This makes me ask,
@tyler.durden you ever have other buskers crowd your working space?
Thanks for asking. Yes. It's usually the 'bucket boyz', or other rank amateur percussionists, who are rude and don't respect the first come first serve Golden Rule of Busking. They set up right next to you to overpower your sound and chase you off. They make such little money with their hack shit that I've never seen one of them able to afford a performance permit ($50 per year here.) Truly rude. Usually, there is little one can do when 5-10 young, muscled urban youths show up with their buckets to overwhelm you, physically and musically. The cool thing is that for my fav spots (downtown, the zoo, and a few transit spots), the cops love me and my music, and chase these losers away from me, so the BBs don't even bother showing up anymore. A couple of times when I was lucky enough to get the spot in front of the Art Institute, a cop actually gave me his cell # to text him when they show up to try their shit. They would try several times a day, and I would just take a break and text, and a cop would show up and chase them away. Busking is so competitive in Chicago that when I tried to infiltrate a tightly-run illegal busking ring at the airport, they threatened my life if I came back on a few occasions. I make so much money while busking that I can often buy someone's spot from them (they often make about $30 for a 3-4 hour period, where I'll make anywhere from $250-$400). The look on their face for me handing them $30 to leave is priceless. It's hard out here on these streets