[Dixielandjazz] Street bands & sit ins

[Elazar Brandt]

Shalom again,

To put a new spin on this thread, anyone have experience handling unwanted "sit-ins" while busking out in public places?

I had a problem yesterday, which surprisingly doesn't happen very often to us. A local drunk decided to be the star of our show. He
came and danced, of course right over out hat, scaring off much of our audience of young families and religious people, and even
grabbing his private parts and making obscene gestures thinking he was contributing to the performance.

At first I tried to move him graciously out of the picture by asking him to move back and give us some space. But he kept coming
back, and also kept talking to us during the songs, singing or shouting and making a general nuisance of himself. Well, in a public
setting you have limited rights to the space, but I do insist on some respect and cooperation if I'm going to play out there. So
after several polite requests, I warned him that I'm not going to ask him again, and when he came back, I had the band stop playing,
and told him if he doesn't leave I'm going to call the police. He shouted some obscenities and me, but he did leave after that. We
lost most of our audience in the process and had to build it back up.

Today, the same guy in the same place came and put 10 shekels and a cigarette in our hat, and behaved himself and kept a respectable
distance. Usually I find the firm approach works best out there in the big city.

On the other hand, we often encourage sit-ins on our washboard or other percussion instruments, or singing along, and sometimes
they're great. But I try not to allow people to handle my instruments on the street. If you let one do it, then everyone wants to.
I've learned a good line to keep people from trying to play my horns. I tell them if they keep their mouths off my mouthpieces, I
won't kiss their girlfriend/wife. They usually get the idea.

Anyone have any good ideas about handling drunks, beggars or other unsavory characters, especially in public venues where you don't
have a lot more right than they do to be there? I would rather let the police handle it, but they don't. Sometimes they watch this
sort of thing happen to us and don't intervene!

Elazar
Ministry of Jazz
Doctor Jazz Band
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537