Back in the United States, I spend a lot of time on Hollywood Blvd. Frequenting that area so much. I've seen a lot of performances by street performers. I have seen street performances so many times that they have become rather boring to me. I hoped to be surprised by the street performers at Covent Garden because that is one of the aspects that the area is known for. Also, there are even benches built into the market to view performances, but sadly I was disappointed.
The first performer was a break dancer, who was very disappointing. He had a really large crowd around him, which was the most misleading aspect of his performance. He began his show by leaving for a few minutes, leaving the audience wondering where he went. Then he came back in a costume resembling Michael Jackson, hat and glove included. Again the audience was mislead, but this time, by the costume. He did not perform very many moves by Michael Jackson. His performance was a montage of sound clips, instead of songs. When there was a fragment of a song, however, the music selection was poor. The performance itself was short, and nothing spectacular. Of course, he did make sure to ask for cash at the end, using the pity method.
The next performer we saw was a unicyclists, whose unicycle was 7 feet tall. One would think that a 7 foot unicycle would be a true sight to see, but it wasn't. This performer was dressed like Charlie Chaplin, and played music quite similar to that era. He engaged with the audience a lot, but had to yell at the top of his lungs because his microphone was not working. His main techniques were family involvement, comedy, and shock. This performer was really geared more towards the younger audience of age about 6-10 years. He threw things, such as a fake spider, out to the crowd. He used many children for his tricks. What was the main problem with his show was that he dragged it on forever, and hardly got on his unicycle.
He kept yelling out to the crowd that “he was going to start the show now,” but he never did. This was obviously a technique to get an even bigger audience than he already had. He then proceeded to dance. He juggled some pins, then some balls, and then some knives. He posed for pictures. It was nothing too exciting. Most of the elements of his show included participation from someone from the audience, mostly always a young child. Finally, he stated that he was going to mount the unicycle, and needed “three strong men to hold it up.” He chose three men from the audience and got them to put on funny hats. To the bald man, he gave a wig. Next, while the men held the unicycle, he proceeded to climb on top of them. He got on one man's shoulders and started moving his hips on the man's neck. That was where I was really surprised; I didn't think it was too funny. He mounted the unicycle, and that is where he finally asked for money.
At this point, the show was over for the most part. Even though have any cash to give this performer I felt somewhat ripped off. I guess maybe I felt this way because I had spent so much time watching nothing. The unicyclist's show was at least an hour before he even rode it. I understand that this is how these people make their money, but I still think that they should deserve it. If someone does a few dance moves, I don't think they deserve very much cash. If they had mastered dance moves, or even came up with some of their own, that would merit money. All in all, I was really disappointed that I had wasted my time watching these shows.
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