Almost 20 years ago Dave spent some time in Australia and one of his fond memories is of busking (street performing) at Circular Quay (pronounced “key”) in Sydney. Circular Quay is located on the harbor between the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

It is where you can catch a ferry to other parts of the harbour, like the famous Manly Beach.

There is also a train and bus station located at Circular Quay – so it is a very busy area. This makes it ideal for busking, although it can be quite loud.
Twenty years ago you could just set up on the street and do a show, as long as you did not create too much of a nuisance. Today, because there are so many buskers, you have to get a license from the city and audition any dangerous items that you want to use in the show. Dave did an audition with the machetes when we first arrived in Sydney and we got our license just last week. The entire family is on the license, but we expected only Dave and Caleb to perform down on the Quay.
We went down on a sunny weekday and found that there was already a line for doing shows on one location. We were fourth in line for a spot on the west side of the Quay – a difficult “pitch” (as a performing location is known) because it is in the sun during the day. It was a warm and windy day which added to the difficulty in keeping a crowd. We did manage to gather a crowd for a show and had a fun time doing it.

Caleb also did some “walk-by” on the same side of the Quay. He would put his hat out in front of him while he juggled or unicycled – or both.

Here is a little quiz: who is more likely to be successful, a scripted 20 minute Vaudeville show featuring a loud 40-year old juggler and his son OR a cute 10 -year old quietly doing solo juggling and unicycling?
Yep, you got it, the 10-year old. Caleb made over $40 doing walk-by for a short time while our take from the hat in our show was $14. If it weren’t for child labor laws we would probably just have him spend the rest of our time in Australia out on the street to finance our trip.