And here you were thinking i'd forgotten about all this.
Its been some time and my world has changed dramatically. The most important thing recently that has happened was that i finally acquired my busking license. You can only imagine how boundlessly happy i was when given this small piece of paper in a convenient plastic sleeve.
It also serves is where i keep excess coinage.
Dollar dollar bills yall.
(I intend to put more time into my posts. That is certainly what i have done with this one. This is however going to be the biggest post that i have done, Thus the name. I have realised i go on mad tangents sometimes and they can be hard to follow. So instead of focusing on one story like i should i am just going to manage my tangents by putting them in parentheses. Hopefully it makes it easier.)
I havent had work since my last post, save sporadic days of work that i have been given maybe once a week. I have been busking almost every day since i got my license. Its amazing. Its feels great to be in a job that is exactly what you want to do, making good money, working only for yourself with no one above you you must report to.
On the first night me and James went out. I was pretty nervous, it had been some time since i did this last and that, was by no means, like this.
A good 60% of people in this city are like trains. They are on their own personal rail from their last destination to their next. They do not stop, they do not look around, they are completely unwavering in their dedication to their goal. I'd swear that a good 20% of those people don't actually see that there is a man twirling fire right next to them.
(Infact. Now that i think about it that is exactly what happened last night. Little ol' me was doing ma thang in my spot in red square. I saw a woman crossing the road to my right, i almost heard the 'chugga chugga chugga chugga' that her engines must of been making. She was walking with her head down trundling along at a breakneck shuffle towards my flimsy orange circle. I spun my flames straight in her path of vision but she just kept coming. she trundled straight through my circle while i spun fire around her.
She rolled her rickety way far away from where we stayed. Off into the sunset she went. Did she ever reach her destination? Was she waylaid by robbers along the way? I couldn't say. But sometimes i look at the sunset on a warm Melbourne day i can almost hear a 'toot toot' on the horizon and i know shes out there. Somewhere.)
So while there are significantly more people in Melbourne no more people seem to stop than in Dunedin.
The difference is, however, those people who stop give much much more.
Me and James went out, first night. expecting to make max 60 bucks. We sat out there playing about for people and were getting alot of gold which is great. Some people said it was amazing and other said they appreciate what we are doing, which is, always a pleasant thing to hear.
These four guys came up, obviously drunk, and just went nuts over it. They bloody loved it. I did two shows and they came up to give me some coin. One guy dropped a handful of coins. Another, not to be outdone gave a more golden handful of coins. The next dropped a 10 dollar note, the tension was in the air, would the last man give more? Could he afford to beat his friend?
A single yellow note emerged from his wallet '50' it said my heart skipped a beat an-
Yeah he gave me 50 bucks it was pretty cool.
That night we made just shy of 90 bucks in two hours. Happy days.
I'm learning alot about people. Gathering a crowd is hard. Especially without music. Its amazing this herd mentality we have. Crowds of people will walk by and throw only a chance glance my way but as soon as the first person stops within seconds you will have 10 people stopped then it snowballs so quickly until you have a huge crowd.
The kids don't realise it but they are my best money making asset. Whether it is a 5 year old making his lopsided gallop towards the crazy fire man or a twelve year old tugging his parents to watch the dirty hippy burn himself, kids are always the first ones to make my crowd.
Lately i have been visited by a pack of kids, they range from year 9 to what looks like around year 12 they are in Melbourne on a volleyball trip. They cant hope to get anything higher than 5th but they reckon they can get 5th.
They have watched me every single night i have been out in the past week.
They must have a hotel close by or something because they are always on Southbank. They have been really helpful. They have told me what looked good, what i should stop doing, what i should start doing. I Dont listen to everything they ask me to do (I can't do a fucking backflip stop asking!) but i dont think they mind too much.
I wrote that about a week ago. maybe more I don't know. Alot has happened since then. Things were looking up. I got a job fire dancing through a friend of a friend. Its going to be tomorrow. New years eve. i've been practicing for it for a while and its been good.
The job is on the ninth story balcony of this guys house. it has a 270 degree view of the city so that when new years eve hits the horizon so too will the abusrd amount of fireworks that will be dispensed on that night. The performance is going to link up so that the crescendo of the song will sync with midnight.
Its going to look so fucking sweet.
I did have a few problems though.
So a few days ago i had my first go doing fire on the balcony. The fire went out halfway through the song.
i had sort of expected it but the idea was that i would have my other poi dipped and ready to go.
I went busking the other night and i had a reasonable crowd. I was doing well and the crowd was enjoying it.
I heard a gasp of shock and looked up to see a fireball sitting in the midst of the crowd.
My poi had broke. in the middle of the show..
'everyone give it up for faulty equipment!!!'
silence
'yeah exactly no one likes that shit. This wasnt my fault my friends this is jugglearts fault and im actually fairly pissed off that they would sell me these trash poi. but wait around for a second or two more and i'll be ready to go again!'
So they did wait and i kept going and made a solid 30 bucks off that crowd.
Backtracking to where i was before i realised i needed to buy some new poi but Juggleart was closed till the 14th so i couldnt get replacements so i texted everyone i knew who did poi and asked them where they knew where i could buy poi or whether i could borrow theirs.
most text back saying go to juggleart
cool, thanks.
one dude text back and said that off ya tree sold poi but also that i could borrow his.
Keep in mind i had met this guy once. on a tram, on my way home.
I hadnt texted him since or seen him but he was all good with me using his poi.
i declined his offer of borrowing his poi to go buy some from off ya tree.
they were among the most pitiful poi ive ever seen but i bought them anyway because i needed them.
Fast forward to rehearsal on the balcony and lo and behold the new poi went out in like 40 seconds.
Cool beans.
So i called Brad ( the tram man) and asked him whether i could still borrow his poi. He asked me what the big deal was, why i needed poi so bad and i told him the whole situation to which he answered:
'dude why dont we just do a doubles act? i mean, i wont take any money for it'
A smile spread across my face because this dude would single-handedly save my performance. So fucking pleased.
We only had a few days to practice so we got to it quickly. we got one song choreographed in a day and we were thinking ' damn this is going to look sweet'
We went home to get some rest and practice the next day.
I had been paid in advance for my gig it was a considerable sum and i was stoked.
Finally i had enough money to buy something that wasnt oats and eggs.
I didnt have enough money in the bank account to transfer my rent to my landlord so i went to pay eric in cash and have him pay mine through the internet.
I went to my closet to get the cash.
Half of it was gone.
I scraped together all the spare notes and what was left to pay this month rent i was short 40 bucks but eric said he would spot me the shortfall.
I have been trying to find a job for so very long. sending out cv after cv after cv getting not even a call to say i havent got the job. all ive been doing is busking and that isnt making me enough.
This money was going to save me from having nothing for the next month or so maybe pay for lessons in capoeira or circus skills or..
Something, anything.
So i cried. What really can i do? i have no idea who it could be because it could be anyone. i cant accuse anyone because where is my evidence?
Maybe it was the stress or maybe it was the fact i quit smoking a little while ago but i started getting a pounding headache. It was al a little much.
So here i am on new years eve with about 50 to my name. I have to do a performance tonight that im not properly prepared for. with a guy i barely know and i have to nail it.
And i will nail it.
I'm pretty optimistic lord knows you guys know that. But i can feel myself falling into a 'fuck the world' sort of mentality. Its been hard lately but i guess i'll survive. when this show is done it'll be one hell of a weight off my shoulders.
There are supposed to be alot of pictures in this post but i cant be bothered and i need to practice. tonight is the night and i cant screw it up.
Wish me luck.
Cam
