Busking New Hampshire

On a recent trip up the East coast we ended up staying in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Usually when we travel I spend a little time on the inter webs to find out what the local busking laws are. My family is usually very tolerant and allows me time to work the street. SO a quick Google search revealed:

Sidewalk Performer Guidelines

WELCOME

The City of Portsmouth welcomes performance artists who seek to share their talents and skills with residents of, and visitors to, the City of Portsmouth. In order to make your experience in Portsmouth a positive one, the City has provided recommendations and guidance regarding sidewalk and other performance opportunities.

WOW that's great. One of the biggest issues about Busking is the ability to perform and solicit money for your performance and not get asked to move or even worse hauled in by the local police. But Portsmouth NO WORRIES.
 The first day in town while walking around, shopping and looking for places to eat, I scoped out the territory and found my pitch.  The next day was show time. After lunch the family went walking and I went to perform. Great Pitch......lots of people and good crowds and nice hats. I even managed to impress an audience of teenagers!  Usually teenagers strike fear in my heart......they just seem to know it all and are experts in everything.....but the final production in the cups and balls did!
No big money from them but great reactions and for me that's just as good.
Another note here is that I was debuting my new Orange Color scheme to my Steampunk costume with y new flat top hat and all. I strongly believe that as a busker you need to have a good costume and unique look. One of the many things I learned from "Cellini The Royal Touch by E.M McFalls" which is one of my bibles for busking. I highly recommend it to all performers.

I always remind myself that I busk for the love of performance and the thrill of the street as my stage. After all I have a great day job. Always do the research when traveling, you never know when a show is in order.
Be Well and Keep 'em clean

The birds are where?

One of the many areas of magic is Dove magic.
The use of animals in magic is ancient, and before I get emails and PMs about this, the animals in my magic act in my care are excellently treated and cared for by our local veterinarian and also taken care of by my daughter who is an agriculture student focusing on animal care.
Now that we are past that, I started with 4 doves from a local breeder in our big backyard aviary and now through an act of mother nature we have 10. The young chicks were all fed from the palm f my hand from early on and they have become very comfortable with me. I enjoy spending my evenings talking to them and caring for them. Nothing out of the ordinary for a dove magician. The routine is pretty regular, every morning before I leave for work I go out the the aviary to say good morning and feed the birds. I get there and the food tray is usually empty or close to empty and I put in one cup of seed and they all fly up to the tray for a good breakfast. I pick up the second generation one at a tie and let them eat some seed from my hand and this is part of their training and our bonding. I also have 2 parakeets I use in the act and they get a similar routine every morning.
 Well one day a few weeks ago the morning routine was a bit different. It seems I left the large 25 lbs seed bag open when I left for work and didn't get to go back in the evening. So I approached the aviary the next morning and didn't see any doves! They were all gone!

But then as I got inside, I did hear some cooing....I followed the sound and yes they all, and I mean all 10 of them were crowded into the feed bag and were climbing all over each other and eating.
I approached the bag and opened the top and yes there they were. I took the out one by one and put them on their perches and filled the food tray......go figure they weren't hungry anymore.

I love working with animals!
Be Well
Keep 'em clean

What an amazing Summer......

Hello Internet Friends,
Well we've finished a great Summer, with plenty of travel and plenty of performing.
Phineas and I took a trip to Baraboo Wisconsin to go visit CIRCUS WORLD and the CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUM.

Now, besides the Museum and the circus wagon exhibit which were both beyond belief!, we were able to enjoy the Physical comedy and humor of Steve and Ryan. These guy are the best Physical comedians I've seen in my life. Its like watching Keaton, or Chaplin, or Laurel and Hardy Live!
As long as they are performing, American Circus Clowning is in good hands.

We also went to spend time with one of our circus teachers, Greg DeSanto at the CLOWN HALL OF FAME. One day I even spent some time Busking in downtown Baraboo. It was exciting as it sounds, very few people, not enough to make an audience for a show but I spent an hour doing trickle shows and got a very nice response from the passers by.

The CLOWN HALL OF FAME although small is jam packed with the most amazing collection of personal items and props from clowns throughout circus history. Great stuff that you would never expect.  And of course Greg was a very gracious host. Phineas and I each have learned clowning from Greg at different ties during our training mainly with the NY GOOFS.

There is no way to describe the items we were able to read through and see, that represent the circus and its clowning history. Between the Hall of Fame and Circus World my head was spinning and I think I ran out of memory in my IPhone with all the photos and videos. This was a trip I will never forget.
More travel stories in the next post.......until then
Be well and Keep 'em clean!