A Few Words About Busking In The Wind, Rain, And Cold.

-outdoor costuming and strategies.

Our last discussion was Busking in Extreme Heat.

Today we will be talking about wind, rain, and cold.

To begin with, it should be understood that the weather and street audiences can both be unpredictable.

The best defense for this, is a tight Set Show, and reliable props and handling.

Lets take a look at some weather conditions and see how we can add some predictability to them.

Wind-

Wind is bad.

Wind causes problems with handling.

When you're fighting the wind, one should think about weight and a secure grip.

I choose tricks where the props are heavy, and they never leave my hands at any time.

I avoid tricks that require handing out props to audience members.

This is a good rule anyway, once a prop leaves your hands, you risk losing control over your show.

What if the volunteer drops the object, or lets it go, and the wind takes it away, or what if they just decide to walk off with your prop, or just put it in their pocket?

What if you set a prop down, and it blows away, or gets stepped on, or stolen, or kicked down the road?

None of these things happen, until the prop leaves your hands.

Make sure you have a good grip on your props, light palms or balance concealments should be avoided, that's more for indoor work. Use a tight palm.

For a better grip and wind resistance you should try and make things heavier. I have seen magicians sew or install metal weights in their sponge balls, or just use bean bags, or glass marble core crochet balls instead.

When doing silk magic in the wind, silks will become unmanageable, blowing horizontal and flapping. If the silk is dropped, it will fly down the street and land in a puddle, and that's if you're lucky enough to get it back.

I use cotton handkerchiefs instead, wherever possible. I soak my cotton hank in water and ring it out, this makes it heavier.

A damp handkerchief is super easy to handle in the wind, and hangs where it's supposed to.

I keep heavy props in my coat or vest pockets, this keeps them close to my body and controllable when manipulating.

I make sure my hat is pushed down tighter than normal to keep it from blowing off.

I avoid card tricks. Remember it's just paper in the wind.

If I do card tricks, I choose tricks that are all done in my hands with a tight grip close to my body, or stage manipulation.

Aluminum cups are bad in the wind, heavy copper street cups are best.

I use Bean Bags filled with BBs for my balls with cups and balls.

Rain-

Rain can be good.

Rain can be your best friend out there.

My highest daily totals have almost always been in the rain.

Rain is the secret weapon of the Pro.

Firstly, the indoor guys who only know how to work on the weekends on the "good pitch" always stay home complaining that they can't work in the rain ha ha.

So when Pros go out there, we have the whole place to ourselves and the tourists have nowhere else to go.

The trick is to work the rain and don't let it work you.

Learn to get up under terraces and awnings where all the people are gathered to stay out of the rain, now you have a captive audience, literally.

Also look up at the sky, judge the wind and look for breaks in the clouds, when you get good at it you will be able to determine how long the breaks in the rain will be blowing in, towards you.

As the break blows in, set up your rig, and you will notice all the people trapped inside making their way out towards you, because you are the only event available.

Call them in and don't waste time, you need to get through your show, and get to your Hat Routine before the rain starts again.

You can repeat this all day, and you will notice how much bigger the tips are.

People are much more grateful for you and your work, and they will have more money to go around since you're the only one out there.

You will be getting all the money, the other buskers and vendors would have got, if they were smart enough to understand how the rain works on the street.

There's a science to it, and an art to it, but I assure you when you figure it out, it will blow your mind how much money you will make, and how much more the audiences are loving what you do.

Some rainy days are not like this, they just pour down all day, but never assume this, always assume you will be able to work. A pro always goes out, no matter what the weather or conditions are, because he never knows what can happen out there.

But one thing we all know, there's no money at home.

I avoid close up card tricks in the rain or high humidity, both of which destroy cards and make a mess, warped cards cause mistakes, especially in close up tricks.

A sturdy Tray Stand Table is good for wind and rain, if the top is heavy enough it will stay put and keep your props off the ground and out of puddles.

Working without a table in the rain will rob you of some material, because now you have to keep everything on your person.

When you work without a table, you can't set things on the ground like you would when it was dry. So if you're going to work without a table, you should try and write a show where you can simply work in place without having to set anything down.

Stand up manipulation routines with cards, billiards, coins, and thimbles, etc. can rule the day in bad weather.

The Silk Vanish trick or a short cut Professors Nightmare can be handled easily in the rain. But if the ropes are too long they can touch the ground and get wet, this is a mess.

For rope work, I use soft nylon rope (or other types of marine rope) instead of magician's cotton rope. Nylon is better in rain and doesn't get as dirty, the ends can be melted, and it can be thrown in the washer. And yes you guessed it, it's heavier than cotton rope.

Cold and Snow-

As a southerner it was a little surprising to see how people up north would stand in the cold and watch street performers.

I myself worked South Street Philadelphia in the snow, we all had snow on our hats and shoulders, show after show after show. They're tough up there. Since then I've been around the world and I just roll with it now.

The best advice I could give with the cold is to wear layers.

In the south where I'm from it doesn't get all that cold, so I may wear a couple of T-shirts, a flannel over that, and a sweater over that, all under my suit jacket.

It can get warm in the middle of the day so I will shed my layers as it warms up, and layer back as it cools down.

I will also layer an extra pair of socks, and shed the pair if need be.

It is better to bring a bigger bag, like a back pack, to hold the layers as you shed.

In severe cold, you will need a lot more than the above mentioned, like thermal underwear thick wool socks and a proper winter coat, but now we are talking about the kind of cold that affects the fingers, they begin to stiffen, and cannot do the work.

Sonny Holliday had a pair of Italian thin white eel skin gloves. The eel skin gave him the same grip as bare hands if not better. He said, his hands were so warm they'd sweat sometimes.

They were well made, rare, elegant, and very expensive.

Needless to say, most of us work bare handed or choose tricks that can be done with ordinary gloves ala Cardini.

I have found if you keep working and warming your hands with Hand Warmers or just protect them in your pockets, you can overcome this...

but sometimes you can't overcome this, and it's over, you will need to get inside to busk, or at least into the subway.

Usually I can work in the forties Fahrenheit, but the thirties give me a little trouble.

With all that said about the cold, the usual habit of a busker in brutal cold, is to busk indoors until its warm outside, or to go on the road and follow the sun, travelling between hemispheres for each summer, but sometimes we can't do that.

Sometimes we have to figure out another way, another way to live the life we chose.

Well that's all for now, I hope this helps.

If you enjoyed this, you can leave me a trip HERE.

Your Pal Jimmy