Nothing Attracts a Crowd Like a Crowd

There are an immeasurable amount of street performers in London. The range of stupid human tricks that one can witness in London's populous markets is just as astounding as some of the acts. As I walked through London I saw everything from a man swallowing knives to a guy riding a unicycle in his underwear while singing and juggling. Of course you have your garden variety musicians, some original artists, but most are instrumentalists playing terrible renditions of songs that have no business being played on that particular instrument. I don't think that Bobby McFerrin ever intended "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to be performed by a guy with a kazoo and a cymbal, but I'll be damned if I saw just that arrangement. Really, who decides that a kazoo and a cymbal are what people want to hear?

London embraces their street performers, which is something that I have not seen to often. Right now the City of London has a program where to perform in certain Underground stations artists have to submit sample tracks and are then approved before they can play a note. Street performers in some of the larger markets also need a permit before they can blow fire, lay on a bed of nails, or do gymnastics. One of the better markets for street performers is Covent Gardens. Here I saw one of my favorite performers. This guy's show is mostly comedy, with a little bit of crappy magic thrown in. The performance started off with the guy building a crowd, then jumping over two kids laying down side by side. He made the jump safely, as anyone who is not a paraplegic could, and threw his hands out into the "ta-da" stance and everyone

immediately booed him. So what does he do? What any respectable performer would do, that's right, he takes off his shirt and tells the crowd to "Go F#@! OFF!"

I am not an expert, but I don't think the best way to get people to throw money in your hat is to do an absolutely terrible trick then strip, then curse at everyone. The crowd started to disperse so the guy said that he had

another trick that would not disappoint. It did. He started to ride a unicycle and juggle but he kept dropping his juggling balls. Every time he would make a mistake he would take off an article of clothing and curse. It was a most peculiar show, and, as with most people, I could not turn away from the train wreck.

I would look around at the crowd, because a good amount of people stuck around, thinking the show would get better, and I wanted to see other people's reactions. Most people sat staring expressionless, some laughed, others left in disgust. I was so amazed that the crowd did not completely disperse after the first or second terrible bits. Like the title of this entry says, though, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. People wanted to see what other people were looking at, so they stayed to watch. I was just fascinated with the whole situation of people watching a terrible show and a guy who presumably makes his living putting on terrible shows. It was all quite thought provoking.