Arts (^~^F0QturGS
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 8
Downtown offers lucrative venues for street performers
By Timothy Meinch
Staff Writer
TMMEINCH@UNCA.EDU
Balloon-twister, magician and fire-jug
gler Kenny the Clown is one of Asheville’s
many buskers who make a living out of
an upturned hat or open guitar case on the
sidewalk—and still have a home and a
running vehicle.
“There are a lot of people that make a
living on the street and prefer to,” profes
sional street performer Kenny Cowden
said.
Any downtown Asheville street comer
can become a platform for a working bus
ker, who may seek more than cigarettes,
food or alcohol. They are not all home
less.
“We definitely get grouped into that
category occasionally, which is valid. It’s
a common misconception,” said Shane
Conerty, who has busked all around the'
world. “And there are a lot of homeless
buskers for sure, it’s Just more that they
do it for booze or something to eat and we
do it to pay our rent.”
Conerty plays guitar in a local three-
piece band. Now You See Them, who es
tablished themselves in Asheville through
busking.
“We’ve never had to question going out
and finding a real job since we got here
because, as long as we were out on the
street working, we were paying our bills,”
drummer Jason Mencer said..
Busking paid the band’s rent, but always
required a very fmgal lifestyle, according
to the third member Dulci Ellenberger.
“You have to be hitting the streets ev
ery day, and it doesn’t matter if it’s sprin
kling out, it’s a Wednesday and there are
no tourists in town,” 32-year-old Mencer
said.
Now You See Them treated busking as
a full-time job to earn an audience and a
venue in the city, as well as cash, accord
ing to the band.
“As long as we’ve been busking we’ve
been trying to get legitimate gigs,” singer
Ellenberger said.
The band now has a full October sched
ule of performances at festivals and ven
ues in Greensboro, Charlotte, Pittsboro
and Asheville and considers busking paid
practice time.
“The term busking or buskers is pretty
common anywhere else besides America,
especially in European countries,” said
Conerty, a Pennsylvania native. “In a
lot of foreign countries it’s common and
Photos by Timothy Meinch
Street performers John and Lyric strum acoustic guitars and sing in front of Bistro 1896. Some street musi
cians, aiso known as “buskers,” have earned a living by performing acoustic music downtown.
more accessible as a profession than it is
here in America. But in Asheville, it’s
pretty easy to do it.”
Cowden learned the trade throughout a
17-year career as a street performer. He
performed in many different acts around
the world, from the Caribbean to Japan,
all over Europe and in Canada. There’s
a healthier respect for street performers
internationally, according to the Asheville
local.
While twisting balloons together to
form a miniature Jerry Garcia, Cowden
listed several U.S. cities, including Miami
and St. Augustine, Fla., where civic law
no longer allows busking.
“There aren’t too many places you can
still do it in this free country,” the 39-year-
old street performer said. “We’ve been
kicked out of a lot of places. Sometimes
it had to do with the homeless people
saying they aren’t panhandlers but street
performers, and they screwed it up for ev
erybody.”
The practice merges social classes and
often creates tension between the profes
sionals and nonprofessionals, according
to the buskers.
“It’s really interesting to see the people
that are homeless or traveling, train jump
ing from city to city, and the way they
respond to us,” Ellenberger said. “A lot
of times we see distaste in their eyes, and
they think we don’t deserve it because we
have a car and a house.”
Cowden does not mind paying for a per
mit, as required by some cities, because it
keeps certain undesirable characters from
performing on the street.
“A lot of people are just bums that found
an instrument from wherever,” said busker
Sarah Holloway of the O’Reallys. “Paul
and I have been playing professionally for
three years. We moved to a town where
we don’t know anyone and it’s hard to get
a gig here. We gotta feed ourselves.”
Holloway and Paul Mozo moved to
Asheville three weeks ago and spend sev
eral days a week performing on the street
to make some money, but ultimately look
for shows.
“It’s kind of the means to an end, trying
to get exposure,” said Mozo, who is from
St. Simon Island, Ga.
The presence of this unique subculture
affects the business atmosphere, accord-
See buskers Page 10|