I busked once outside a Metro stop in DC for an hour or so, made enough to help out with grocery money that week. It was fun, but I was out of practice and kinda hid myself away so I wouldn’t be in the middle of foot traffic.
I’d do it again in a New York minute. If I can get my repertoire up to a couple dozen songs (30 to 40 range) of Swedish fiddle tunes and make 'em sound good I’d kill a couple hours just for the hell of it.
I think it is great that you are doing that (which doesn’t help paying your grocery bill). Could you get a dog to sit beside you? That always seems to attract people.
My first thought, upon seeing someone reading aloud from a book in a high-traffic public place, is likely to be “Jesus Freak” or “Crazy Person”, not “Busker”.
Poetry is either hated or disregarded by most people (as in, the “man on the street”) IMHO, and I really don’t think it’s an activity likely to be well received as a busking act.
At least two posters have suggested that I get a “partner” for my streetside poems-for-a-pittance activities; a sidekick with lots more natural charisma than I myself could ever generate – in the form of a simple puppet of some sort.
And I gotta say, that sounds like a freakin’ brilliant idea! I’ve always loved puppets and puppetry, from the simplest and most basic (hola, Senor Wences! *Que pasa, 'mano!**)to the high-art elaborations of Tony Sarg, the Manteos and bunraku; I went through a four-year phase of intense fascination with the artform as a preteen and early adolescent, making some pretty decent ones out of cloth and cotton batting and sawdust and papier-mache. I bet I could design a couple of interesting characters whose simple physical construction would perfectly complement their unique personalities, maybe evn three of 'em. Not only would an animated sidekick be likely to draw way more interest and friendly attention than I’d ever be capable of, but a brash and outgoing puppet persona could even be an effective “go-between” for me and whatever audience I eventually attract (I may behave like a great big show-off, but I’m also just a tidj bashful --nay, withdrawn – around strangers).
Heck, I’ve even got an excellent idea for my first character already! My only dilemma now is “how can I turn a black gym sock into a hippie raven by tomorrow morning?”
Speaking to your first point: nobody would ever take me for a Jesus Freak for more than half a minute. A crazy person, though – that’s been done before, and by some pretty sharp heads, too.
And what you say about poetry being hated or ignored by most people – damn, I wish I could think you were mistaken, but I fear that you’re dead-on correct. The form will always be a minority taste, I guess, like horror movies, gooey smelly ol’ cheese, noise music, and mezcal – a taste that’s nearly impossible to explain or justify to those who “just *don’t like that stuff!”