Thoughts of an Amateur Magician: Close Encounters of the Urban Kind: Talking to Myself

Anecdotes from the Streets

Talking to Myself

Once upon a time, in a busker profile on Jeremy, the Magician from Britain, I described his tactic for getting people to stop. Essentially, all he really does is talk to himself... out loud... and in public, with the hope that passersby would mistake Jeremy-talking-to-himself for Jeremy-talking-to-them. And at one point, someone will stop.

Well, this little cartoon describes one such time when I gave this tactic a try.
I was sharing a pitch (sharing the sidewalk) with magician Emmett, also known as the Windy City Wizard. We were taking turns performing...

I'll let the (horribly-drawn) pictures tell the rest:

Woohoo! Another day of street performing!
...The pedestrians don't look like zombies at all.
Nope.

I'm sharing a spot with another busker today.
He's a professional street magician with a cane and a sometimes-southern accent...

Let's start talking to the voices in my head!
In public!

"Yo! Waddup?"

"Magic show! ...Don't eat me!"

Or, you know.. If you try and eat me, at least I'd know that you can see me...

C'mon! Why isn't months of research and theoretical knowledge working in practice?

*Insert your regularly-scheduled Doctor Who reference.

...At this point, I got comfortable with the weird looks people were giving me.

They got a chuckle out of it!

...

...obligatory stock joke?

Where are the peoplez? Hey look! Maybe they'd be interested!

...or not. C'mon! Magic is cool!

This is a line I use every so often.
Except, the way I mean it, is.. like.. people are avoiding my gaze and stuff.
Acting like they're afraid. And umm...