This weekend my neighborhood, Woodruff Place, is having their annual flea market. It’s kind of a big deal, and I’m told that last year there were about 6000 people who came through, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to do some street performing. Although the money would of course be nice, my real goal was to pass out business cards in an effort to try to get more local work, and spend less time driving to Chicago.
I have to say that I did have high hopes, and unfortunately, even my worst-case scenario was too rosy. I’m not quite sure what the problem was yesterday, but my two shows were pretty dismal. The first one wasn’t too bad, although a little sparse, but the second show was so painful that I actually cut it short. Not every event is a good place to perform, and now I’m thinking that bargain hunters in this town aren’t interested in wasting time watching a show when there are bargains to be had. There may also be a clash of style. In order to enjoy my show you do have to use your brain at least a little bit, and I couldn’t get the people watching my second show to engage in any way. At all. Seriously. Even when prompted, they wouldn’t respond. It was like they were dead. Or not even aware that they were watching a show. I had three fellow Indy Jugglers watching (yeah, that was embarassing) and they were usually the only ones reacting in any way.
In the end, I passed out very few cards, and made $13.53 in the first show, and $3 in the second show. Not my worst street show ever (35 cents and an apple split between two people), but it was pretty bad. Unless it’s really packed out there today, with people with pockets full of cash grumbling about how there are no good street performers in this town, I will be better off sitting in the dark watching reruns of The Golden Girls than trying to do any more shows.