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Title: Be a Street Magician! by David Groves ISBN: 0-9668147-0-3 Publisher: Aha Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $49.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Battle of the buskers
Comment: I am a busker, and this is a great primer to the street. It is not for advanced buskers, but for beginners and intermediates.

Full-time buskers hate David's book because it basically says that you should use the street as a steppingstone, not a means to an end. Full-time lifelong buskers see the street as a lifestyle.

In one of his chapters, David infuriates full-time buskers by saying that busking doesn't lead anywhere, and that anyone pursuing that type of career is missing the boat.

I use the street for my own means--practicing stage magic, trying out lines, twisting my show this way and that--and it works well for me. David's book started me out, giving me great lines, fine strategies, and a way of thinking about the street.

This book is the classic of the genre.

Rating: 1
Summary: Waste of money
Comment: I am a professional street entertainer and have been for several years. While this book contains some useful information it is nearly useless because of the overabundance of pipe dreams and misinformation.
Unless you know what the useful information is you will never be able to separate the fact from the fiction in this pitiful piece of garbage.
The problem is the writer did not have enough useful information to fill a book so it appears as though he just made a lot of it up.
If I could have given this book zero stars I would have. Save your money.

Rating: 5
Summary: Finally, a magic book for professionals
Comment: Magic books are usually written by geniuses who can't put a good sentence together. They can deal a second with consummate ease, but don't take pity on their poor readers, who must slog through and read their words over and over again, trying to make sense of it all.

Groves is a former professional journalist and it shows. Also, he's a guy who's put in the work on the street, and that shows, too. Even the great Cellini didn't write a book like this, with chapters on how to attract a crowd, how to pitch for money, best venues around the world, and all the stuff that beginners and intermediates want to know.

I breezed through this book in three evenings, staying up later than I intended every night. He also mixes in anecdotes that enliven the how-to, talking about real street performers in real-life situations (using pseudonyms, unfortunately).

Oh, that Jamy Ian Swiss read as well as this, or any of the writers for Genii. Alas, they can't touch the hem of this guy's sought-after robe. Pity.