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I recently took my street performance “Handbills Delivered” to New York City and, as expected, experienced rejection and failure. Though, smartly, I didn’t give up and eventually had some real successes! Not like “success” in the street performing business is particularly impressive—but here’s a diary of my 3 days in New York:

9 June
6am: Flight to NYC
Having passed security with my prop suitcase several times now, I don’t think they’ll ever make me check it. In fact, I have a near fool-proof way out of any sticky situation with the suitcase—if I get challenged, I simply say “Oh, it’s an act… let me do it for you now” and they’ll let me pass.
On the plane I met the artist Tom Sachs and while I didn’t recognize the name we got to talking and I was very impressed to hear this guy makes a living doing what (to me) seemed like crafts. Checking out his work and studio (via his “10 Bullets” video) was additionally impressive and makes my craft workspace look really lame. At least now I know to always be knolling.

10 June
Noon: Union Square Park
Seconds after setting up my suitcase I had park police inform me that I wasn’t allowed to be there. I calmly told them that I had researched it and, in fact, if I didn’t have any amplification that I was free to perform. They said “you can’t do that here”… and when I asked “do what?” they were stumped and eventually told me that I was free to perform. It’s not as though it matters because NO ONE stopped or slowed down at my attempts to engage them.
I moved around the park and tried again on a park bench lined walkway. I got one lunch-eater to watch my show start—that is, unlike everyone else, he didn’t avoid eye-contact. He was actually participating insofar as he watched and nodded appropriately. No one else looked and many walked around me. When I got to the part about how it’s illegal to have scissors in public in NY I did get a few “don’t get near me crazy guy” looks—but that was hardly a success.
The act tends to work best when someone asks about the suitcase. Despite several more conspicuous suit-case handling moves (like I set up the suitcase, took out the props etc.) I pretty much packed-it-in and declared the experiment a failure. I wasn’t discouraged. I mean, it was lunch time… it was a work day, etc. I was sure to find something better later.

4pm: Flash and the City
I did my presentation “The Lazy Programmer” at the conference I was attending. The content of this presentation must be really good because (for the second time presenting it) I found it was very well received. They wanted to know about the suitcase and I showed them the eyebrow kits. It was a tough sell to get anyone to walk with me to the park (and help get the crowd started) but later Chris Allen graciously capitulated as we headed to the conference party.

7pm: Madison Square Park
Chris Allen was my shill and I did my performance in a (drained) pond. It was awkward because it was basically a round bench facing the center—and I had my suitcase set up between two groups of people—the first being Japanese tourists (who didn’t seem to speak any English) and some (young) grandparents from California (whom I kept blocking the view they had of their grandkid). It was a tough crowd but the tourists watched a little… and left in the middle. The Californians eventually didn’t ignore my engaging questions. And, finally, these two girls from Albania (well, one was living in NY) were the most receptive a crowd thus far—which is to say they actually took one of the eyebrow kits.

(Photo thanks to Chris Allen)

We moved on and then I did the act for these women from Germany. First off, they cracked up at some of the bits. But then it was funny because when I asked them questions they’d answer in a way that showed they totally didn’t understand barely any of what I was saying. After doing the act twice in a row (with so little response) I was pretty drained. At this point, however, Chris was ready for me to do it a few more times—he wanted me to have more success. What he didn’t realize was I was having success! We moved on to the party at The Standard Hotel’s Biergarten.

9pm: FATC Party
You’d think this would be the worst place for my act—super packed, a bunch of loud young drinkers etc. However, just carrying around this suitcase while wearing a goofy suit-jacket is enough to get people to ask what’s in the suitcase! I performed several modified versions of the act to very receptive groups. Plus, my novelty reserved cards proved to be both popular and useful.

(Photo thanks to Elad Elrom)

11 June
Noon: Madison Square Park / “Big Apple BBQ”
Back to Madison Square Park—but this time it was packed for a festival. I walked all around trying to find a good spot… tried setting up once but had no one barely even look at me. Then I went back to the drained pool—did my whole act for a group of about 8 New Yorkers. At first they seemed interested in having me perform but they didn’t seem to be into it. On the one hand, I can understand if I’m not funny—but what’s interesting about THIS act in New York in particular is that a) it really looks like I’m selling something and b) when people fail to see WHAT I’m selling they get weirded out… it’s like if they can’t put an economic model over whatever I’m doing, they get confused. Whatever—I was far from discouraged!

2pm: Washington Square Park
(Foreshadowing: on the subway to Washington Square Park I got lots of people to ask what was in the suitcase.)
It was sprinkling the whole time and I had to put my plastic cover over the suitcase. I sat next to an old-timer on a dry park bench undercover… he wanted to know about the box… I told him without doing the act. Then… I see an uncle of mine! Crazy as he was just visiting for a festival. And, my cousin was there too. That was cool. I got to do my act twice. The old timer and my relatives laughed… not “at” me either. I headed back to the subway before it started to pour.

At this point, I was wearing my “@phillip” nametag/badge and when I came back out of the subway entrance (because it wouldn’t accept my card) this real-life handbill man started including my name in his “call”. Here’s a clip of this dude—who believes the volume of his voice might improve his volume of sales.

Naturally he finally asked about the suitcase and I did the Extend-o-Hand and Arm-Extension parts. It was funny—right on Broadway in Soho in front of a T-Shirt store. That would have been a great location if it wasn’t the guy’s business and it wasn’t raining. But unlike many other audiences this guy totally “got” the joke.

3pm on Subway
I needed to know which line to take to Amsterdam and 90th so I asked this question loud enough for the 50 or so people crammed next to me to hear. A group of tourists were stone faced—someone else answered and then I engaged the tourists (asking where they’re from etc.) and finally they couldn’t resist asking about my suitcase. I started a modified version of my spiel and people were totally watching! Naturally it was a captive audience—but still, if it hadn’t felt like cheating (since they were captive) I would have spent the rest of my time in NY in the subway. It was hilarious though. The people who didn’t want to stab me were digging it. I couldn’t do the whole act and, in fact, it’s kind of cool ending the act with a quick escape at my stop. I transferred trains, ended up doing it again with quite a good reception. Someone asked what I charge to do parties (he was actually in some kind of catering business). The subway counts as a win.

[UPDATE: I guess that part about 90th and Amsterdam is worth commenting--it's where I arranged to meet ANOTHER uncle plus his girlfriend for lunch. And, yes, I did a modified version of my performance at the table. I'm pretty sure I freaked out the table sitting next to us even though it was a pretty tamed down version of the act (no 3-arm for example).]

11pm Cooper Rego’s open mic at Richard Shepard Theatre
I’ve never attended such at thing—which is to say I’ve never participated (as I suspect most everyone attending is also a “comic” performing that night). Anyway, it was a great experience. It’s odd performing with nearly no response. Also, I should have realized it’s called open MIC—as I did much of the act without the microphone… which was fine there but not in a typical comedy night club atmosphere. I felt my presentation was too high pitched and rushed but in watching it back—it wasn’t as bad as I remember.

Watch it if you can bear it (needs a laugh-track):

12 June
Noon: Bryant Park
This was an excellent venue in many ways. A nice mix of tourists and New Yorkers, plus it was quiet—almost too quiet as they have designated no handbill performance areas that they call “reading areas”. But I set up and performed by permission on this one dude’s table (he had some weird political thing set up). There were two tables of tourists from Texas who I engaged and totally dug the act. They were laughing and stuff… taking all the handbills, novelty reserved cards, and eyebrow kits. The really awkward part was when I passed the box of eyebrow kits around—I realize now it sort of looks like those dudes representing themselves as mutes… and then when I got the box back there were a bunch of one-dollar bills stuffed in there. To make an uncomfortable situation worse, I returned the money and explained that was just too weird for me.
Later I ran into Keith Peters and his family and they sat still while I performed again. There were a couple points where I got people walking by to stop and watch—it wasn’t my best performance ever.

In Bryant Park (photo thanks to Keith Peters):

2pm in front of New York Public Library
This poor dad with 3 DS-connected kids plus one sleepy one in arms endured my act without resistance. I got the kids to laugh a lot… a few people from a distance got engaged—not enough to walk over and watch however… but it was one of my better performances and the most curious audience. The kids wanted to know how all the tricks worked and how the props were made.

Here are a few clips from me performing in Bryant Park and in front of the library:

3pm Times Square
Not only does this seem like the worst place for my act—it just might really be. I do think I could fashion it differently and set up the act to accept money—but that’s way beyond what I’m interested in or what I have now. In any event, I did a small version of the act (upon request) for this dude selling tickets to a comedy club (which I always wonder if they’re real tickets). Anyway, like the other handbill guy, he immediately got the humor… I did a very abbreviated version of the act for him as well as tourists from Ohio (who came up not to watch me but to follow through with a purchase from this guy). Still—I count that as an audience because they didn’t run away.

That was it for my trip. I did get the security guy at JFK to just start laughing upon seeing me with my suitcase and name tag. I told him that I’m doing pretty good if I can make him laugh without saying a word. The nametag is going to stick though I plan to make some upgrades. I plan to keep extras with me at all times… these will read “I’m with @phillip”.