For most people, “busking” doesn’t come up too often in normal conversation. Maybe if you’ve seen the movie Once with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova you have a general idea of what it means; some ragged musician playing on a street corner and scraping together enough change for a cup of coffee. But busking can be many things. It is certainly prevalent in New York City, though the word is still relatively uncommon. Busking describes not just musicians but all types of performers who capture our attention in public spaces. Next time you pass a cartoonist or an acrobatic troupe, consider that they are participating in a tradition that stretches back thousands of years. For some street performers, busking is their livelihood. For some it is a hobby. For others it is a way of life.

I interviewed a single busker, and although his observations and stories are highly specific, they point to experiences and questions that many street performers encounter. Some of them are practical, like where is the best place to perform in a world that is in constant motion? Then there are the larger questions, like why perform on the street at all? It is a completely different experience than giving a concert on a stage where value has already been assigned to the performance. There is a different set of skills required, including patience, endurance, inventiveness, and spontaneity. Because when you go out busking, anything can happen.