Saturday, April 28, 2007

Busking in the Queen Street Mall

Aboriginal BuskerOn any given day as you wander down Queen Street Mall, you can find street performers sharing their talents with tourists, visitors and shoppers. Busking is alive and well within the city. Saturdays seem to be draw a reasonable number, and they are dotted throughout. They range in variety from musicians, such as the blind saxophonist, aboriginal didgeridoo players and the seminal guitarists, through to mime artists, balloon artists and street artists sharing their wares. Most derive their income from using their talents, and some are very good.

Mister BalloonsTo busk in Brisbane, particularly in the Mall or at Southbank, you need to get a busking license. Brisbane Marketing provide a fact sheet on how to go about getting the required permit. Auditions are held quarterly, and there are no limit to the number of permits, but you do need to meet their criteria. Busking is defined as playing a musical instrument and/or singing, conjuring, juggling, mime, mimicry, dance, puppetry, performance art, recitation and other appropriate theatrical and visual forms.

Charlie Chaplin BuskerThere is an excellent article on Buskers in the Mall by Hideki Kubo. He includes recordings of the various performers, including "Mark" who plays Charlie Chaplin and has been doing such here for 9 years. He is particularly good with kids, and spent a few minutes cleaning up my boy with a feather duster after he put some money in the slot. Hideki has also interviewed is Mister Balloons, David Pearson, another long time performer. The balloon sculptures he comes up with in extra quick time are quite amazing. How lucky are we that for the cost of an Aussie gold coin, we can get some great live performance which brings smiles to all.

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

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3 comments:

Pollyanna said...

I have no idea what aboriginal didgeridoo players or the seminal guitarists are but they look like intersting characters. The Charlie Chaplin fellow looks particulary intersting. Does he speak or is he primarly a mime?

Anonymous said...

heh...i love the charlie chaplin guy(also known as mark)...my friend put a coin in today, and charlie held out his hand for my friend to shake, but then my friend hugged him...:P
and charlie noticed i was shopping with him...so he came over and gave me a hug too:P
and the didgeridoo players are awesome...:D

Dean said...

is there anywhere that you can contact Brisbane Buskers? a website or email address?