Sleeveless the Magician

-slayer of fun haters.

Stephen Sloan, aka Sleeveless, is often photo'd and filmed, because of his gritty, friendly, and street wise persona.

Years ago when I started writing promo for buskers, it was to get the word out, for those masters who never really got their due.

Sleeveless is definitely one of those masters who should be a household name for his talent and determination in his life's work.

But lo, he is one of us, a busker, but not just any busker, he has worked in San Diego on the streets for well over 30 years.

This feat, to me and anyone else who has traveled the world and then gone to San Diego, knows it is one heck of a thing, and not just because of its longevity.

I spent some years in San Diego myself, and I saw some of the top traveling buskers come and quickly go, they didn't last much more than a day or so, because they couldn't cut the mustard.

To begin with, the audience energy is very low, no matter what type of show you are doing, break dancing, fire, juggling, rock band, whatever.

The culture of San Diego is very vain and image conscious, and no one wants to be the first to be seen showing joy, amazement, or anything really. This can be very intimidating to a new performer in town.

San Diego is tough, real tough.

Sleeveless, not only provides one heck of a show, but actually brings some sorely needed world class professional talent to San Diego.

The people there know it and appreciate it.

He is one of the few performers there that has been asked to work on all the major venues available in the city, and that is also very tough to do there, because of it's uptight culture and overbearing senseless regulations.

Understand, the regulations are just par for the course for how the city government treats its citizens, ordinary life there is fraught with people perpetually nagging one another about "The Law" or what's allowed, or more often, what's not allowed.

I really pity the general public of San Diego.

So San Diego separates the boys from the men and sleeveless has done it for a long time and made it look easy.

I have had a great deal of respect for him and he has helped me out with my show and other things, with my stay there.

A big part of the reason San Diego can't get good talent, is because of its uptight culture, it drives away anything good from the rest of the world, that, and it sues everyone all the time for any nonsensical reason...this is not hyperbole, this is why many bands won't even tour indoor venues there.

So yeah, Sleeveless managed to write a show that is quality, but somehow didn't offend someone in California.

That's not just magic, that's possibly a miracle.

Watching Sleeveless' quality show, makes one feel the joy, of not having to live in California, at least for a few moments.

He taught me how to change my script when I got there, to conform to California-Think. He made a great translator and it helped me be able to make money and feed my family.

He has also taught many of the top names in busking, Rod Cannon, Chanz, Kris Bentz, and Jeff Thomson, just to name a few.

It should be understood that he is a bit of a recluse outside of show time, in fact I was bit reluctant to write anything about him out of respect for this, but I felt compelled to let my peers know what we have there in San Diego.

I am grateful to have met him. I would highly recommend his show to anyone. It is really really good.

Sleeveless, I could never repay you for all you've done, but from all us guys out here learnin from you...THANKS FOR YOUR LIFE'S WORK.

Your Pal.
Jimmy.

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