The World's Finest Performer

So how do you become famous throughout your own world? Captain Franko is arguably the most modest Fire-Breather in the history of modesty. In his own opinion anyway.

So why put on a street show? These days, as I live near Belfast, a city with few tourists (don't worry if you've never been - you're not missing much...), I do all my work through the agency I own. Mainly photo shoots, corporate events & festivals. It's not how I started.

Street performing is why I started, and it will always by my first love. From the moment you pull the crowd, hanging on to them for dear life until you send round the bottler, the buzz is there. Here's how I reckon it's done. My opinions, nowt else.

To begin with, it helps to have an idea what you want to do, although for my first show I didn't have a clue. It all hinges on your ability to captivate a couple of hundred people long enough to justify a passing hat.

So, you've thrown your props all over the road, shouted your lungs out and run around like a banshee enough to get 'em to stop. Chances are you'll have twenty-odd punters stopped. You need these to generate the real crowd. As luck would have it, those 20 are most likely to by just the sort of nutters you want.

Here are some pics of me at it.

So, back to the nutters. You have to use their lungs, hands and goodwill to pull a real crowd. Being a bit of a swine, if the crowd don't cut the mustard, I'm quite happy to send them on their way and have a rest. There are a number of tricks used for generating noise. The general idea is to make any passers-by think that something interesting is going on. Not too hard then.

Assuming you have 'em, the next bit is of course to entertain them. I'll leave that up to you.

Now the bottler ! Yes, money does come in to it ! I always use a bottler, I find it doubles your income. If you can get away with it, (And I always have.) Find a couple of cute and willing volunteers who'll do it for nothing. I mean, it's you doing the act, not them. Send them round with hats just before your finale, and make sure you let everybody know that you do this for a living. Feel free to make a fool of any of the charmless souls who watch your entire show, laughing and clapping, then naff off without paying. It always gets a laugh, and you turn the rest of 'em onto your side.

I suppose the bottom line for successful content is keeping awake, and knowing your abilities. What does that bull mean ? Well, your crowd are all alive and feeling. If you're tapped into their wishes you shouldn't turkey. If you things do begin to collapse you can either rescue you show in time, or quit while you're ahead.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've told my audience to f*** off. I mean, if you can see that they aren't going to make an effort to participate (This being the raison d'être of street performing.) You may as well send them on their way. I once spent over ten minutes telling a Parisian audience to scoot, eventually using some very foul language, before they believed I was serious ! They thought being told that they were the worst, most unresponsive pack of winkers on the planet was part of the show.

Knowing how good you are at this, that and the other helps. You ain't gotta be an expert to succeed- My juggling "skills" are testament to this. Emphasise your strengths and laugh at your weaknesses, any amateur psychologist will tell you that this brings you closer to your public, man.