Today we’re going to be using only the props from my new Coin Magic Rig For Sale.

Since I have covered so much coin work in my other tutorials I thought I would go back over and cover what the other props in the new set can do for the worker.

Feel free to look at my free archive for those other tutorials.

These tricks today are great crowd builders to get a crowd to watch your coin show.

These videos today will focus mainly on Wand moves and handling with a coin purse, or the wand with the street handkerchief, or just the wand on its own.

These videos are set up more like a personal session than like a tutorial, I’m talking off the top of my head unscripted as if you’re in the room with me.

We start out by covering the basic Wand moves, and then progress to technical professional subtleties. keeping in mind that our techniques are always focused on grabbing the attention of the passer bye and holding their attention to the next step in our show.

A lot of little known crowd building theory here today.

A lot of tips on grips and handling and better control of the props for surrounded outdoor work.

And Ideas for creating new illusions on your own.

I explain why these props that are designed for the outdoors, are easier and give you more advantage from standard props sold at magic shops to the hobbiest.

No filler here, just a ton of ideas and material to pick from.

So if you’re a paid subscriber come and hang out with me below.

Or just check out my hundreds of free articles and visit my new Magic Shop.

Read more

This first batch is marked down on sale for $50

Use this as your main rig

Or

Keep this rig stowed away in case of emergency and be able to make money in an emergency.

BUY HERE NOW.

$50 + shipping and handling.

U.S. Sales Only

First Release Sale Info:

You may have noticed that the props like the purse already cost as much as the entire set we’re offering today.

It takes me a lot of hours to hand make these rigs and find the matching coins etc. But I’m putting them on sale to get them out there especially for the beginners.

If these move quick, I will upgrade them with more stuff for a little more money on future batches.

Product, And Tips On Making Your Own Rigs.

This Prop Set is made to fit in your pocket and work any where anytime on the fly.

If you’re a Pro, or a regular reader of my posts and newsletters, you already know what to do with these props on the street. But if you’re a beginner you can go on my site and learn how to use all these props in my tutorial section or by simply searching for the prop in my site archive.

Here’s a couple of tutorial links examples:

Coin Flourishes And Juggling.

Routines and Street Show Structures.

Or you can just learn about the Back Up Rig here today and simply get started on making your own.

Hand made 9” Hickory Flat Wand for no roll on a table. This is hand filed and sanded from a drumstick that has been specially compressed and hardened for percussion and banging. This means better sound quality and less breakage. This wand is not round or square, it is flat like a carpenters flat pencil, so it wont roll off a table and packs better.

Hand made 14” Red Handkerchief with heavy but pliable Indian cotton for wind resistant sleight of hand work, in the outdoors, and in the elements. If your a street magician you know silks can be hard to handle outside. This solves that problem.

Hand made 2.5” Vegan Brown Leather Clasp Purse with red cotton lining to match the handkerchief.

This purse was designed for coin juggling and sleight of hand coin magic. It was originally designed to hold five silver dollars or 1 ounce rounds.

Unlike ordinary manufactured purses these are designed to allow coins to freely fly in and out stacked, without getting knocked or hung up coming out.

They are also small enough to be palmed, but large enough to be a production prop from the handkerchief.

The Street Magicians Savings Account.

Inside the purse, instead of silver dollars, I supply you with five U.S. mint matching 2024 half dollars $2.50, for a few reasons;

1. For affordability.

2. They are best for beginners.

3. Half dollars are known to do more standard coin magic than the larger dollar coins.

And for one more very important reason.

This is to encourage you to build up a savings from the $2.50 worth of half dollars to hundreds of dollars in silver dollars as you become more successful on the street.

It is my advice for you to buy a real silver dollar from time to time, when ever you get extra money until you build up a set to replace the half dollars. I would make at least 5 coins the goal, but the more the merrier.

Not only are silver dollars superior in handling, but Silver is worth a lot of money. you can sell them later if you need money on the street.

-Many off us old timers used this method of building up from cheap coins to valuable silver dollars encase we ever had to sell them in an emergency to feed or house ourselves on the road especially in foreign countries. Or to get a plane or train ticket out of there!

It also made us look like real pros at high paying gigs when we performed with real silver dollars.

Here’s the half dollars in the purse.

Here they are nested inside with plenty of room. The square frame (as apposed to a round frame) gives you a wider gape for catching or tossing in and out, but the 2.5” size makes it more portable and makes the juggling look more impressive.

And Lastly, the set will come with a 1 3/4” Kong Squeaking Tennis ball for manipulation and productions. It says KONG on the front and Squeakair on the back.

You can find these at most pet supply stores as Dog Chews or Fetch Toys. They come in various sizes.

I use them throughout my show, because the color, sound, and movement, builds crowds and attention. Sometimes as a one ball routine, Squeaking as I go, or sometimes I like to bounce a small prop like a coin on the ground and have it change into the ball as a finale.

These are cheaper and easier to replace then Jumbo coins for a finale prop. If you can’t get to a Jumbo coin, no problem head to the pet shop to replace your finale prop.

I use the ball and as a second finale a Jumbo Coin in my routine as an added effect to make my show bigger in both routine time and visibility.

I myself usually use a 2” or larger ball, but for the beginner starting out and for portability a 1 3/4” ball is the industry standard for billiard ball magic.

If you’re a beginner 1 3/4” is less intimidating to palm, and fits perfectly in a finger palm.

And if your a Pro, the smaller wand, coins, and ball packs smaller for your Back Up Rig.

With the coins inside and the hank folded up, this is my basic emergency Back Up Rig.

I have carried this, or something like it, most of my life, encase I ever lost my full rig.

This is the set that could start me over if I ever lost everything.

With this set of props I could make fast money doing sidewalk shows to get me into a hotel room and start replacing my more expensive stuff which would in turn make me more money to replace everything else until I was back into my full rig.

This set of props is the perfect back up rig for the Pro.

Or it is the perfect tools for the beginner, to learn basic sleight of hand, street magic, show writing, and making money right away.

If your a beginner with these simple durable props, you could design a quick close up show for the sidewalk, or anywhere, and be working immediately, making money, and working your way into a bigger show or career.

That’s how I did it.

And I believe you can too.

If you want you can put this Rig together for yourself, or just just buy mine for sale here.

Also, I would strongly urge the reader to look up and order the bible of coin magic.

Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic.

It is packed full Handkerchief and Half Dollar Magic for close up, parlor, or stage.

Many of us old timers have reread this book cover to cover all of our lives.

Your Pal Jimmy

If this was helpful be sure and leave a donation it’s much appreciated.

DONATE HERE

For the entertainer, stage time is the absolute, and busking, is getting paid to get stage time.

Today we are going to learn many things pros don’t usually put into print.

Not because we’re jerks, but because the facts are too unbelievable to the inexperienced Joe.

These are things usually just passed down through oral tradition, on the pitch, because unless you’re a full-time pro who only relies on busking for your income (and is surround by people doing the same) these facts will seem impossible to you, or even made up, but I assure you once you go full-time, you’re going to have the same stories yourself one day.

First, we will learn about the advantage of learning in a hard place.

Secondly, we will learn why buskers are ten times stronger then any other type of performer.

Lastly, We Will Learn How To Polish Up Our Acts On Easy Work Spots.

The Hard Place Will Make You A Rock Star In The Easy Place.

I had nine months busking full time under my belt when I flew off to Europe for the first time.

I was still a beginner and was having trouble even breaking a hundred a day.

The first week I arrived in Europe I began making about a thousand a day.

This was a shock to me, not just because of the pay increase, but because I was taught growing up in America, pre-internet, that America was the richest country in the world and everyone else was just third world, and lived with pigs in their living-rooms.

I was taught, no one else had freedom, technology, or prosperity.

When I was in the states learning to busk, I didn’t know my own country was such a hard place to work as an Artist, I just assumed ever other country was like mine and didn’t understand Art and didn’t want to pay for it.

Little did I know how strong this american disadvantage made me, as a busker.

It forced me to work harder.

In the states I was working 12-16 hours a day in a dangerous city for jaded New Orleans tourists, in bad weather, because I had too.

My trip to Europe started in Spain, and I continued working long hours just like back home, but I noticed that all my European friends only worked a few hours, because it wasn’t necessary for them to work more to make a good living.

They would always ask me, why I worked my life away, every day.

I told them, I was an American, and we would always try and get, when the getting was good.

Any way, the point is, I can thank my country’s brutal work conditions for my success.

One Year On The Street, Is Ten Years In The Theater.

After a few months working in Spain, I was invited to work a french owned variety house in Barcelona.

There was about fifteen other acts, all doing around ten minutes each. They were singers, actors, dancers, musicians, mimes, etc.

I was extremely intimidated, because I could tell that all the acts were a lot more educated and skilled then me, it was embarrassingly obvious that they were of a much higher caliber.

When the stage manager asked me how many minutes I did, I in turn asked him, how many do you want?

He got angry with me, because he thought I was joking with him, and because the rest of the acts couldn’t fit into any time slot needed for line up, so he just assumed neither could I.

After I assured him I could work any time slot he needed, he gave me 8 mins.

I went on stage and got caught off guard by the floodlights, it had been over a year since I had been on an indoor stage.

When I stepped forward to peek at the audience beyond the lights, I was struck with stage fight, paralyzed and silent.

I just stood like that, till I realized, that it was a theater, they were all sitting, and they couldn’t walk off like they could on the streets, and I came alive and just burst into my script.

When I was done I was shocked, the audience roared and gave me a standing ovation. I was shocked because the audience had only done this for my act, and none of the others.

When I fled back stage I was stunned again, because all the acts had gathered together back there to watch me, and they began hitting me with questions as soon as I came in.

They were excited and asked me things like, where did I learn to do exact time slots, who wrote my act, how many years had I been working, how many countries did I tour?

But mostly they wanted to know what European schools of theater I went to.

I told them, I dropped out of high school.

I said, I work on the streets and I’m the worst one out there, all the other buskers are better then me, because I’m just a beginner.

I asked them why they were asking me these things, because I knew they were better then me, heck there was even a guy doing Shakespeare.

I was confused, I even asked them, why would the audience give me a standing ovation?

They acknowledged that my technical skills and theory weren’t good, but the difference was I had a tight act with no fumbling, no dead time, no filler, and no confusion.

My show had a beginning, middle, and end, and was easy for the audience to follow and to react to.

They told me their house audience loved performance art by students, but were relieved to not have to work so hard watching a more experienced performer, even if it was a less talented, unsophisticated, and unintelligent act like mine.

Unsophisticated.

Yup, that’s us, American illiterate baby.

Lastly they asked me, “Where did you get all the stage time to make your show so tight?”

I said, well, I work shows all day every day, I do more shows before breakfast, then you do all month.

They ended up training me, because I would never be able to go to their good schools, and I trained some of them for the streets.

It was Win Win, for all of us.

The point here is that, the only thing I had going for me was stage time.

But at the end of the day, stage time is absolute.

How An Easy Spot To Work Can Polish Up Your Act.

Every carpenter knows the polish goes on last.

You have to have something made first, before you can put a finish on.

Working a hard spot is where you first make something.

After you have learned to work hard spots, it’s easy work any where and really shine.

On a bad spot you cannot suck.

If you suck, they will walk away and not pay, and you will not eat that day.

So on a bad spot, you need to stick to what you know that works every time.

With this knowledge and work habit, when you get to a good spot, the audience is blown away at your skills at stopping and holding them in awe.

And remember, most of the other acts who work the good spots are untested and untalented and that’s why they can only work on those good spots. They wouldn’t last a minute on a bad spot.

On a good spot this makes you look like a rock star in comparison to them in the eyes of the audience.

So Why Even Work A Good Spot?

Here’s Some Reasons.

Confidence:

The biggest advantage to working an easy spot, is that it will build up your confidence, because they will cheer at anything and forgive any failures on easy spots. You will not have this luxury on a bad spot, especially if you need money for tonight’s hotel room.

Quick money:

Easy spots are quick money in times of need.

Show Polish:

With this tough spot experience under your belt, you can work an easy spot for crowds that will watch anything and you can then safely begin to really experiment with new things, and try some improv to make your show bigger, better, or just more polished.

An easy spot is a great way to experiment with things that you couldn’t afford to try on a harder spot.

BUT WARNING, learning as beginner for the first time, on an easy spot, will have the converse effect, not only will you be trapped at that location for years, because your show will begin to tailor itself to only that location, but you will also not be able to judge objectively or humbly whether or not your show is reaching its highest potential.

Further, it could build your ego up so much, your own ego will begin to deceive you into delusions of grandeur.

This is very very very common on good spots with many performers.

The worst shows I have ever seen have always been on “The Good Spot” and the performer had no idea they sucked. His ego refused to let him see the world as it really was.

The trick here, is to remember to periodically, go back to the tough spots, to keep up your chops, and to keep you humble, and objective, so that you know what the audience really sees.

The reality of course, is that there really is no such thing as “The Good Spot” if you’re any good at busking.

Most real pros make their own good spots, in locations nobody even knew was a spot at all.

Your Pal Jimmy

Please leave a donation, we could use it.

DONATE HERE

Also check out our Magic Shop, for books and hand made street props.

MAGIC SHOP

We write hundreds of articles about street performing here, because the beauty of the streets, is that it’s always there, no matter who you are.

But what do you do, if you can’t work the streets?

What if you have severe health issues?

What if it’s constantly raining, or snowing, or over 100 degrees, or below zero?

What if it’s prohibited, or illegal, or too crime-ridden and dangerous to work?

What if there’s no cars or walking traffic to work for?

What do you do, if you need something more secure?

Or what do you do, if you’re just sick and tired of working the streets.

Or never wanted to work outside in the first place?

Indoor busking may be your way.

Indoor Busking.

A Busker is simply an artist, working wherever they can, for whatever they can get, and searching for their niche in the world.

That does not limit them to the streets.

In fact knowing how to indoor busk could save your life on the road one day.

Busking indoors for the Close Up Magician, could be as easy as walking into a bar, sitting on a stool and doing tricks for the people around him, and then passing the hat when he’s done.

In fact, there are many other methods for indoor busking, and we will be covering them in future articles. But today I thought I would tell you mine.

My Method.

Over the years I have had to busk indoors, especially when I couldn’t work the streets for one reason or another.

I got my pointers from Jim Cellini, Eric Evans, and a myriad of buskers and squatters around the world.

Here’s how it works.

Finding The Venues For Your Set Show.

It begins with an all day, door to door, job hunt.

You’re looking for a place that will give you permission to do your Set Show.

These places could be entertainment or hospitality places like bars, restaurants, hotels, malls, arcades, bowling alleys etc.

Look for venues that would best fit your Set Show, and knock on those doors.

When you get permission, remember, you only get one shot to prove yourself.

So don’t do Improv, or new stuff, only do your Set Show.

Don’t try and do something new and weak in a new venue.

If you do Close Up, then do Table Hopping.

If you do Stand Up, then get up there where everyone can see you.

Only do what you're best at.

Getting Your Foot In The Door.

Just like the streets, finding a new pitch is the hardest part of the job.

You will have to walk in and cold call these places.

Most street performers don’t play well with others, and have a hard time fitting in with polite society.

So clean up and don’t be an A-hole when you walk into a venue and ask to work for their customers.

Dress nice and be confident, friendly, and approachable.

You should walk in the door in your costume, with your pockets and rig ready to work immediately.

Your costume should announce you, and tell everyone that you DO something.

Ask for the manager.

When the manager shows up, you’re going to try and sell him on the idea of letting you work.

The Sales Pitch.

You should prepare a sales pitch.

The sales pitch should be designed to:

1. Explain the free service you provide.

2. Overcome objections.

3. Allow you to work for tips.

4. Eventually to get a salary plus tips.

5. Get a reliable location to work.

First try and remember, the indoor manager has no idea what you do, or what is going to happen, and that may force him to play it safe and say NO.

So you need to educate him, and do it friendly and casually, as if he already knows what your talking about, and let him think its his idea if he wants too.

The Sales Pitch can go something like this:

Hi, I’m a traveling Professional Magician and I have some spare time today, and I was wondering if you would mind me keeping up with my practice with your customers?

I could get up there and do a quick show.

Places like yours, love to use me, because I keep the customers happy while they are waiting.

I make everybody look good, and it’s a lot of fun.

When the manager asks what it will cost him.

You say,

Oh nothing!

This is just me keeping up my chops for work.

It won’t cost anyone a anything!

DON’T MENTION TIPS.

If he asks, about tips.

A Close Up Act should say, I don’t ask for tips.

A Stand Up Act should say, I do a big show and I might pass the hat if everyone wants me too.

Shy away from the subject, and make it clear the only time you accept tips is to not offend anyone.

So Let’s Break Down, What We’ve Really Done Here.

We’ve shown ourselves to be an experienced fit in the hospitality industry, and set ourselves up for a steady work spot and potential paid residency later on.

We’ve eliminated the manager’s potential objections, like the threat of a horrible amateur, or any financial costs to him or his business, or obligations to keep you around if he doesn’t want you.

Also he feels like he might be getting something very expensive for free.

After reading all this, you’re probably asking yourself,

“Yeah, well how do I get Paid?”

Just keep reading!

The Audition.

The second you get past that manager, you need to understand, that you are now in an audition.

This will determine whether you will be asked to come back or even finish up for the day.

This is why it is crucial that you don’t try anything new.

You need to work like a Pro.

And whatever you do, for this audition, don’t offend anyone!

Stay humble.

If you do a Stand Up Act, be a pro and ask them to turn the music down, and find a stage or appropriate spot where everyone can see you.

If you’re a Table Hopper, go right to work, don’t stand around creepy.

Getting Paid.

During the audition you can accept tips, but don’t ask for tips, if management likes you and you are asked to come back maybe you could begin asking then.

Close Up Acts.

Any close up performer, who has ever been hired to do Table Hopping or Walk Around, already knows, you don’t have to ask for tips, most people tip anyway.

Stand Up Acts.

If you are a Stand Up Act, when you’re done, just go down to the seats and pass the hat. Behave as though you are a good host, just coming down to say hi.

I’ve never run into any trouble with management over this, and have even been asked to come back, because a big stand up show usually makes a huge impression and the management loves the excitement and approval of his patrons.

They never seem to care that I passed the hat.

And once again, they feel like they have gotten something very expensive for free.

And they did!

Which brings us to the next step.

Landing A Paid Salary Plus Tips.

Lets say all went well, you have money in your pocket, and you’ve been asked to come back.

Start coming in regularly, once or twice a week, and do this for a month or so, and then intentionally miss a week or two.

When you come back the manager might say,

“Hey we missed you last week!”

Or

“Hey where the heck were you! we needed you!”

And you say,

Oh sorry about that, I had places who paid me to be at their venue those days, and no offense, but I had to go. If you’d like to hire me I will be here whenever you need me.

Ha, Most of the time they just hire you.

I would try and get a small daily cash stipend from them, when they need me, and still ask for tips.

If not, no big whoop, I still got them as a indoor busking pitch.

Here’s a big tip.

If he hires you, he may want you to work slow days to build up business on his off days.

Never agree to work slow days, unless he books you at least two more busy days.

Tell him, if he books you on busy days this will increase his slow days, and then you can work those slow days for him too.

The reason is, if he sees you hanging around on salary, unable to work, because its slow, he will eventually get rid of you. He will not think to give you the busy days, he will have made up his mind that it’s not working out.

Knowing this insight, will make you look more professional and valuable, and build up business for both of you.

The Cellini Tip.

When you’re on the road, keep a journal of these new work spots you get, with names and addresses, and the deals you made with the managers, for future reference.

So whenever you pass back through that town you have an indoor spot to work.

Cellini’s indoor busking story:

When I was a young man, Cellini told me this story to teach me a lesson.

Cellini and his wife had got to the hotel and she told him they were out of money. It was late and snowing.

So he told her, “I’ll be right back”

He headed to the restaurant in the lobby.

He walked in, picked up a glass and a butter knife, clanged the glass to get everyone’s attention and began his show.

When The Master had finished his show, he Hatted the audience and went back up to the room and dumped the money on the bed in front of his wife.

They had enough money for the room and the rest of their needs.

The moral of the story is:

Your show is that thing that you keep in your pocket and pull out when you need something.

It’s your show.

It’s there to take care of you when you believe in it.

We will be writing more about indoor busking, but if you want to learn more right away a great resource for indoor busking is,

X Marks the Spot a download by The Great Busking Master Bro. Paul West.

It’s got a great section on indoor busking.

I hope all this helps.

If you got a kick out of this please remember to leave a Donation below

DONATE HERE

And check out our busking prop shop for both indoor and outdoor work.

The Magic Shop

This is a pro shop. We do not sell tricks here. We only sell utility props for the aspiring pro in the know, to create his magic.

If you do any magic at all, you can see their value.

Free subscribers to the newsletter receive free instruction on building a career in busking and entertainment.

Paid Subscribers receive the same instruction and also the guarded secrets of street magic, in written and video tutorials, using all the props in this shop.

All our rugged props for sale are designed for outdoor work, and hand made without power tools. They were designed by an outdoor performer who has used self made props every day for over thirty years.

Even the books are hand bound and printed at home.

Lets browse:

To Lure With Spectacle And Our Mysterious Society. $30

A Street Magician’s Manual -by Jimmy Talksalot.

Out of my many books this is my #1 selling book. This book has created thousands of careers, not just in busking, but in all fields of entertainment.

Available in print and hand signed, or as an eBook. For more info click the button below and go to the sales page.

Go To Sales Page.

Coin Magic Rig For Buskers -Sale $50

I have carried this, or something like it, most of my life, encase I ever lost my full rig.

This is the set that could start me over if I ever lost everything.

With this set of props I could make fast money doing sidewalk shows to get me into a hotel room and start replacing my more expensive stuff which would in turn make me more money to replace everything else until I was back into my full rig.

This set of props is the perfect back up rig for the Pro.

Or it is the perfect tools for the beginner, to learn basic sleight of hand, street magic, show writing, and making money right away.

If your a beginner with these simple durable props, you could design a quick close up show for the sidewalk, or anywhere, and be working immediately, making money, and working your way into a bigger show or career.

Go to the sales page and find out how to use these props or how to make your own Rig for free.

SALES PAGE

The Magic Bean Bag Starter Kit $100.

This is our number one seller. The street magic bean bags are used for outdoor work to overcome wind and rolling conditions. They mold to your hand and deceptively stay together when thrown hand to hand in any number if needed.

This is a versatility and utility prop for standard well known sleight of hand routines.

They can be used to replace many indoor props, less suitable for outdoor work

When they hit the table or ground, they make a dead stop and will not roll or bounce away.

Due to their design, they can be used in all the same routines done with small hand magic props used indoors like, sponge balls, coins, dice, and crochet balls for the cups, or balls used for, two in the hand one in the pocket.

Since they are a relatively new prop for Magicians, they do some of the newest most original impossible magic seen on the streets today. You get 9 bean bags, a flat wand, and a hand made coin purse to hold them.

For a better explanation and video demonstrations click the button below to go to the sales page.

More Info

The Squeaker Purse. $45

This coin purse squeaks when you squeeze it, due to a secret replaceable squeaker hidden inside. Used for sleight of hand, misdirection, crowd building, and clowning.

Full instructions and free video tutorial, just click the button below to go to the sales page.

More Info

The Street Clown Magic Set. $65

Everything you need to do the sponge ball routines taught on this site.

The set includes 4 high quality sponge balls, a flat wand, and the Squeaker purse.

Full instructions and free video tutorial, just click the button below to go to the sales page.

More Info

The Wand Purse. $60

Street Magician Prop made famous by The Late Great Jim Cellini.

It was his secret weapon, that he passed on to us.

The strongest and best kept secret in magic. A common prop 100 years ago in live performance, but unheard of today.

It enables you to pull a 9” wand from a 3” purse, and many other objects that should not fit inside this little purse.

The secret utility device, built into the purse, does thousands of other tricks by its use of being able to vanish or produce anything that can fit through the mouth of the purse.

This device allows you to get anything in or out of the purse with zero detection, into or out of your palm.

The purse can be seen from any angle, because there is no secret hole in the purse.

In fact, because it has no hole it has a second secret device, allowing it to be a rattle purse for coin magic.

This old vaudevillian tool, is the strongest street gimmick on the market in my opinion. Everything from miming, to clowning, to mentalism, to sleight of hand manipulation routines.

Click the button below to go to the sales page for more info and video demonstrations.

More Info

I’m going to be on Jeff McBride’s show today, and the subject will be on the fundamentals of busking.

So I thought I would do a quick article about who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

For those who don’t know, or a refresher course for pros.

So before we learn how to busk today, we should learn what is busking.

What Is A Busker?

We’ll start with the name.

Names and words are pretty important for understanding how our world works.

The word busker means searcher or wanderer, one who is searching.

Buskers search or work everywhere they can, indoors and outdoors, bars, restaurants, In front of theaters, sidewalks, plazas, and even at street intersections for cars waiting at stop lights.

They work wherever they can for tips and donations, or any other opportunities like gigs or steady work.

Working sidewalks is usually the first stepping stone on their search, because the sidewalks are free and full of walkers, and always there.

Who Are These Searchers?

They are the Artists in our world;

Painters, Writers, Musicians, Performers, Jewelry Makers, and even us Magicians.

Since they are Buskers first, most Buskers incorporate many other art forms within their own field.

For instance, a Magician may incorporate mime and clowning in his own show.

What Are They Searching For?

Most buskers are searching for careers and their place in the world.

But for many, the journey is their destination.

Not all who wander are lost. -Tolkien

Their searching may in fact be, their career and place in the world.

Searching for new tricks, routines, venues, new friends, new places, and new ways to perform what they were born to do.

Approaching Busking As A Magician.

Remember the rule of three.

Everything works in threes.

Every magic trick has a -Beginning, a Middle, and an End.

Busking is getting people to - Stop, Stay, and Pay.

Buskers do this with -Color, Sound, and Movement.

They use color, sound, and movement in a show, or story, that has a -Beginning, Middle, and End.

When You write your first show or story, you should write it with the THREE tricks you already know best already.

Never try and learn new ones for your first time busking. Believe me you’ll have enough to deal with, you’ll want your tricks to be second nature to free up your concentration on busking.

Other Aspects Of The Rule.

The Magician’s rule of three has other aspects you may have already heard of.

For instance when learning to use a new prop or gimmick, try and get three.

The first one, to wear out practicing, the second one, to use once mastered, and the third one as a back up, in case you lose the second one.

So if your making your own props like most of us do, be prepared and make three.

Some Tricks Made Powerful By Threes Are:

Three Card Monte -this trick is strengthened by its ease of understanding and focus and direction for the spectator, but more subtle, deceptive, and easier to manipulate for the operator with three objects.

Cups And Balls -this trick can be done with any number of cups or balls, but when using three cups and three balls, this trick is running on full capacity.

One In The Hand And Two In The Pocket -this deception owes it’s thanks to the rule of three for many of the same reasons as The Three Card Monte and The Cups And Balls.

There are many other aspects to The Rule Of Three in magic, but keeping on the subject matter at hand, and with the time and space here, it prevents me from going on about them, maybe in future articles.

Maybe some folks will leave some examples of threes in the comments.

Your Pal Jimmy

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My Journey To Busking.

I’ve been a Magician and a writer all my life, but living in America from the 80’s to 2000, I was always told that these are just hobbies, that I should grow up and get a real job.

That I have to live in the real world to support a family.

So I did,

In those years, while only tinkering with my art, I was a Car Washer, Service Writer, Truck Driver, Butcher, Barber, Car Salesman, Telemarketer, Steel worker, Offshore Oil Worker, Carpenter, I worked construction, corporate jobs, and the list goes on for the “Real Jobs”

I did these jobs to appease the status quo and do my duty as a good american man.

I was always thinking that if I just made enough money to buy a theater, or buy the equipment, or save up enough money, then I could finally afford to be a Magician and have my own venue.

When I was very young, I tried busking, but I had no one to show me how to do it, and I never made more than $20 a day, so I just abandon the idea.

One of the jobs I got in the early 90’s was at Magic Masters. It was an upscale mall magic shop that catered to execs, doctors, and lawyer types in resort towns.

The workers at the magic shop taught me how to gig as a hobbyist Magician.

But even then, once again everyone, even older Magicians, told me I had to stick to a real job like selling in a Magic Shop.

So as a part time magician and sometimes a full time Magician I would do, walk around gigs, and back yard shows, sell and pitch magic products, managed magic shops, and eventually I even owned some of my own magic shops.

Then in the late 90’s, I met a professional Magician, Jamie O’Hara in Las Cruces N.M. He helped me go full time as an entertainer, and helped me realize it was a real job, and that you could support a family with just entertaining people, and you didn’t have to sell them any magic products.

I made a good income and I felt like I was finally on the right track.

Through all these experiences I did well for myself, bought a house, cars, supported my wife (she was a homemaker), I put the kids through private school, and helped out friends and family in need.

But it was too late, my wife said she had had enough, and listen up fellas what she said before she left me.

She said,

“Do you know what its like, to be the #1 fan of the worlds greatest Car Salesman and then the #1 fan of the worlds greatest Offshore-man and then the #1 fan of the world’s greatest Magic Shop Owner, and then Magician.”

“Why didn’t you just pick one?” she said.

Why?

Why didn’t I?

We know why don’t we fellas.

Bad advice from every angle and sadly even from other “Magicians.”

She left me, and she wouldn’t take me back.

The story of course is longer and more involved, there were other reasons on her part, But that was the big one, I’ll spare us all the rest of the story.

Her leaving me, was the hardest thing that ever happened to me, even though before I met her, I grew up homeless in gangs.

You see through it all, I’ve always been a family man at heart and this seemed like the end of the world for me.

I fought hard to get off the streets and get a family.

So when she left and took the kids, I was feeling suicidal and lost.

I couldn’t hold my jobs, and didn’t really see a reason too.

I started drinking a fifth a day, and at night I went out and drank even more.

The house fell apart, the beard grew, and so did the garbage piles in my empty house, my life was looking pretty bleak.

My friends came out of the woodwork and saved my life.

They began to support me. I had done it for them in the past.

You see in New Orleans we take care of our own.

I always wanted to be an entertainer exclusively, but the Magicians above me felt I would make a better vendor for magic. I was a strong Salesman, but a weak Magician, but it never set well in my head selling the secrets to people who didn’t care about our art.

After my wife left, a lot of the fellahs felt bad and wanted to help with my dream of becoming a full time performer, even if they didn’t feel I was completely up to par.

My teacher Doug Conn told me it was time for me to work the streets for tips. In my head I was a little reluctant, because as a salesman I had always known that you could not rely on the charities of others to support you.

So I told a lot of the guys who were training me,

“So great, your gonna send me to another country to beg on the streets for money.”

But they kept assuring me that I was gonna make money.

My teacher trained me and got me around the pros.

And after a year working on the streets in New Orleans 12-16 hrs a day, he sent me to Europe.

I went to Europe and saw shows with $1000 hats, and I saw thousands of buskers all over the place.

I saw huge busking stores that had been there for many years, one of which was two hundred years old in Barcelona.

I saw third and fourth generation buskers, family traditions.

I saw buskers buying nightclubs, and homes, without credit, using cash, just on what they saved up.

I saw doctors and lawyers look at me as an equal.

I saw things American magi should see.

Then I came home, and traveled across America, but this time as a busker, and I saw my country differently, I saw very few American buskers in comparison.

I saw most Entertainers here barely making a living, confused and misguided like I had been.

I did see some making real money, if they were business savvy pros, but mostly what I saw was Entertainers with no trade skills or knowledge of their careers, or direction, and I got mad.

Why did I get mad?

Venue!

Venue, the most important thing to us.

The Late Great Hero Jim Cellini Clears Up The Confusion.

The hobbyists who ran our industry in those days, in their spare time, misinformed us and withheld tradition.

They told us that busking was begging and that you can’t make any money at it, and that we should just keep buying close up packet tricks.

You see those old guys had professional indoor venues, and looked down on the streets, feeling historically this was going backwards.

(After all, before Jean Houdin in the mid 1800’s most of us use to work on the streets.)

The Masters before them provided them with these venues and training, but they refused to pass it on to us.

But it was Cellini the late great street master, who changed this.

He had learned from Slydini and the Bamberg Dynasty who continues to pass on our tradition to this day.

Cellini provided a real venue and a professional training for his students and his peers, when the other old masters wouldn’t.

He gave us a place to work with a future.

Slydini provided indoors, and Cellini provided indoors and the streets.

He had opened up the world to American Magicians with the aid Of Johnny Fox showing them how to get venues indoors and outdoors by starting on the street.

It was Cellini who provided real tricks that you can do in a show and make money (not close up card hack).

It was Cellini who taught us how to get paid not just with a paycheck, but with tips.

You know it’s bad enough when when everyone around you is bad mouthing your life’s work, but it’s pathetic when other Magicians chime in, and stand by and watch you fail while they reap the benefits their teachers provide them.

But Cellini was different.

Cellini taught my teachers, who taught me.

I owe my life to them.

It should be said, there were many other heroes like Capehart and Sheridan and Gazzo that did so much for us. But it was Cellini who took a personal interest in me and so many of us out there and literally took care of us.

My Turning Point.

It wasn’t until after I finally stopped listening to my friends, family, and hobbyists who were telling me to get “A Real Job,” that my life finally changed.

It had to sink in that performing as a full time job was a legitimate career.

After that, I became successful, and a stable part of my community.

In fact, my wife took me back after learning I had a stable predictable income, and a permanent trade.

It wasn’t just that, she also noticed that I had real direction.

So With All That Said, What Did I Learn In My 58 Years?

It should be understood that when people were telling me in my youth that I should get a real job, they were NOT intentionally being malicious, they thought they were doing me a favor.

You see common people are not born (cursed or gifted) to be an artist, but common people do go through an Art Rebel Phase before they wake up and begin thinking like a healthy adult commoner. They need a kick in the pants and a point in the right direction to be common.

Unfortunately, that is absolutely the wrong direction if you are not a commoner and are truly an Artist.

An artist cannot, and should never, abandon what he was born to do. It will only lead to misery for himself and his loved ones. He will become a burden to them and himself.

But in the same turn, a commoner who was not born (cursed or gifted) to be an artist, will heave huge amounts of burden and misery on himself and loved ones if he stays in his selfish dreamland and doesn’t do his duty as a common man and get a real job or business and do something constructive with his life.

Anyway, I’m old, and that’s ancient history, and I have not written this to commoners, I have written this to the Artist out there who is trying to find his own place in the world.

Life is short.

If your an Artist don’t waste your time with A Real Job.

If you’re a commoner don’t waste your time starting an art career.

Hey mister working class hero, somebody has to grow the food and build the infrastructure, we can’t all be crazy artists, you know what I mean?

Godspeed brothers.

Your Pal.

Jimmy.

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Upcoming Product, And Tips On Making Your Own.

This Prop Set is made to fit in your pocket and work any where anytime.

If you’re a Pro, or a regular reader of my posts and newsletters, you already know what to do with these props on the street. but if you’re a beginner you can go on my site and learn how to use all these props in my tutorial section or by simply searching for the prop in my site archive.

When these new sets are released I will provided links and videos for pointers and ideas.

Or you can just learn about the Back Up Rig here today and simply get started on making your own.

Hand made 9” Hickory Flat Wand for no roll on a table. This is hand filed and sanded from a drumstick that has been specially compressed and hardened for percussion and banging. This means better sound quality and less breakage. This wand is not round or square, it is flat like a carpenters flat pencil, so it wont roll off a table and packs better.

Hand made 14” Red Handkerchief with heavy but pliable Indian cotton for wind resistant sleight of hand work, in the outdoors, and in the elements. If your a street magician you know silks can be hard to handle outside. This solves that problem.

Hand made 2.5” Vegan Brown Leather Clasp Purse with red cotton lining to match the handkerchief.

This purse was designed for coin juggling and sleight of hand coin magic. It was originally designed to hold five silver dollars or 1 ounce rounds.

The Street Magicians Savings Account.

Inside the purse, instead of silver dollars, I supply you with five U.S. mint matching 2024 half dollars $2.50, for a few reasons;

1. For affordability.

2. They are best for beginners.

3. Half dollars are known to do more standard coin magic than the larger dollar coins.

And for one more very important reason.

This is to encourage you to build up a savings from the $2.50 worth of half dollars to hundreds of dollars in silver dollars as you become more successful on the street.

It is my advice for you to buy a real silver dollar from time to time, when ever you get extra money until you build up a set to replace the half dollars. I would make at least 5 coins the goal, but the more the merrier.

Not only are silver dollars superior in handling, but Silver is worth a lot of money. you can sell them later if you need money on the street.

-Many off us old timers used this method of building up from cheap coins to valuable silver dollars encase we ever had to sell them in an emergency to feed or house ourselves on the road especially in foreign countries. Or to get a plane or train ticket out of there!

It also made us look like real pros at high paying gigs when we performed with real silver dollars.

Here’s the half dollars in the purse.

Here they are nested inside with plenty of room. The square frame (as apposed to a round frame) gives you a wider gape for catching or tossing in and out, but the 2.5” size makes it more portable and makes the juggling look more impressive.

And Lastly, the set will come with a 1 3/4” Kong Squeaking Tennis ball for manipulation and productions. It says KONG on the front and Squeakair on the back.

You can find these at most pet supply stores as Dog Chews or Fetch Toys. They come in various sizes.

I use them throughout my show, because the color, sound, and movement, builds crowds and attention. Sometimes as a one ball routine, Squeaking as I go, or sometimes I like to bounce a small prop like a coin on the ground and have it change into the ball as a finale.

I myself usually use a 2” or larger, but for the beginner starting out and for portability a 1 3/4” ball is the industry standard for billiard ball magic.

If you’re a beginner 1 3/4” is less intimidating to palm, and fits perfectly in a finger palm.

And if your a Pro, the smaller wand, coins, and ball packs smaller for your Back Up Rig.

With the coins inside and the hank folded up, this is my basic emergency Back Up Rig.

I have carried this, or something like it, most of my life, encase I ever lost my full rig.

This is the set that could start me over if I ever lost everything.

With this set of props I could make fast money doing sidewalk shows to get me into a hotel room and start replacing my more expensive stuff which would in turn make me more money to replace everything else until I was back into my full rig.

This set of props is the perfect back up rig for the Pro.

Or it is the perfect tools for the beginner, to learn basic sleight of hand, street magic, show writing, and making money right away.

If your a beginner with these simple durable props, you could design a quick close up show for the sidewalk, or anywhere, and be working immediately, making money, and working your way into a bigger show or career.

That’s how I did it.

And I believe you can too.

If you want you can put this Rig together for yourself, or just stay tuned until I put mine up for sale soon.

Your Pal Jimmy

If this was helpful be sure and leave a donation it’s much appreciated.

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Buckle up, because there won’t be any sugar coating our busker’s life today.

This article is really intended for the beginners who are spiraling, but even I tell myself this mantra, especially if I need big money in a hurry.

-There’s no money at the house.

-There’s no money at the house.

First, before we go into the lesson, I want to start out by saying, leave home at home, do not bring desperation to the pitch, the walkers can smell two things, Fear and Desperation and they will avoid you like the plague.

With that said;

Hope for gain, instead of fear of loss.

The fear of busking for an amateur can be as paralyzing as stage fright.

And if you’ve never felt stage fright before, believe me, when you do, you won’t ever want to feel that again.

Strangely it can strike anyone at any time.

I got it once already late in my career, which added insult to injury.

Hope for gain, instead of fear of loss.

If you’re the wise beginner you have already taken the first step and quit your day job to go all in as a busker.

But what if it hasn’t paid off yet in the first month or three?

Well then you know you’ve got serious problems, and the weight of these problems can be breathing down your neck right now, spouse, landlord, bill collectors, hungry child, bar-tab, demanding cats, etc.

Home can be a scary place right now, but so can the pitch.

Going out in public without the learned ability to feel at home in the public eye, can be crippling.

And when you do go out there, after days of failure, spiraling with the face of dejection and desperation and the feeling like everyone is staring at you like a jury, it’s probably going to be pretty hard to be the life of the party to get paid as busker.

This sounds bad, but cheer up, this is actually good news!

Because this is exactly why you quit your day job. This is life forcing you to do your work to become a successful busker.

This is you finally getting to deal with your life, on your own terms.

Not having a boss means self discipline.

You don’t want to hear this, but the one thing you don’t want to do, is stay home, there’s no money at home anyway.

Going home just makes the problems get bigger.

Think about it when you’re at home you’re a sitting duck to everyone who wants money, but when you’re out there busking, you’re free and now you have the ability to get the money to shut them up when you do get home.

Say it with me, there’s no money at home!

I’ll tell you what else isn’t at home, much needed stage time, or learning to get comfortable in the public eye, or discovering new material.

That’s all out there on the pitch.

And if no one understands you at home, guess what, the audience and the other buskers out there on the pitch do.

We understand you and we all want you to succeed.

If you’re staying home you’re spiraling and it’s only a matter of time before you go back to your “Real Job”

And if you really are a busker, those two words “Real Job” should have just put the fear of God into you.

Those two words alone should have you grabbing your hat and walking out the front door to busk right now!

You need to convince yourself that you can do this and the first step is by getting used to being comfortable on the pitch.

Go out there for hours, and stay out there, whether you’re busking or not.

Get used to being out there.

And when you’re out there here’s a tip;

Hope for gain, instead of fear of loss.

I’m about to throw some cold water into someones face here.

There are some scared broke monkeys spending weeks, months, and even years, at the house, always “getting ready to start their new careers as a busker,” but all this planning will only hurt them, because what their planning only works in their head and not in real time on the street.

The street is its own world.

They keep “planning” while secretly cringing in angst throughout every day that passes bye that their dream will never come true, and that their bills are piling up, because they are an artist and can’t keep a job or pay bills even when they do have money.

This of course is not “planning,” this is fear of failure.

And don’t tell them that they are just being cowards, because they’ll deny it and give you some creative B.S. about a “plan they have,” or simply say, “you don’t get what I do.”

Well if you’re the guy who’s procrastinating and broke, you can lie to everyone if you want to, but at the end of the day, you know the truth, and you know the only way to fix it.

Get out of the house, there’s no money there, only sorrow.

You need to man up, get out of your comfort zone and get out there and dance like a monkey, like the rest of us.

Because the one place you are not going to be a successful busker is in your house.

As the late great poet and performance artist Steven Jesse Bernstein used to say, “just do your work.”

And I might add, our work is on the street.

Your Pal Jimmy

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Today I thought we’d talk about some things we all need and do, but nobody ever seems to talk about.

Coin juggling, flourishes, tricks, and hand making props.

I have no idea what has been up with me lately, I have had the coin magic bug bite me real bad and I have been throwing myself into all things coins.

Jeeze man, I am not a normal person, I am going to be 60 pretty soon and I’m still obsessed with magic tricks.

So I thought we could talk today about my recent progress.

I practice and learn out on the pitch, in the real world in real time.

Most of the new things I have been learning, are from my experiments out on the pitch for walkers.

In the videos below I’ll be showing you a couple of things I’ve picked up.

Also.

As some of you who follow me here already know, I hand make most of my props.

I design my own props with the specifications for my work needs, because very few people in the world do what we do and you can’t just run down to Walmart and pick up a great coin purse for coin juggling and flourishes.

Here’s a few tricks I’ve been working on with my hand made purse.

Those are some of the things I might do for the first couple of people who walk up.

A New Coin Juggling Purse Design.

This is the new coin juggling purse with a smaller 2.5” square frame that allows more gape for catching and tossing in and out. The purse itself is a little more compact and uniform in shape and its tougher so it can handle controlled kicks. The frame is a little stronger and heavier so it can handle kicks without bursting open.

New juggling purse designs and two new coin tricks I've been working on.

I Ching Coins And Drawstring Bags Review.

For anyone who does a lot of coin magic you know at some point you are going to need more then just half dollars or Morgans. You’re going to need other coins to widen your repertoire, add interest, create color contrasts, add misdirection, color changes and various other reasons.

I Ching coins do all of this including making your magic look more impossible because of the hole in the middle.

The trouble is most of the magic industry Chinese coin reproductions on the market are too light or tinny or cheap looking. Some are just obviously made from a common washer.

But I was lucky enough to find some super high quality I Ching Coins, that are actually made for the use of I Ching which is a form of eastern fortune telling.

So they seemed to have gone all out to make these right.

In my life I have worked with a huge amount of Asian style coins on the market and these are by far the highest quality Asian style coins I have ever worked with.

These things are heavy and loud when they click pass.

They are so chunky they even work well with click passes with silver dollars that are larger then them.

Right out of the package the weight and feel had me sessioning like a fiend for hours with them.

I like using them for Chink A Chink or Shadow Coins with my own hand made drawstring bag, the whole experience feels very authentic and I’ve had a lot of positive feed back from my audience.

I get the I Ching Coins HERE

When you click on the link they have awesome photos showing size comparisons with other coins and you can tell immediately what I’m talking about.

They have different sizes, the largest is 32 mm slightly larger and thicker then a half dollar, and they are expensive at $18 for a set of 3.

I ordered two sets (6)

The good news is that they are all exact duplicates which is great for magic. Also the people who sold them to me were really really awesome they sent them wrapped in heavy brown paper and twine with samples of other I Ching coins they carry and it arrived really quick at no extra charge.

If I could figure a way to get them in bulk for cheap I would make sets with purses and gimmicks to sell.

Drawstring Bags.

I have been making and experimenting with drawstring bags for coin juggling also.

I found with coins in them they work just like hacky sacks or juggling bags to incorporate with the flourishes.

Also I have found, with just a slight different handling, that coins can be tossed out and caught just like we do with the purse frame purses. So I am going to be making different designs and experimenting and hopefully I’ll have some routines to post for you soon.

TUTORIAL-

If you do a lot of coin magic, most of what I did in the above videos is probably pretty familiar to you already or could be figured out, but if you’re a paid subscriber, in the videos below, we’re going to go over into detail some of the secrets and tips that I had to learn the hard way so you don’t have to.

By the way, if you want to help us out here, you can leave us a donation.

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When most of us Americans think of England, we usually think of The Posh, but in my traveling youth, I saw the real England, inner city England.

I’m an old man now, in a backwater town in the States, but I still start my work day the same way.

On the busker’s backstage, just behind the pitch, early morning, gazing out at the walkers, with a cigarette in my mouth, and a tall cup of hot black tea with a splash of milk, English style, where I picked up the habit.

Makes me feel like a real operator, floods me with the memories, and primes me for the day.

I remember years ago, me and the local sidewalk magicians in London, on the James Street pitch in Covent Garden, or The London Eye over the Thames, or on the Trafalgar, with tall styrofoam cups of tea.

I remember their shucking and jiving rhyme slang, telling Porkies, with me trying to get their inside jokes.

And them, amused with my inner city hillbilly Newarlins garble and euphemisms, that I rattled out every day, to soften and kid the nightmares of street living, and the dark comical pitfalls of what we do as traveling performers.

3000 miles of Atlantic and 250 years of separation, but some things stayed the same.

Street wise cracking gentlemen across the defunct world wide English empire.

But the sun finally set, leaving the rest of us under street lamps.

Twenty something years ago in London.

Many of us started out with long walks from our squats, in old suits, carrying our rigs through the city, to the Garden.

Early mornings, before our long day of the queue, we had our cup of tea and cigarettes, it was my favorite part of the day.

Blue collar workers, who wore white collars, all lined up, hunched over, with hot drinks and cigarettes, like day laborers.

I was hanging with the Cockney sidewalk performers and their king, Lord Lucan Paul.

In his working class three piece black wool suit, black leather vest, and self made Busker’s Gibeciere.

He was a tattered and worn Dandy that could take on four men in a fist fight, but you’d never know it, because he was a quiet contemplative gentle giant until you did him or a friend wrong.

He lived by a code.

An inner city archetype, a London icon.

My friend and I miss him.

He was the one who got me hooked on the tea.

Every morning in the squat, he would come into my room and wake me up with,

“Hey Jimmy, Cup Of Tea?”

I’d roll out of bed, into the kitchen, and into the electric kettle and milk.

Recently, I heard he made it good financially some years ago, and went off and retired, but he still comes back to the pitch to help out some of the bloaks still down on the pitch, down on their luck, down there in London Town.

Those were the days for me.

Now I’m alone, on a backwater pitch in the states.

And when the buskers pass through here every once in a while, they have Mocha Lattes in the snooty Cafe that does not allow smoking.

But you can still find me in the mornings, by myself, out in the parking lot, around the way, with my cigarette and English tea, scribbling yarns like this in my little journal that I keep in my inside suit coat pocket.

Savoring my morning and remembering London, New Orleans, and Barcelona.

Wondering what happens next, with Fortuna’s wheel.

Regnabo Regno Regnavi Sum sine regno

Your Pal Jimmy.

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In every downtown sidewalk, there’s a perfect night pitch.

It’s the lit doorway of a closed up shopfront.

The Sidewalk Magicians first trick is turning a doorway entrance into a theater by using shrewd imagination.

The entryway is sunk into the building off the sidewalk creating its own alcove.

This lit up alcove creates the only lit harbor from the rest of the darkness out on the sidewalk, luring walkers into the action.

Even luring them from across the street.

The shop door itself is the backdrop, the side displays windows are stage left and stage right, and the overhead light creates an edge on the ground acting as floodlights and downstage to the theater.

The Operator can work deep in this nook to cover his sleight of hand angles, and bring his audience in tight for control and commitment.

This pitch is perfect for 8-10 minute rinse and repeat shows all night long.

The Busker can spend all night banging away and searching late into the night, until the crowds dry up.

These doorways also seemed to be one of the safest places to work when it comes to rules and regulations where a busker can work.

I’ve never been hassled especially if the shop was vacant.

In my opinion, if the doorway is in a high foot-traffic area, the doorway is the best pitch for the close up worker for angles, crowd control, security, and comfort zone. It really feels like your own private office.

It also has sort of a feeling to you and the passer-byes that you are supposed to be there.

If I’m traveling, and just got to a town late and I need hotel money, I start looking for a good doorway pitch, and then start banging out quick shows.

If I’m not sure about the regulations in a town, I look for a vacant shop doorway and start there.

If there’s too many buskers on the main pitches, I go look for a doorway.

It grounds me, puts a few bucks in my pocket, and helps me get my bearings, before I branch out in a new town.

Another good doorway type pitch is an old closed up theater which usually has alcoves built in by the ticket taking box office.

My heart will always be in the doorway.

The doorway tempo is quicker and to the point.

The doorway is where the action is.

The doorway, in my opinion, is where the moment, is eternal.

In that intimate setting, you can literally feel the magic moving through you to the audience and back again.

In those glorious 8 minutes you can actually feel the fulfillment of your life’s calling here on earth.

It runs through your veins.

And makes you want to do more.

It’s a moment in Valhalla.

Your Pal Jimmy

If you’d like to leave a tip to help us out here it would be greatly appreciated.

DONATE HERE

Whelp, I have been working hard on changing the set up of our SITE for our newsletter, and I have made it easier, I believe, to navigate and learn from the lessons on the site.

It is bitter sweet that there are now many hundreds of lessons on just about every aspect of busking on the site, which is good for the beginner, but has gotten difficult to navigate.

The Busking Topics Tab can be very helpful to look through topics along with the Archive Tab to search for stuff.

One of the things I added was a NEW MAGIC SHOP tab which can be seen at the top of the site.

If you want, you can hit the LINK HERE and browse around and see what I have for sale so far.

Which brings me to the news that I am now releasing The Wand Purse, The Squeaker Purse, and The Street Clown Magic Set to everyone, not just paid subscribers.

I will be putting up more busking articles soon.

The articles sadly have been on the back burner for a couple of weeks, because I have been busy, hand making inventory for the new magic shop, and filling all the orders I received this week, not to mention trying to find time to go out busking.

Next up will be the release of at least two different gimmicked purses and sets and hopefully more articles on our art and tradition

Thanks for your patience.

Your Pal Jimmy

This coin purse comes double loaded with two squeakers and a squeaker replacement system built right into it.

BUY NOW.

$45 + shipping and handling.

U.S. SALES ONLY

The Purse itself was hand-sewn and handmade by me, without the use of a machine, with the exception of the manufactured metal clasp and squeakers.

By making the purse by hand, it gave me the advantage of designing it specifically for the professional street worker.

Today’s Special Offer.

As some of you know I am very very old school and I never expose the secrets of magic for free to the general public.

I usually only tell how tricks work behind the paywall, but today I have a special offer for my free and paid subscribers alike.

Since this Squeaker Purse is more of a Clown prop than a Magician’s prop, and to the best of my knowledge, is my original design, I am going to give everyone a free tutorial today without having to be a paid subscriber.

This way you can get an introduction to what our paid subscriber tutorials are like, and you can learn how to use the purse if you decide to buy the set today.

In the tutorials below I teach you how the purse is made, how the squeaker replacement system works, how to use a coin purse as a sleight of hand tool, and other misdirection tips.

For extensive lessons on magic secrets you will have to become a paid subscriber and visit the Magic Tutorials Section of this site.

Description:

Coin Purse -dark brown Vegan Leather with antique design gold color clasp.

Floral cotton lining with squeaker replacement opening and compartment.

2 1/2” tall

3 1/2” wide

Mouth gape about 2”x 3”

The kit comes with the flat wand, four sponge balls, and the squeaky purse.

$65 + shipping and handling.

BUY NOW.

U.S. SALES ONLY

Everything was hand-sewn and handmade by me without the use of power tools, with the exception for course of the manufactured metal frame and sponge balls.

By making the purse and flat wand by hand, it gives me the advantage of designing them specifically for the professional street worker.

This set contains all the props necessary to do all the routines in the videos and tutorial links below.

Sponge Ball Clowning And Wand From Purse Tutorial link.

Appearing Sponge Balls From Bowl And Wand Squash Tutorial link.

It also gives you the ability to break up the props for other tricks and routines you may have learned elsewhere or dreamed up yourself.

Today’s Special Offer.

As some of you know I am very very old school and I never expose the secrets of magic for free to the general public.

I usually only tell how tricks work behind the paywall, but today I have a special offer for my free and paid subscribers alike.

Since this Squeaker Purse is more of a Clown prop than a Magician prop, and to the best of my knowledge, is my original design, I am going to give everyone a free tutorial today without having to be a paid subscriber.

This way you can get an introduction to what our paid subscriber tutorials are like and learn how to use the purse if you decide to buy the set today.

In the tutorial you can learn how to make your own today, or you can just purchase the ones I make here.

In the tutorials below I teach you how the purse is made, the squeaker replacement system, how to use a coin purse as a sleight of hand tool, and tips on dealing with the wind and other sponge balls hazards.

For extensive lessons and magic secrets you will have to become a paid subscriber and visit the Magic Tutorials Section of this site.

Description:

Purse -dark brown Vegan Leather with antique design gold color clasp. Floral cotton lining with squeaker replacement opening and compartment.

2 1/2” tall

3 1/2” wide

Mouth gape about 2”x 3”

Wand- hand filed and sanded Hickory Flat Wand 9” long and a 1/2” wide.

Sponge Balls- four 2” red.

Feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.

Your Pal Jimmy.

Purse and flat wand.

$60+shipping and handling.

BUY NOW.

U.S. SALES ONLY

This gimmicked purse design was made famous to The Magi, by The Late Great Jim Cellini in his Wand Of Merlin Routine, from The Royal Touch a street magician’s book.

In his book he gives a very brief explanation of how to take an ordinary purse and construct a very crude version, but to his students and our fraternity he gave the proper lesson through oral tradition.

The one you will receive, and we will be learning from, is from his oral tradition that was handed down to me.

It is a far superior purse and stage craft utility device for busking or professional stage work.

Since it was made famous as a wand production gimmick, the indoor hobby guys never dreamed it did thousands of other tricks, but the pros and street guys have always known.

Mercury card predictions, coins vanish and appearances, dice, etc.

Description:

Purse -dark brown Vegan Leather with antique design gold color clasp.

2 1/2” tall

3 1/2” wide

Mouth gape about 2”x 3”

Four concealed quarters for rattling sound.

Hand filed and sanded Hickory Flat Wand 9” long and a 1/2” wide.

A slip of paper with a video tutorial link for instructions.

Everything was hand-sewn and handmade by me without the use of power tools, with the exception of course of the manufactured metal clasp and the compression and grain and density treatments done by the drumstick company I purchased it from.

By hand making them, this has given me the advantage to design them specifically for the use of the street worker.

If you are a Paid Subscriber you can learn how this purse works and how to make your own here today below the paywall.

Read more

The Magician’s Coin Purse, much like his Wand, is a tool for theatrics, and deception, and aids him in sleight of hand.

In my career as a busker and as a Magician, the coin purse has been crucial to my work and I always bring it with me.

So I feel it important to pass this joy and mysticism on to our students here.

I know your inbox has been quiet from me recently, but I have a good excuse ha.

This has been a priority for me.

I have been working hard for weeks constructing gimmicked purses for sale and putting together lessons for you.

In the tutorials I will teach you how to make your own or buy them from me.

When searching the internet I noticed that these gimmicked purses have been forgotten and are no longer in circulation.

All the better for us.

This means fresh material and props for the street.

The purses in the past that were sold at standard magic shops, were made and sold as a single trick gimmick, and not made to last a lifetime on the street as a versatile gimmick to do thousands of tricks that the worker could dream up.

Generally speaking, pros use -multi use-utility devices, not single trick gimmicks.

In the past most street guys just had to make their own, or hope a reputable busking prop company would put one out on the market for them.

I’m sort of a third option for y’all, I’m teaching students here and I’m going to be teaching you how to make them, or just buy the ones I’m putting out as an aid to get you started on your way to living like a real busker who creates his own stuff from scratch.

Because the purses I’m teaching and making are just going to be the basics, most pros like to tweek and design their own to their own specifications depending on their own show needs.

By buying or making mine you will get the basic idea of how they’re made and how to use them for your own personal use as an entertainer.

Here are some clips of four new purses with very very basic moves that any magician should know, just to give you an idea of what they are.

Cellini’s Wand Purse.

This purse was made famous by The Late Great Jim Cellini in his Wand Of Merlin from The Royal Touch a street magician’s book. In the book it gives a very brief explanation of how to take an ordinary purse and construct a very crude version, but to his students and our fraternity he gave the proper lesson through oral tradition.

The one we will be learning is from his oral tradition that was handed down to me.

It is a far superior purse and stage craft utility device for busking or professional stage work.

Since it was made famous as a wand production gimmick, the indoor hobby guys never dreamed it did thousands of other tricks, but the pros and street guys have always known.

Mercury card predictions, coins vanish and appearances, dice, etc.

we’ll go over it in the tutorials.

The Squeaker Purse.

The best thing about this purse is every time I squeak it, it makes me laugh, at puts me in the mood to clown for the people.

This device is double loaded with two squeakers for back up, and has a replacement system built into it.

It can also be loaded with bells or coins or other small objects for different noises.

This is my design, I’m sure as in other magic things someone else thought it up before me, but for me this was the old saying -That necessity is the mother of invention.

I needed a purse to squeak and aid me in my sleight of hand and misdirection.

Card Magic Purse.

This works similar to the way Tommy Wonder’s card predictions box works, but this also has a replacement system so that any brand or color of cards can be used.

The Rattle Purse.

I titled it the Rattle Purse, because traditionally this is what its known as, but I like to call mine The Rattler. I like to use this with my shadow coins finale where I make one coin vanish and appear in the purse with the other three, and then as a final bit, I make them all vanish and appear together in the purse.

End Note-

Of course I wasn’t trying to shock and awe here with the videos, it was just a way to give you some thinking of what they are and what their possibilities could be.

In the tutorials not only will we be learning how to make and use these purses, but we will also learn how to do most of these effects without a them, using just sleight of hand and an ordinary purse.

Now on to wands and sets.

Flat Wands- hand made without power tools.

9” Sleight of hand flat wands that are easier to manipulate and more deceptive then standard 14” Flat, not round or square, but flat so they don’t roll when you put them on a table slanted by cobble stone.

I do not use dowels, I make the flat wands from manufactured dense drumsticks, because they have already been compressed, treated, tested, and designed for heavy percussion use.

I’m thinking of selling these in sets of two as back up, at an affordable price, since we all seem to go through them or loose them.

Affordable coin busking sets.

I have been collecting matching sets of five coins for coin magic beginner and pro sets that come with a special purse and flat wands that can be affordable for beginners or those down on their luck, or those who just want a stealth rig. Five coins enable you to do just about any coin magic you want to do.

This could be an emergency back up rig, or a rig to get started to make money and build your way up to bigger and better things, or this could just be your every day carry.

I’m still thinking on it.

I may add some stuff like a 2’ dog squeaker tennis ball for a bounce change. Or two wands instead of one, for a back up.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think should go into this kind of set.

Clown Magic Sets.

Squeaker Purse, Flat Wand, and four pro quality Sponge Balls.

I’m really excited about all this and I can’t wait to release all of it and talk about all the possibilities.

Also, for my free subscribers, I will be putting out more free lessons, and articles on busking, and the life we chose.

Until then happy hunting.

Your Pal Jimmy.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a tip if you’re able.

DONATE HERE

This is a street performing master class in shadow coins, as a tool for crowd building and show construction.

This tutorial is really a part two of our previous tutorial -Ideas for a close up coin show on the sidewalk.

In part one, we learned how to construct a ten minute one coin street show and how to build a crowd for it using clowning.

Today in part two, instead of learning how to build a crowd by using clowning techniques, we are going to learn to use the coins themselves to build a crowd.

• The first thing we will be learning is how to do The Shadow Coins or the aka Chink-A-Chink Trick.

• Then we will learn two different set up options for more versatility for show construction.

• Then we will learn street handling and surfaces and how they differ greatly from indoor gig work.

• Lastly we will learn how to crowd build with magician’s props instead of clown props for a more serious skill oriented crowd building presentation.

Keeping with the spirit of part one, this tutorial will be filmed like a private session.

In my street handling of Shadow Coins I do not use a shell, because shells are expensive, difficult to match up, they bend and break on the street, get lost, and are impossible to replace immediately.

When living as a busker, you live by the seat of your pants, everything needs to be portable and easily replaceable to make money at a moments notice, so you need to focus on your reliable skills instead of a magic shop’s unreliable gimmicks.

The method I use is the original method recorded in -The Stars Of Magic book, by Mohamed Bey, done with sugar cubes, with the exception of sliding instead of palming.

We will be learning table work today, but I should mention working on the ground with a portable surface not only is a stronger presentation of this beautiful trick, but also will build a crowd much quicker.

To make it even stronger would be to do Daniel Garcia’s version”Sh4de” on a portable clothe surface on the ground. Not only would this version look better on the ground and create a spectacle, but it solves any angle problems and as far as portability and practicality. For life on the streets it’s unbeatable, because it is literally what it claims to be, four coins teleporting.

Well lets take a look and see my work on the subject below.

Read more