Shock and Awe: Being an Entertainer

When I perform in front of an audience I know that only 10% of the audience in front of me is going to have any sort of appreciation for the kind of skill or talent that I actually have.  I have performed with four clubs before and gotten a bigger reaction from doing four clubs then I have for doing a three club routine that includes extremely difficult tricks (five club level difficulty).  There is a huge difference between performing for a laymen audience and an audience of performers.  (There is a rather large set of problems within the fire performance community with this problem as often people will perform as if everyone was a performer).
There is a sense in which before I can be an artist I must be an entertainer first.  I have to entertain the audience.  Think of Monty Python, they make you laugh with slapstick and humor.  After you are being entertained they throw an intellectual micky into the concoction and often enough a lot of people who won't realize it,  but they do that after they have the rest of the audience engaged and enjoying themselves.
This is the same thing that we as entertainers have to do.  We need to create a sense of emotions, awe, or shock in the audience that is going to keep them engaged and enjoying themselves before we can create any form of "intellectual micky" (this is the point when we start calling ourselves artists).  But the thing is we need to create that emotional reaction.  Comedians do it with humor,  burlesquers often do it with lust,  other performers do it with blood and danger, there are many ways but they are necessary.
Now that being said,  there is a sense of novelty within many of these areas.  Just as our emotional reactions get lessoned each time we get exposed to something we lose a little bit of our reaction to it.  We lose a little bit of novelty.  Often enough illusionists will stop performing an effect when enough illusionists are doing a similar effect (even when the methods are radically different). 
So with these all being said then that makes a huge level of responsibility on the performer to be able to understand these things.  And to be able to accept the responsibility for these things as well.  That means that when an effect is widely known among the audience or potential audience, since only 10% of people are really going to care for the difficulty( since the novelty and emotional reaction has been lost) ;it isn't nearly as good as other effects as we could choose to use.  I encounter this when I choose to do say juggling,  say between doing a three cigar box routine (which is almost never done) and say contact juggling (say the words fushigi I dare you ).  I have to pick and choose because the audience that pays me is a laymen audience it isn't the other professionals.  Performing for other professionals is honestly "showing off" then anything else.

Photographers During a Street Performance

The above photo was taken during one of my first evenings doing a local street fair called First Friday in Philadelphia   I recall this photo as a performer because what the photo doesn't show you is me finishing a quick set and looking across the street and seeing this photographer and making a large "X" with my clubs indicating I wasn't happy with him taken candid snapshots of me without compensating me.

I am an artist and an entertainer,  or at least I try to be.  I understand that when I perform for public events I take the chance that someone will take photos of me since I am in a public venue, which is usually okay because most people will put a dollar in a bucket as a way of saying thank you.  But there are also lots of photographers who behave in a way that makes me think that I am there simply as a "moment" of street art.

What I do costs money and takes time (which is another valuable resource).  A set of five juggling clubs will run at least 150$-300$ and that's only one prop.  So needless to say I understand that when I perform I am trying to entertain,  but I am also attempting to recoup costs/ earn money from my art.  It is also the most direct way to network.

So let's say that this photo actually becomes used for a financial gain.  Because of where I am,  I am in no way protected by any form of copyright for my art form or privacy acts.  So a photographer who happens to get lucky and capture an amazing image is doing so at the expense of the performer.  Simply put at least give us the respect that if you capture an image from us, thank us and acknowledge what you are doing.  We understand if you can't give us cash but you can acknowledge who you took the photos if you are going to publish them as your own work.
  We can't afford to create art for the sake of art alone.  So please either give us thanks by giving us credit in your photos or giving us what we call a "tip of the hat"
The photos in question were taken by http://www.s18photography.com/

Beginnings

I am a local street performer to Philadelphia.  I grew up and learned fire performing from the local community and branched out into doing actual performance work (street busking,  corporate gigs, sideshow, cons).  It's a different experience when you stand on a street corner or underneath a stage light to perform because all of a sudden nothing really matters any more except how good you are,  and how much other people like you.

I am a public performer,  you might see me on a street corner or at a septa top,  or even on a train platform at 30th Street Station.  The art I create is as public as art ever can be so I am setting up this blog to talk about that kind of art and how it relates to myself and others both as an artist and as an entertainer.