I HAVE MOVED.

 I AM NOW AT  JIMMYTALKSALOT.SUBSTACK.COM It is a free newsletter/site with a complete searchable archive and everybody's over there now.

If you're looking for my book you can still buy it below or HERE or get it over at JIMMYTALKSALOT.SUBSTACK.COM

JIMMY TALKSALOT BOOK

To Lure With Spectacle And Our Mysterious Society

A Street Magician’s Manual -by Jimmy Talksalot.

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Re-Release In Manual Form $30
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DESCRIPTION - Originally the book was released in paperback form through a publisher. As a re-release I have revised it, printed it, and bound it myself, all by hand in my workshop. The style and handling design, is that of a Mid 20th century field manual.

Dimensions are 8.5" x 11"

67 pages 20 lb bright white copy paper front and back print.

65 lb Cardstock Front and back covers.

The front cover is laser printed with the title and the authors name.

Hand bound with 3 staples along the left side and Duct taped over, with No print on back cover

Table of contents are in bold print capitals, to reference through huge selection of subjects.

Main content is written in Broken American English, by a broken american man.

Author page at back of book has photographic proof of afore mentioned brokenness.

Some Background On The Book:

This book was a life changer for me, originally it was written out of loyalty to my teachers and the tradition they had laid out for me. 

This book by and large is not filled with my opinions, but rather the opinions of the masters before me. Most of these men had worked 30 years or more at their craft and had dictated to me their views. I am at present working on my own book with my own opinions and strategies that I have worked out over the years. That is not to say that I didn't use everything in this book, in fact I did, and it has given me a life as an entertainer, to which I am grateful. The masters I refer to are of course listed at the end of the book for reference.

Reception Upon the book's First Release:

Of course as in all things, people bicker over details, and so was the case with the magic community over this book, to say it was controversial is an understatement.

Don't get me wrong I was pleased with the reviews, and it was a huge seller, but this just made it worse, I was not prepared for being known as an authority on the subject, when in fact it was actually just the dictates of my teachers. 

I had also found out, after the fact, that the opinions of these old street masters ruffled the feathers of the indoor club magicians and their ilk, so I recoiled into my own little world for some years now. 

If it weren't for the sheer demand and inquiries for the book, and me needing money, ha, I may have just let it go out of print, and continued my life as a sidewalk performer supporting and enjoying my family.

Another darn good reason for releasing this book is that over the years I have seen how it has changed performers lives and has given us a life and an occupation we can count on.

The information in this book is invaluable, and with all it's controversy, you will see very obviously, it's theories being practiced not only by the most successful buskers out there, but by all the most well know entertainers you already know in all venues of entertainment. 

In Fact I have no doubt, that if you have researched street performing at all, you have heard of this book, and many of the masters that are referred to in it.

The masters who helped me with this book saved my life and I believe this book could do the same for you.

UPDATE

 I have just started a free newsletter that I think you will love. 

It's over at Substack, an awsome site that does everything, I love it, and I think you will too, just CLICK HERE to get to it.

It's going to be my new home base, I'm combining all my content on that one site, so go over and look around at what I put up so far and sign up and get all my latest articles and updates in your email free.

Also I gotta Buy Me A Coffee so you can go make a donation, and sign up for free stuff and discounts.

You may have heard about my fund raiser for my van.

Well, we are half way there, I'm almost out of the hole, please don't forget me. I want to thank everyone so far that has helped me out. I have been able to get medical attention, pay off outstanding bills  and pay off most of the old wrecked van. I just need to pay off the remainder of the old van and go shopping for a new used van.

I'm hoping for this soon, I want to be able to travel again to good spots and get my family back up on our feet.

HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE FUND RAISER

A Little Bit About Bean Bags, and dog chew toys.

 

Do you want less head aches on the pitch? Tired of chasing sponges blowing in the wind or balls rolling off the table down the street? Or any other hazards?

Use magic props that work on the street. Things that you can control in all weather conditions and terrain.

I use bean bags instead of sponge balls or the crochet balls that come with the cups and balls.

When you drop a bean bag on the table it makes a dead stop, and all the wind in the world is not going to make it blow off the table.

And the best part, the bean bags are easier to get than magic props, you'll never have to rely on a magic shop order again.

Here they are in action.

I make my own for the cups with red canvas and steel bbs.

I also use larger ones instead of sponge balls. These are footbags or hackysacks called Mighty Mites because they are a lot smaller than a standard size footbag.

You can find THESE HERE or other places around the net.

They compress and handle like sponge balls but fall with a dead stop and have steel bbs so the wind wont blow them. And they are much more durable for the street.

Here they are in action.

Here they are on the street used in a completely different way for a completely different routine.

They can also be used like sponge balls and put in the hands of the spectators, while still using the same techniques for multiplying or transformations or color changes.

Which brings us to tennis balls and squeaking dog chew toys. When you bounce these on a crack or a pebble they don’t shoot off, out of control, like a hard rubber ball.

They make them in all different sizes. I prefer small and extra small for easy palming, CHECK THEM OUT HERE.

You can buy these at any pets store.

I put a quarter and a golf ball there to give you a little scale. The small one is less than 2” same size as a golf ball. I have done billard ball routines with these because of their bright color perfect size and if I drop one, I can recover on the bounce coming right back to me, instead of shooting off down the street out of control.

Your Pal.
Jimmy.

If you want to tip me drop a donation in the HAT HERE

My Van Was Hit And Run, I need Help.

UPDATE

Thanks so much to all of you that have donated so far to my fund raiser, also thanks to all of you that have shared the link, and got the word out for me. 

We have reached 25% so far, so we have not reached our goal yet, but already I have been able to start paying off what I owe on the old wrecked van and paid some backed up old bills, and today I can finally afford to go to a doctor appointment. I need to go bad. 

I'm hoping the donations keep coming in so that I can reach my goal of getting a new van and getting my life back.

Please keep me and my family in your prayers.

Once again thank you so much for the donations it has made a huge difference in our family's life.

Gratefully yours

Jimmy Talksalot

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE FUND RAISER

Jimmy Talksalot Needs A Work Van

My name is Jimmy. I've spent my life traveling and performing to support my family. 

A van for my job is crucial, it takes me to the job sites across the nation and provides me with a place to sleep at night so I can send more money back home to support my family.

My old van that I used for years died and due to not being able to travel and the increase in price of used vehicals recently, it took me almost two years to buy another one. 

When I did finally buy one, it cost me nearly $6000. I had it for about a month and someone slammed into it in the middle of the night, while it was parked infront of my house. They knocked it off the street and up onto the sidewalk.

When our family went out to see, the people who hit us were gone.

We later found out, that due to our own error, we only had liability coverage. So now I am still paying on the vehical even though it is wrecked.

On top of all of this it has been in triple digit heat for a couple of months here with no hope in sight of cooling off (I work outside) and my health is bad and bills are stacking up.

We're scared.

The funds will be used to pay off the old van, pay other important bills and try and get a new van.

My whole life I have tried never to ask for hand outs, it was the way I was raised, but I feel it would be irresponsible not to, for my family's sake. This is just too much for me to handle on my own.

If you can help please click on THE LINK

MY NEW BOOK IS OUT.

THE NOBLE VAGRANT
-backstage thrillers.
CLICK HERE TO BUY IT $25

The Noble Vagrant is glimpses into my life. I believe it tells the story of who I am, what I do, and why I do it. The story takes place on sidewalks around the U.S. and Europe. There is a certain dignity found in the stories, but the book as a whole certainly does not glamorize the streets in any way. Because it is the real story of the life on the streets as a small time sidewalk performer.

Along with the stories, it has my views on Art, Religion, Politics, and Street Dues. 

I believe the opinions of people who make their way on the streets, is sorely lacking in literature. Which seems ironic to me, because in democracies around the world, governments and revolutionaries are always spouting off, this or that, in the name of the poor people, but when it comes right down to it, they never really represent our real opinions at all. Our views have always been twisted to fit the inhuman narratives of various political parties. 

In the book you will read about buskers paying their dues, in fact the book is dedicated to the two students who paid more than myself. These students are my pride, due to their commitment and originality.

I am hoping to make a series of these memoir books, as what life I have left here on earth will permit. In these next books I will try to add all of my students, along with friends and teachers.

I have always had a love for magic, but as my closest friends know, I was a working writer well before my life as a professional Magician, and I will be releasing some of my other books on other subjects other than magic also.

I am hoping that this offering of street memoirs will lure more readers to my other works on the various other subjects I was more known for before my entry into the magic scene as a Street Magic writer.

Hi, I'm Jimmy and this is my blog for learning busking.

I have been away from the blog for a while, but I'm back now.

Over the next coming months I will be writing articles on new subjects related to performers and venues for them to work.

I am also going to be updating the blog to make it easier to search and navigate, but for now one should  start in the oldest posts, because that is where most of the nuts and bolts of street performing are covered.

I would suggest starting in Sept of 2007 for beginners. You can do that by clicking on the dates of the blog archive to your right.

If you want to know what's going on with me, my products, or the blog you can find out by going Backstage Here.

Also, you can buy my book, To Lure With Spectacle, by clicking here. This link will take you to the sales page with a full description, free preview, and links to buy the book inside, and outside the U.S.

Also, if you like this blog and you want to see more frequent articles,
you can leave me a donation by clicking this link.



Thanks.
Your pal Jimmy.

Atlantic City Hard-Boiled

Years ago my teacher Doug Conn told me that Gazzo told him that Atlantic City was good. By the time I got there Gazzo had left. For those of you who don't know already, Gazzo is probably the most famous busking magician in the world.

I met him.

He's English.

And the rest of us just eat crackers and live in his shadow.

My life has always been, a day late and a dollar short, of Gazzo. When Gazzo was being honored by Penn and Teller on their TV show, I was in a run down motel room somewhere, sick, broke, and it was raining.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, I needed a good place to work, because I was in rough patch in my life, it was the second time in my life a woman had left me and took my children away from me. I was homeless and alone and crazy.

Living in Atlantic City, for all those months, just made sense, it's a town full of lonely, homeless, and crazy people.

The Squat De Barcelona

It was dark, dirty, and old. It was medieval.

I was referred to the squat, by a friend with facial tattoos, back home in New Orleans.

He was a German stunt performer Named Roc, who abandoned his vineyard and apartment, when he discovered busking on one holiday in Barcelona.

After that, the tattoos were just a matter of time.

Hey, I think I found Lord Lucan.

When I first met Paul I was alone in London. I had been backpacking through Europe and was finally glad to be around English speaking people, but I didn't know anyone, and London was a big city.

I had found my way to the London Eye and was working the river when I saw a group of tough looking ten minute sidewalk guys queued up, I avoided them as long as I could, but loneliness got the best of me.

About A Dollar.

The best Dollar I ever Earned.
It was on a New Orleans sidewalk. I had just completed a quick six minute sidewalk show back when I would do about twenty two of those a day. I noticed this homeless guy had made it a point to be the last to stick a buck in my hat. After he put it in he said, "I want you to know this buck came from a homeless guy." So I said to him, maybe you ought to keep it, seems like you need this more than me.

He said "No! We all got together and made sure you have it, because you give us hope out here that maybe we can make it too."
So I said, you know what sir, you're right, I am going to keep this dollar.

He nodded once and walked off.


The Best Dollar I Ever Spent.
Years later I was working Atlantic City. There was a bad homeless problem there at the time, you'd see scores of them laying out on the boardwalk begging.

At that time I was doing bigger twenty minute shows so the hats were bigger, and one day I noticed another homeless guy who made it a point to be the last to come up to the hat, but this time, this guys says to me, "Hey! Gimme some of that money!"

I said, Why should I do that?

He said, "Because I'm homeless!"

I said, OK that's great! you're half way there, I'm homeless too!

I said, All you have to do now, is something.

I said, I tell you what, I'm going to give you a dollar and I want you to go around and tell all your friends I'm going to give them a dollar too, But that will be the last dollar I give anyone unless I see them working like me.

I don't care what they do, sing, dance, tell jokes, make ash trays out of beer cans, something, anything. If I see somebody working and they ask me, I'll give, you got it?

He said yeah and went off and told his friends.

That day I gave out a lot of dollar bills, but for two days after that no one bothered me, it was wonderful, almost worth what I payed for it.

And then the next morning it happened, I was walking down the boards to my pitch and I saw a bag lady standing on a crate singing next to her shopping cart, full of bags and stuff. The singing was terrible, but she was singing her heart out.

And a little way down there was a bum, making ash trays and sailing ships out of beer cans, and on the other side of the street was a man dancing his very best bo-jangles, I saw a guy pacing while he threw jokes out to the passer byes, and all up and down that boardwalk, I saw bums trying.

I was so moved, it nearly broke my heart.

The Stranger In San Michel.

I was in a drab suit with a tipped fedora, on a side street in the Latin Quarters. Across the street at a cafe terrace, the snide shrewd French sat waiting, watching down their noses at me.

I was smoking a cigarette and I couldn't put it out. It kept appearing in my hand or my mouth, or it turned into a pipe, or a cigar, or something else that frustrated me. I turned my back to them, feeling violated, but the more I turned away, the more the people stopped to stare.

A man I didn't know, sat on a stoop behind me playing guitar creating sound effects for my emotional outbursts and special effects and a crowd appeared around me from the laughter of the people in the terrace across the street.

I dropped my hat and they filled it with euro coins, I stuck my hand in and grabbed half and walked it over to the Guitar-man and dropped it into his case. He nodded and chin pointed me to go out and do it again.

But there was another stranger on my pitch now.

Sandy, And The Seaside Ambush.

For years I had been watching these One Trick Sandies work their trick on crowded sidewalks, I envied their ability to work anywhere without being rousted by the police. They could even work in front of an open door to a business and be gone before there was trouble.

The method was beautiful.

I Saw Things In Galway.

I rolled into town on the bus from Dublin, when I got off the bus, it all began again, my look for a cheap hotel or hostel. Everything cheap was full and I ended up having to stay in a bed and breakfast.



That night as I made my way out, I saw things, things.



I saw a river that looked like Guinnes.