Earning tax-free income; It's a hard life!

Life is for living, right? - I never want to be one of those people who looks back on their life and regrets not doing more. I guess that's why this week I decided it would be a good idea to go busking in the City during my lunch break. Partially for the performance practice, but more importantly for the experience; and what an experience it was....

My friend and I had the intention of performing at the Central station tunnel for 1 hour. We had no expectations of anyone giving us any money during this time. It was purely an exercise to help relieve us of the nerves for our upcoming open mic night performance tomorrow (but, more on that later).

We ended up cutting our set short because, frankly, the echoes coming through the tunnel of the Chinese erhu, tribal bongo drum rendition and middle-aged Opera singer were too much for my voice to try and compete with for any longer. We ended up performing for a solid 30 minutes, and in that time we had accrued $13.40 in small change. Yeah, that's right... you know you're on the big money when you're making money during your lunch break rather than spending it. Though, a good portion of this was thanks to some of my friends/work colleagues who were kind enough to walk by and donate some shrapnel.

Our competition:

He's going down next time.... I'll be waiting....

I will never forget the feeling of when we made our first cent. It had barely been 30 seconds of us standing there before an unsuspecting man flicked us 30 cents, like it was nothing, and continued walking. I froze for a second trying to comprehend what had just happened. A stranger just gave me money for my amateur street performance. Little did he know his small act of kindness was the beginning of my rekindled hope for humanity.
We were obviously not homeless or underprivileged in any sense, yet people still found it within their hearts to reach into their pockets and give. Some even sacrificing GOLD coins (for those not from Australia, gold coins are worth either 1 or 2 dollars), I mean, seriously... WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GOLD COINS TO THROW AWAY WILLY-NILLY? It amazed me. People's generosity and kindness seem to have disappeared over the years, but then experiences like this make you realise that there is still some good out there.

Some tips for anyone looking to busk is that choosing high traffic locations and song choice are definitely a major contributing factor to your income. We would perform a few of our lesser known favourites with little success, but every time we whipped out 'My Hero' by the Foo Fighters, we would be inundated with an overwhelming monsoon of money.

Felt like:

Was actually like:

Besides the benefit of tax-free income, 30 minutes of singing in the middle of Central station tunnel offered me so much more. It brought back a glimmer of faith in an otherwise hopeless society. It made me believe in goodness and kindness again, and made me want to be a better person because of it.

Our busking permits cost us $12 each, so until we hit the $24 mark in donations, we are yet to break even or make profit. We're thinking of trying a few different locations to compare the ROI on each so I will keep you all posted.

For anyone who is in Sydney, I will be performing 3 songs at an open mic night tomorrow (Monday) at the Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour (level 2, Harbourside). Please come if you can make it, would be so great to see you and perform to more than just an empty room. I should be on around 8:30-9pm.

As always, I will see you back here next Sunday, my friend. If you get a chance, please show your support and like my Facebook page HERE.