing about kris is he is a perfectionist…to a fault sometimes. But due to this he is one of the best American street performers out there.

Kris adds class and wit to the busking industry. More like a European magician, he has proven that American audiences can and do appreciate a gentleman magician performing a sophisticated performance on the street…..if presented properly…and he does.

This of course isn’t to say he’s stuffy, in his show he cuts loose sporadically taking the crowd off guard.

Showing Kris the ropes as far as getting him to stop stay and pay wasn’t a problem, but as some of you know I am more of a clown.

So, it was a great relief to me when Kris had met Eric Evans who is a master magician, because I felt  it was Eric who might inspire and influence him to present this type of sophisticated show on the street and make it play in the states.

For those of you that are familiar with the instructional dvd our fraternity has out “FOUR OF A KIND” you already know how important of a performer and teacher Kris is, not to mention that him and George Gilbert spoke at the lecture I did in Baltimore at Denny and Lee’s magic studio.

Kris had also written an article on busking tactics that was so important I felt it I had to put it into my lecture notes that are still up for sale in the magic industry.

I feel that it was him that really added a lot of credibility for what we do to the magic club guys.

Sure I taught Kris, but the fact is I think I learned so much from him that I am now indebted to him.

Well, with all that said, Kris is a very successful entertainer travelling the world and living the dream. His resume is huge and he can work any venue, whether it be, indoors, outdoors, stage or stadium.

There’s a lot more to him then a amgic show, he is a speaker, he teaches classes, he teaches folks how to actually be a magician and do magic. also he knows a lot of circus skills like juggling and stunts.

A close friend.

I would hope you would take the time to check out his site and catch his show.

Here’s his site;

http://www.krisbentz.com/

here's some earier footage of him before he created the  more sophisticated show he's doin now;

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here's some sidewalk work some years back;
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                                                 KRIS BENTZ -northern Europe.

TONY BUTTON

From New York, works mainly Ocean City, but has worked most of the pitches up and down east coast to the bottom of Florida.

I first saw Tony workin the boardwalk in Ocean City last year. I had noticed him workin in small spots for people walking by and pitchin bills into his hat on the ground.

The first thing I noticed was his work ethic, he would play and sing his heart out for 8-10 hours a day. Even after the hurricane evacuation he was back on the pitch a day later.

He was livin out of his car and travelin the coast. Livin the dream.

So I made it a point to meet him. And as it has always been in my life the best have always been humble. He was especially respectful for a young guy to me and this blew me away because of his talent. So since then I have watched his progress and he now hangs with some of the biggest names in the street scene and his work has gotten even better.

Even though he’s humble about his work don’t let that mislead you, his act is a powerful and charismatic act that has a lot of street grit to it. This keeps the street thugs at bay and the tourists and locals lovin him.

He does original songs he has written. One day he discussed his strategy and artistic process to me and some old veterans and we were blown away at how brilliant it was. This of course comes from all the hours he puts in every day. Tony Button is a fanatic about his work, which is unusual to see in someone his age, he already has worked out a lot of the problems that takes buskers a life time sometimes to even figure out.

A lot of the old legends hang with him out of pure respect for his talent and work ethic; also he’s a good friend.

The thing about Tony is he is a true sidewalk guy because he can bang out a living in any condition. Bad weather and regulations bounce off him because he is a small self-contained act that can play anywhere.

Tony is the future of sidewalk performing.

He’s easy to book because of his talent and he is a great example of how you can be a success if you do what you love and do it all the time.

if you bounce around youtube looking for him you'll see him on different pitches through out the country.

here's a good song;

BIRDIE MCCLAINE

World traveler, works mainly out of Fort Myers Beach.

Left home at 18 and joined Ringling Bros Clown College, graduate 1975.

Toured Ringling Bros blue unit 4 yrs. as clown and stilt walker.

While in the circus, Birdie had often watched and admired street performers and when he left the circus decided this is what he was going to do.

Birdie Mcclaine has never had a “real job” and this alone could make every busker in the world look up to him.

Ventriloquist, mime, juggling, clown, magician, acrobat, painter, musician of any instrument, spray paint artist, comedian…..and the list goes on.

He does these things at levels that the masters of each of these art forms converse with him in respect.

In Magic I can say, Gazzo, Cellini, and Sonny Holliday all have called him a good friend and been impressed with his work and even an inspiration.

Infact many of the masters in the magic field around the world know and respect him.

And that’s just magic, this is not to mention all the other various forms of artists and performance artists who have gone out of their way to surround him hoping some of his genius will rub off on them.

I myself, am now writing about him because of his ability to work sidewalks and because of his help in my own work.

He has helped me to develop more material for my act and has taken my student Chanz under his wing and has made him an incredible silent performer.

Birdie is probably most famous amongst street performers and venues that hire live performers for his silent juggling act……a master piece.

I silent juggling act is very common in Europe and in many other countries, but I would urge the reader to look for an American street juggler doing a silent act in the states, I doubt you will find many if any at all.

The reason for this of course is that, it is extremely difficult to do a silent act of any kind in the states and still make a living on the streets…..but Birdie can.

Birdie is a perfect example that a quality performance instead of hounding the audience with ego and money lines will get the audience to appreciate and pay for the value.

Don’t get me wrong, even in his silent shows he has hat routines to get the money, but the difference is that the audience absolutely loves the hat routines….it’s all part of the fun.

What we are dealing with here is a master, a legend, and a busking icon.

So why don’t we hear more about him?

Simple, he has spent his life perfecting his craft as a street entertainer and has picked up gigs purely on the quality of his show. Birdie is the real thing, he is not an internet celebrity.

This blog was set up to try and give credit to sidewalk and street performers who have not gotten the credit that they deserve. You will hear about a lot of other performers because they are master marketers and that is where they have focused their all of their creative energies, but birdies spent his life focusing on his work.

This is not to say that he has not worked huge high paying and famous venues, because he has worked thousands of these.

He has worked festivals, cruise ships, and huge theme parks… Disney loved him.

I could go on and on about him, but what I would suggest is to ask around about him the next time you’re out workin the street some one’s always got a funny story about this wild man, because he has lived his life much like his show…by the seat of his pants.

I am putting up a video of his recent show this show of his many is spoken. I have put it up so you can see what kind of caliber of performer he is.

It’s a short circle show but please watch it till the end and see if you can feel the atmosphere at the end.

Also notice that the hat routine strategy it’s brilliant watch close how the audience pays in the beginning then comes after the finale……brilliant.

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