busking

[deo97]

hey people, i haven't posted here in a long time, but I'd like to ask you all something.  i have recently started busking in my local city, Glasgow, Scotland.  I've found the perfect spot to do it and I'm making a semi-decent amount of money from it.  I have two other friends, both bagpipers who also busk, and they can make £30-35 an hour (about $43-48 i think) whereas i am only making about £10 ($15 - 20 i think) an hour.  i was wanting to ask if many of you guys busk, and what kind of things do you do while doing it, as I'm trying to think of ways to maybe involve the crowd to try make more.  do you people have any ideas?
Thanks a lot, Deo

[YANG2]

Well, I would usually pick a good spot with a crowd. I find that the simpler tricks such as high throws, infinite suicides, suns, elevators etc. impresses the crowd the most. Tricks such as complex integral suicides do not work; the crowd will not get them. My favorite attention-grabber would be throwing a diabolo up to a wire(or anything fancy you can find) at the roadside, letting it roll along the wire(or whatever it is). You could also try tying up a string to something high, get the diabolo spinning really fast, and do an elevator which goes all the way to the top or as high as possible. Maybe you could let the audience try if you are looking for something more interactive. Good luck!

[Diabolo88]

OK a few small ideas for involving the crowd but I don't busk...so all untried from my part execution is on you:

Letting one of them hold the non-dominant stick in 2D/3D (easy examples of this on YT)

Letting them hold the top stick while you elevator

Shuffles, orbits etc around them

Landing some sort of stall on them

Letting them hold a grind/gyrogrind/stall already landed

If you can pull it nice and high then highthrow - front/sideflip over someone (easier version to jump over them normally or maybe roll over back) - catch

If you got good splits then go down in 1D - mach 5 variation and then "pelviscrawl" your way through participants legs nohanded

^Variation cause I can't find a reference vid to explain "pelviscrawl"...use 2D neckstall, place sticks in mouth and use your hands to crawl through

Magic knot with just string (loop in another loop got it on my YT from like ages ago for reference), let them blow on it to untangle...supereasy

If you've got a good, smooth surface (maybe wood you can place out?) then gyro - floorpass to yourself through participants legs (aim prolly difficult)

Jokes...since you've got bagpipe playing friends maybe make them the punchline of every single one

Have someone hold one of your sticks, throw diab in the air, grab stick from them and immediately give them back the other one (without them expecting ofc), miss the catch, scold them for fumbling

Use audiences heads for diaboloshelves...also keeps the "victims" from walking away during. Maybe try to make them catch something in the cups (throw something soft) or with diabs on their heads pit them against eachother gladiatorstyle.

[Christophrost]

I used to get a kid from the audience and tell them I was going to whip a diabolo off of their head. I then wind the kid up saying I've done it loads of times and only half  of the people were decapitated or injured. I'd balance the diabolo on their heads and they'd start hunching and getting nervous. Then fake start a couple of times and re iterate that only half were injured basically making them more and more nervous. I'd then leave a long gap asking the parents if they'd ever heard their kid be this quiet before explaining that this is the best technique to keep their children quiet. I'd then reveal that obviously I'm not going to whip the diabolo off of their head but I will whip catch it and that I was letting the child's mum and dad have some quiet time while their kid stood there looking stupid balancing something on its head. I the perform a whip catch.

[Ronnie]

I bet you got that from the Sharpe brother's when they did 6 knife passing XD

[Duncan]

Or from almost every street performer in history.

[Mediaboy13]

Hey mate!
My friend and busked quite abit a few years ago. The fact is that most musicians will always get more money busking  .
For more money you could go to busking festivals (where many buskers are given a spot around a certain area and you just busk and have a bbq).
Here is a performance guide i wrote after our first stage performance, but it can be converted to busking as well  :

http://diabolo.ca/forum/index.php?topic=9666.0

Hope that helps! 
-Alex