If you play a musical instrument, are an actor, comedian, magician or have some other talent that required an audience, instead of getting an audience to come to you why not go out to your audience? Going out into the world busking as a street performer can be a very rewarding experience.
As well as getting paid to perform you can also use it to help you learn a lot about yourself and will quickly gain insight into areas that you need to work on to become a better artist.
Brush Off the Nerves, Get Out There and Perform The thought of going out into the big wide world to do some busking can be quite a daunting experience if you have never performed before.
One of the things to realize if you are going out busking is that most people will ignore what you are doing and keep moving on there merry way.
If you are nervous about doing street performance you will soon find that only a small minority of people will be interested in what you are doing.
Keep this in mind if you are nervous about busking for the first time because once you are out on the street, you will find its not as big a deal to be out performing as you might have imagined.
People who are interested in your performance will be more than likely to be encouraging towards you.
Most people don't have overly high expectations of street performers, if you were a world class act you'd be more likely to be playing on Broadway rather than out on the pavement of Broadway! Get Your Act Together When busking, the stage is your oyster.
There are no set formats.
You can take breaks when you want to, you can play the same song three times in a row, forget the words to your lines, mess up magic tricks until you get them right or drop all the bowling balls that you are attempting to juggle.
And that's all fine.
You can use this time to your advantage by practicing your act live on stage with an audience watching.
Performing in front of any audience will highlight to you very quickly what areas of your performance need work.
You'll also find out what is working for you and what parts of your performance that people do enjoy.
You can take this experience that you have performing as a busker with you and work on any short comings you may have.
If you go busking regularly you will start to build up your confidence which will help improve your performing immensely.
Interact With Your Audience Something else you can do that is unique to busking is that you can stop and talk with members of your audience.
You can even ask them for feedback.
You can use the experience to get comfortable with making eye contact with people while you are performing to learn how to better connect with an audience.
Street performance is also a great opportunity for networking with other artists.
You will meet other buskers and can share your experiences with them.
Sometimes people will ask you if you are performing anywhere else or if you teach even.
The more interaction you have with people, the more opportunities will open up for you as an artist.
Enjoy the Experience There are many positive aspects to being a street performer.
As well as overcoming nerves, you can use it to hone skills and learn what you need to work on.
Above all, if you go busking regularly you will find that you gain confidence in what you are doing and ultimately become a better artist for it.
This can make busking an extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience.