Stefan Florescu: There are enough opportunities for all buskers to perform

When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a football player, but in my hometown, there was only one option – the sports high school. When I arrived there, the football groups were already full, so I had to wait for a year. I decided to go for the running groups in the meantime because I thought it would help with football in the future. I ended up running professionally and was even a silver medallist in my age category in Romania. 

Once I failed to qualify for the national championship. I remember my coach really wanted me to qualify, and that morning, he gave me a bunch of vitamins that ended up making me feel sick. I believe it’s one reason that I couldn’t achieve my best in that qualification. I never told him that. He was disappointed, and even though I did my best in practice, he stopped taking me to competitions, so I lost motivation to practice. 

I never really played football, but I saw some videos on YouTube with the first generation of freestyle footballers doing crazy tricks. I really thought it was a fake video at that time, but slowly I started to learn easier tricks and I discovered this “sport/art”. To answer your question, I wished to play football, but I never had the chance, and I slowly became a football freestyler. 

Now I neither follow football nor support any team. 

From Romania to Amsterdam with 10 euros in a pocket

Music has always been my number one passion. Not a performer, but I have always wanted to be a songwriter for other people. This is a dream I would actually like to work on fulfilling. 

In this hypothetical scenario, when I am a performer, I would be singing on a pitch by the river my sad original songs and playing guitar for the one or two people they would resonate with. And I would ask drunk people their stories and sing improvised songs for them filled with compliments.

Everyone says juggling is easy, but I somehow cannot get how it works. I have tried many times, and each time I feel like my brain cannot comprehend the idea of three-ball juggling. 

There would be no fire either, as I am not a fan of fire shows. I book them only for the audience. 

I like technical skills. Shoutout to Sam Goodburn because unicycling on a tightrope is the most memorable trick I have seen. I have not tried it (yet!). So far, even walking on a slackline 3 cm above the ground makes me feel like I’m afraid of heights.

I tried cube manipulation with Chien Hung, and I loved it. And I have always wanted to learn how to do a backflip! 

There would be no spoken jokes or clownery in my show.

To summarise: 

A lyrical (Asian-style) circus and music show performed in a beautiful dress. 

Like in a musical theatre, the lyrics of my original songs in the background would guide the narration. There would also be live music—improvised songs created together with the crowd, humming and singing along. Cube manipulation and backflips. Some acrobatic stunts would start on high objects available on the pitch, like a bench or a table.

I like the effect in photos when something is above the crowd—either a performer or props like an umbrella, in your case. 

How does it sound? I would definitely book my act! 

Beginning of Stefan – the Umbrella Guy

He was good, but he didn’t know how to do a proper show because he had worked only at traffic lights. 

I helped him and by the end of the summer season, he already had a decent show. He was so happy that he wanted to give me something, so he gifted me his umbrella and told me I could use it.  

I started to spin the ball on the umbrella and simply balance it. It was already an impressive trick. However, we were going to perform the following year in front of the same crowds and he was doing it better, so I didn’t feel comfortable doing the same trick. For him, it was just one of the tricks in his show, so I couldn’t tell to the audience that it was my final trick and it’s very difficult if he is doing the same thing while dancing to samba music like if it were easy. 

I had to improve it and do it in a different way than anyone else. I tried many things. From spinning more balls to playing diabolo and balancing an umbrella simultaneously. Nothing was good enough. Every night when we were performing, and every day when I was in a coffee shop. The only thing in my mind was how to make this trick my own. 

One day, I was in Decathlon searching for things that might help in the show, and my wife saw a portable basketball hoop. She suggested I might be able to use that. In that moment, I saw it. That was the finale that I had always been looking for. 

I learned the trick pretty quickly. A few days later, I was already using it in my show. 

It was not only about having a strong finale. I finally didn’t feel like I was missing something, and I was happy with my show. 

Over the next few years, more people found out about me, and more performers started following me. They no longer talked about the “football guy” Stefan, but about the “umbrella guy”. 

I knew I had a trick that was valuable because it was spectacular, with a good ending. 

Performers want to have a high finale to attract more audience. 

Everyone does this by having a platform, a pole, or something that makes you high up. That made you carry a lot of equipment. I found a solution. My umbrella was high but collapsible, and because I made it out of carbon fibre, it is about the same weight as a bottle of Coke. So I expected that sooner or later, other performers would copy the idea.

When I first saw someone else doing it, I thought it was just funny. At the same time, I felt proud. It was the first time I saw someone doing something I had created. Soon, more people started to do it. I think by now, more than 10 performers have done or tried to do my trick in their show. 

To answer your question, now I feel happy to see that I am inspiring other performers. At the same time, I think everyone should do as I did: find their own way to do it without just “stealing” the trick.

Competitiveness drives performers to excel

Other than that the show has to be 45-minute, I think another misleading tip I have received many times before is that you must speak a lot about money. You must have a money line, explain to people that you do this for money, how much they should give and put pressure on them to pay. 

In Romania, we never used to have street performers before, and when I first saw performers doing this, I felt uncomfortable. I saw many times people not willing to come near to a show and whispering that a performer will ask them money later. 

I understand that buskers live off donations, but at the same time, the beauty of street performing is that it is for everyone. And some performers are giving a bad image to the community by being pushy. 

Another thing that has the opposite effect, from my observation of crowd reactions, is a pre-recorded audio message. 

Yes, I agree with you on this. I don’t really like it when performers put too much pressure on the audience about how much they should pay. Maybe it works for some, but it’s not the only way.  And I don’t think it’s the best way either.

For me, the best way to get people to pay more is to make them feel good during the show. If they really enjoy it and they’re honest people, they’ll pay. And they’ll do it with pleasure.

Of course, there will always be some people who don’t want to pay for whatever reason. If you focus too much on them, you might just annoy the people who were already ready to support you, and even make them change their minds.

I think the mindset matters a lot. If you start your show already thinking, ‘These people won’t pay.’ that energy is going to be felt.

Instead of focusing on how the audience will make you happy with money, think about how you can make them happy with your show. It is only natural that when people feel good, they give street perfomers money.  

That’s nice advice for buskers! What is the best tip you have ever received?

I think the best tip that I have ever received is not related to performing, but to how we perceive life. 

Don’t waste your time when you are young only saving money for when you are old and won’t have the energy to do what you now wish. 

I think this is now a very important part of my vision of how I plan my life. Of course, we should consider being financially stable when we are old so we have easy retirement years. However, when we are old we are not going to be always healthy. We are not going to have the same energy as now. So we should do the things we like now.

I think that it’s sometimes like a closed loop that makes it hard for outsiders to join. I think the application system has issues, some people try to keep festivals under the radar, while other festivals accept only people they have seen live, or rely on recommendations more than applications. 

They would rather have something decent that is sure to work, rather than risking new performers who might be amazing but might also be bad. 

I put a lot of heart into working on line-ups. I give buskers the chance to debut at the festival, and I prefer to have a few applications from people who are grateful and will enjoy the experience rather than receiving mass emails starting with ‘Dear organiser,’ followed by ‘I would be a perfect match for your festival,’ even when they do not know which festival it is. I know that not everyone will be happy at Busker Tour. Some may have expectations I am not able to meet. 

Every year, I have to deal with cancellations by performers who confirmed their participation but were treating it as a backup plan in case they don’t find anything else. This is not fair, and speaking of public lists, this should be the one!

You mentioned another topic here.

Being a curator is a job, but numerous (most) companies, municipalities or NGOs that want to organise festivals don’t think about it. Many people responsible for line-ups are not real curators when their “artist selection” is more like copying other festival lineups.

If they don’t want to risk inviting buskers who are unknown in the festival world, those buskers will be rejected anyway.

Both festivals and buskers should put in the work in their tasks. 

Organisers should promote their festivals so they reach the performers, and they should be honest about who they are looking for. If they want to invite only performers who have been to other festivals, they can say so.

I understand, but, Stefan, we both know that most of them won’t. Do you think that my “Please note that we do not respond to or consider offers sent via email or social media. Every year around February-March, we announce an Open Call and check only applications submitted via our online form.” stop everyone from sending DM’s and emails?

I know you are looking carefully at who you invite to Busker Tour. I honestly believe that many other festivals don’t read the applications and just have a quick look at the video at best. 

Some of them just take performers who were on Busker Tour before. I saw that pattern with performers like Chien Hung, Gaku, Cesco and even me this year. 

But what do you think is the solution if you are a performer and apply to a festival that receives 1000 applications? Obviously, from a 1-minute video, they cannot know if you are good or not. So many performers look amazing in their promo and they fail to deliver once at the festivals. 

The main reasons why I don’t select given applications is that people don’t answer the questions in the application form and don’t provide a video that is more than just a highly-edited short promo. 

Maybe bookers don’t invite people they haven’t seen live. Maybe they go to many festivals and decide then? Or, in a less pleasant scenario, they copy the line-ups of other festivals. In all these cases, you would be wasting your time sending them an application if they don’t say it on their website.

Your list would cause more festivals to receive hundreds of applications, so it would not help “unknown” performers to get booked. Please, do not add my email if you create it! 

I remember I received an offer from one website to be added to this kind of list. It was free for me, but the performers were supposed to pay. It made me sad that someone would pay to get my email address (only to send me offers via email that I wouldn’t consider). So the only party that would benefit from it would be this website, charging performers for access to email addresses and making empty promises that it is an investment to get more bookings.

By the way, this bragging about the number of applications sometimes looks like it is was the way to measure festival quality or a game of who can throw a bigger number. 

Linz invites a lot of acts, and it is famous, so most of the performers apply. A festival that invites only ten acts doesn’t need five hundred applications. How do they all choose the line-up? Is it a lottery?

When I promote the open call, for example, on social media, most of the people I reach follow me, so there is a chance, at least a tiny one, that they have some idea on my festivals.

In my case, what works is fewer applications but from people who make me believe that we are a match. Like in any other jobs—because what I do, post on my website and how I work resonates with them and because who they are and what they do is something I admire. In the end, it doesn’t always work, but often that happens because their expectations turn out to be unrealistic (for example, because they require a budget I don’t have). They probably would not have those expectations if they had read everything in the open call.

Also, I give an example of my open call, but I announce open calls only for some legs of Busker Tour. For the others, I mostly choose people I have seen, whose shows I liked, who I find reliable as performers, and who are kind as people, and whom I can vouch for (also financially!) as that’s what people who hire me expect. I can’t risk cancellations there; I need to trust them. It’s also an opportunity for me to reunite with artists I’d like to work with again. If it is a paid gig, I don’t want to work with performers who advertise themselves as “professional” but then tell me, ‘I’m a street artist, I don’t care about invoices, and other formal things’. 

It’s funny you opened this topic.

How many invoices do you think are made with ChatGPT?

When I first started going to festivals I encountered this “problem”. I didn’t have a company because I was doing more street shows. In Romania it’s very difficult to register as a performer. I asked other performers how they solve this problem, and how they provide invoices. Every time, I felt they were trying to avoid speaking about it. Like it was a sensitive subject.  Without any guidance, 

I finally succeeded in registering my company. It was not easy. There was a lot of bureaucracy and things that I don’t like to do, but I understood that I must do it all if I want to grow as an artist and be part of festivals. After all the effort, guess what?  I saw that many of the artists joining festivals, are not giving proper invoices. I heard multiple times things like: ‘They don’t care. They just need proof that they paid us’ and ‘They don’t check in your country’.

I saw that some performers think invoices are just like files you can create with ChatGPT that has the only purpose of keeping track of payments and expenses. Like a handwritten letter acknowledging that you got paid by the festival.  

Every time I issue an invoice I need to pay taxes in Romania, and I need to declare it to the National Tax Agency. Everything would be much easier if I just asked ChatGPT to create one. However, I believe it’s not only the wrong way to do it, but I feel like it’s even illegal and can create problems for both the artist and the festival.  

Can you tell me your opinion as an organiser on this topic? 

You are talking about illegal things, so there is nothing I need to add. 

Organising a festival is very stressful and it includes worrying about whether all the papers are correct, signed everywhere, and so on. Having to constantly explain to performers that everything requires a lot of formality is one of the reasons why many festivals stick to travel reimbursement only, without offering fees.

In some countriesm things are easier, in others they are complicated. Whoever wants to work internationally needs to understand that, collaborate with the other side, and provide all necessary, and, of course, valid documents on time. If someone tells you: “I need this and that,” it’s not because they are having fun or trying to make your life difficult. Whether it is a fee or travel reimbursement—we need a legal basis to give you the money that is recognised in our respective countries.

I often hear from performers that they are ‘professional performers’, unlike ‘normal buskers’. I don’t understand what ‘professional’ is supposed to mean here, but for me, it would be your path—understanding that it requires a formal approach. Again, like in any other job. If someone wants to be ‘a free spirit’ then why do they apply for festivals that, by definition, are an organised thing with a structure and rules?

We see other people’s success, not their process

We mentioned Wu Haw Jong earlier. When I announced him in the Busker Tour line-up, you sent me a message, “He is a humble guy, and you won’t be disappointed”. To be honest, I can name only a few people who ever sent this kind of message (and probably all of them have been interviewed on this blog). Most of the time it’s ‘why did you book this performer, not me?’ or ‘How do I apply?’. 

Over the years, I have gone viral in one way or another a few times.

First, when I was in Romania’s Got Talent finals. It was the first season ever in Romania, and I was at that time like a K-pop star in my country. It reached the point where I couldn’t go out and have a normal life because everyone wanted a picture. Gradually, that slowed down and over the years, people forgot about me. However, I wasn’t the same kid anymore.

The story of my viral video is crazy. When I was doing street shows on the Romanian seaside, one woman came up to me and said: “Tomorrow I will come to film you and post on my Facebook so everyone will see you.’ I said: ‘Wow, thank you!’ but in my mind I was thinking: ‘Yeah… bla bla… whatever.’ To be honest, nobody would have thought anything of it. 

But the woman came and filmed my show. A vertical video, low quality, which she posted on her Facebook account with 84 friends.

But, as if she somehow could predict the future, that video got around 100,000 views from her regular account. Then, one group reposted that video and got 1 million views. Then, another page reposted that video and got 10 million. Something was so strange about that video. People were triggered by certain things, liked other things that made them watch it many times and comment. Somehow, that video had the recipe to go viral. 

Because after that, another page with only 500 likes posted it and got more than 250 million views. And then another one got 160 million. I gave up counting at some point. There were more than 500 million views in total and tens of thousands of messages (almost 10 years later, I still haven’t finished reading many of them). 

I got some money out of it, some opportunities to perform. Not many, though, because I wasn’t ready. My show was not big enough to deserve bringing me around the world at that time.

But the best thing that happened to me after my video went viral is that one of the people who messaged me was Aisa, who is now my wife.

I would say: Listen to advice and do what you want. Consider what others say but don’t let people design your show. The most memorable performers, singers or any kind of artists are the ones who did something that they liked until people started to like it as well. Trends change all the time. Don’t chase a trend. Become one. 

I always like to do a lot of tricks, but everyone keeps telling me that I must talk more and do fewer tricks. That people will get bored if I do too much. I want to prove them wrong. So every time someone tells me that I should do fewer tricks and speak more, I add one more trick!