Busking

In this photo (taken in 1952), a busker is seen entertaining children in Covent Garden.


Wow, I didn't even know there was an English word for this! Shows you what I know about the English language! And the word comes from Spanish too! Just ignorant in every language here at Marc Valdez Weblog!:

Busking is the practice of performing in public places for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called buskers or street performers. Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining. Buskers may do acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, card tricks, clowning, comedy, contortions & escapes, dance, fire eating, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime and a mime variation where the artist performs as a living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or recite poetry or prose as a bard, street art (sketching and painting, etc.), street theatre, sword swallowing, and general enjoyable entertainment.

Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. The place where a busker performs is called their pitch. People busk for a variety of reasons: for money, for fun, for attention, to meet people and socialize, for the love of their art, to practice their skills, or try out new material in front of an audience.

...Busking can be the bottom rung of the entertainment industry. Some of the most famous groups and superstars started their careers as buskers, such as Penn & Teller, Stomp, and Robin Williams. Many other buskers have also found fame and fortune.

...These performers have not always been called buskers. The term busking was first noted in the English language around the middle 1860s in Great Britain. Up until the 20th century buskers were commonly called minstrels and troubadours. The word busk comes from the Spanish root word buscar, meaning "to seek" – buskers are literally seeking fame and fortune. The Spanish word buscar in turn evolved from the Latin "buskin". A buskins were ornamental Roman sandals which were worn on celebration days. In obsolete French it evolved to busquer for "seek, prowl" and was generally used to describe prostitutes. In Italian it evolved to buscare which meant "procure, gain" and in Italy buskers are called buscarsi or, more simply, Buskers.

...The term busk is also used in music when a musician has to play something quickly from scratch, by ear or at sight, as in: I'll just busk it. Mariachis are Mexican street bands that play a specific style of music by the same name. Mariachis frequently wear ornate costumes with intricate embroidery and beaded designs, large brimmed sombreros and the short charro jackets. Mariachi groups busk when they perform while traveling through streets and plazas, as well as in restaurants and bars.

Busking is common among the Gypsies, also known as the Romani people. Mentions of Gypsy music, dancers and fortune tellers are found in all forms of song poetry, prose and lore. The Roma brought the word busking to England by way of their travels along the Mediterranean coast to Spain and the Atlantic ocean and then up north to England and the rest of Europe. In the US, medicine shows proliferated in the 1800s. They were traveling vendors selling elixirs and potions to improve the health. They would often employ entertainment acts as a way of making the clients feel better. The people would often associate this feeling of well-being with the products sold. After these performances they would "pass the hat".

...George Burns described his days as a youthful busker this way:

“ Sometimes the customers threw something in the hats.
Sometimes they took something out of the hats.
Sometimes they took the hats. ”

The first recorded instance of laws affecting buskers were in ancient Rome in 462 BC. The Law of the Twelve Tables made it a crime to sing about or make parodies of the government or its officials in public places; the penalty was death. Louis the Pious "excluded histriones and scurrae, which included all entertainers without noble protection, from the privilege of justice". In 1530 Henry VIII ordered the licensing of minstrels & players, fortune-tellers, pardoners and fencers, as well as beggars who could not work. If they did not obey they could be whipped on two consecutive days.

In the United States under Constitutional Law and most European common law, the protection of artistic free speech extends to busking. In the USA and most places, the designated places for free speech behavior are the public parks, streets, sidewalks, thoroughfares and town squares or plazas. Under certain circumstances even private property may be open to buskers, particularly if it is open to the general public and busking does not interfere with its function and management allows it or other forms of free speech behaviors or has a history of doing so.