I am sure that the placement of the hat from the audience is only one factor in determining how comfortable the audience is to come forward and put in money.
What else could you do to encourage them to put in more.
Dress poorly and have old dented props. I've seen Gazzo do it in Boston and collect hundreds of dollars after one performance.
What do you do to get that extra dollars or two?
Darryl the Wizard

Be very personal. Invite a lot of spectators up and do tricks that involve them. They will either feel obligated to tip you, or if you fool them good, they'll be wowed and will want to pay you.

I've been wondering about this as well. Any help sure would be appreciated!

I'm no expert, only having been busking for a few month last fall, and about a month this spring but I'll through in my two cents.

It seems to me it has more to do with the pitch you deliver than the placement of the hat. If you've entertained people and your pitch is good, they are more likely to put money in.

All that being said. . .my hat is usually on my table, I'm standing behind it, picking up my cups and balls and talking to people, looking them in the eye, and generally acknowleding them when they come up.

I've seen others place the hat on the ground in the middle of their circle, or on the ground in front of their table. I think the key is being accessible and friendly and having a good pitch.

Mark

Use the Mary Poppin's technique that Bert did.

He drew a chaulk drawing for a place to put his hat. It gets attention...people look....and even put a few coppers in your hat as well to "prime the pump"

I always start out with a $5 bill and two or three $1 bills to prime the pump. If anyone puts coins in I remove them as soon as I can. If people see coins they will throw in coins, if they see bills they will throw in bills.

Good thoughts. Never really thought of that.

I've had people dump a load of coins in my hat and say, "Don't spend it all in one place."

Sometimes people are so insulting when they say it that I grab the coins, hand them back and say, "No thanks sir, I'd hate for you to miss rent this month."

Robert Bloor

Great tip Paddy, I also think it's relly clever to start of with some money in your hat. Unfortnately in Europe the lowest bill is the equivalent to a $5 dollar bill ;-[

If you haven't already, you might want to check out the book "The Secret Art of Magic" by Eric Evans & Nowlin Craver. About a third of the book is dedicated to the street worker. It covers Laying out your plans, Terrain selection, Strategies for crowd building, keeping the crowd, the pitch, Hecklers, and so much more! It's a very complete book. The other two thirds of the book deals with a variety of principles in misdirection.

Jake

How would you deal with hecklers jkr ?

Blitzchampion: I've been a closet Magician for many years, but have just recently started performing for people. So I have very little heckler experiance. What I can do is give an overveiw from the book I mentioned.

First classify the heckler:The Clown(someone seeking the spotlight), The Hero(someone who thinks you've wronged someone else and so he is lashing out at you), The Party Animal(someone who has had too much to drink), The Expert(the "know it all")

The book then goes into engaging the different types of hecklers. It gives some general principles for dealing specifically with each type, and then some very specific ideas such as some "0ne-liners".

I know I can't possibly do the book justice, but I hope I've at least given you an idea of what's in it.

Jake

Gazzo is selling a new book called, "The Art of Krowd Keeping." It covers a lot about the hat and what goes into making your hat bigger. As much time as we spend on hat lines and all the rest, I saw Gazzo once give a single hat line that was very matter of fact, that wasn't even funny, at the very end after his show was over without any previous mention of the hat and still get a hat full of cash. So there's more to it than the hat lines. It's covered in his book, which will be availble after his British tour.

Jim