4 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003
Kansan file photo
By Neil Muluka
nmulka@kansan.com
Jayplay staff writer
Prostitutes are not the only people making money on the street. Street performers, or "buskers" are reappearing on downtown streets as the weather warms 0p.
A busker, somebody who entertains in the street or a public place in the hope of receiving money from passers-by, can range from a full band of instruments or a troupe of actors to a lone person with an acoustic guitar.
Shawn Bedient, Lawrence resident, said busking was his only source of income. Bedient plays acoustic guitar on Massachusetts Street in the afternoons.
"This is my sole source of income," Bedient, a busker for five years, said. "I have a broken back , so it's kind of difficult to get a labor job."
While most artists and performers enjoy a community feel in Lawrence, Bedient said that in the world of busking it's every man for himself.
"Everybody is coming into this from their own individual motivation, and
there's no real cohesive group," Bedient said. "It just appears that way. I know for one, I like to work alone. I don't want to share the money I make."
Money is not the only form of payment street performers receive. According to J Phoenix, Lawrence resident, and Dominick Johnson, Kansas City, Kan., resident, small toys and drugs are also common items in the tip jar.
"A lot of times we'll be playing and someone comes up." Phoenix said. "We'll talk for a while, and it turns out they have drugs I like using. So usually after I am done playing someone will smoke me up."
Phoenix and Johnson are members of the recently defunct hardcore techno group Deep Thought. They said playing on the street instead of in clubs and at house parties was vastly different and presented its own set of problems.
"Playing on the street there is no set venue," said Phoenix. "It's more like show up and do your thing. There's no boss, and there's no money."
Phoenix said people would hand him
GOOD GUITAR BUSKING SPOTS
Outside churches and after services:
weddings, baptisms and bar mitzvahs.
After funerals is OK but sometimes
frowned upon; it depends on the crowd.
Outside supermarket entrances.
At Saturday markets.
■ Flea markets: Just set up shop; customers love it.
Inside or outside cafés.
Source: http://www.stiffermingsociety.com
money, but the amount was not set.
"You can't go out in the street and say I'm going to make 40 bucks tonight," he said.
While some buskers are out trying to make a living, others are in it for the joys of performing. Derek Sharp, owner of Supersonic Music, 1023 Massachusetts St., has played drums in the street with fellow musicians.
He said playing to make people happy was his main goal.
"The times I've done it have never been for money," Sharp, Topeka resident, said. "It's just been for fun and for entertainment for the crowds that walk by. It's fun downtown to see the people in the suits stop and smile in their busy little lives."
When playing on the streets the performer is much closer to the audience than on a stage. This intimate setting allows for more interaction between the two the groups leading to some unpredictable results.
"A guy came up who was drunk or high or something and wanted us to play some song that nobody knew and promised to pay us if we do," Sharp said, "We started making noise, he loves it and he had 50 one-dollar bills. He threw them up in the air, and the bills dropped on my head, on the guitar players, on the ground, and he just walked away."
In front of Supersonic Music on Monday nights is a public drum circle. From 7 p.m.to 9 p.m. people are encouraged to bring their drums and play music with each other on the streets.
The circle, started about two and a half years ago in Topeka and attracts anywhere from 12 to 60 people a night to perform.
—Edited by Amber Byarlay and Julie Jantzer
two 11 o'clock and 10 o'clock