Busking in New York is a time honored tradition and a great way to earn extra bucks. A busker is any person who can turn any place into a performance area and earn tips or gratuities, either with music, dance, performance art, poetry, or anything that will gather a crowd. But, most buskers perform at their own risk, because New York City requires any busker to have a permit. Especially, if 20 or more people gather around the busker.
New York’s Times Square Alliance , every year in April hosts the ‘Best of the Buskers’, and even provide judges for the auditions. This year, they will return to the ‘Crossroads of the World’ as magicians, musicians, singers and dancers to perform in an entertainment series on the new Father Duffy Square and at other neighborhood locations.
A few years back, one of the major newspapers did an experiment concerning busking in the subway stations of New York City, and they enlisted the best violinist, Joshua Bell to busk incognito. The experiment was to see if this polished violinist could get anyone to stop, listen and leave him a gratuity. The finally result was – no! Hardly anyone stopped to listen. But, what was more interesting was the newspapers analysis of the experiment, they concluded it was the audiences fault for not having a good ear for music. However, to the contrary of this conclusion, is that many excellent violinist such as Lorenzo LaRock or Jim Graseck , who has played at Carnegie, busk in New York’s subway and plenty of people stop to listen and even applaud. So, basically, Joshua Bell’s problem isn’t the passers by, but is lack of experience in busking.
Busking isn’t just pulling out a violin at start playing, busking is its own art form; the buskers personality is just as important as the quality of the performance. Especially in New York City, where the competition over permits is a battle, and the New Yorkers are the toughest crowds to please. It’s a gifted busker who can interact with those gathered around, to create a personal space while breaking the so called ‘forth’ wall, capture the audience to create an enjoyable spontaneous group experience on a busy street corner, subway, in front of a high-end hotel , a park, or on a bus and make the moment count. About the only bad busking is a busker who won’t relate to their audience. After all, besides earning extra money, busking isn’t just for the buskers pleasure, it’s for the pleasure of the audience.