Here’s a new video I made. Been working on it for a few weeks.
It was fun making the beat. It was very simple. I found this online drum machine called the Sampulator. It had some cool 808 style beats.
In the past I’ve messed around with Garageband which is sort of like cutting and pasting musical tracks together. IDK. It serves a purpose but there is no drum machine.
The drum machine is cool I like the idea of touching a key and sound coming out. No, not a piano sound, a beat.
I think in the future I will play around with some of these online drum machines or it would be cool to actually get one or if I could create one???
I made the mask out of paper mache, a vacuum cleaner hose, glue and bolts I had and a couple of cheap belts I got from the dollar store here.
I have a couple of other ideas for related videos in the future.
What a day. Some crazy homeless guy possibly on drugs tried stealing my money as I was street performing on Grant in Chinatown, SF. I do a hybrid kinda street performance that entails a costume (see the latest), some miming, story telling, goofing around, and beatboxing.
I divided this post into 2 parts as there were 2 altercations with this same guy within maybe 10-20 minutes.
Part 1 – Guy tries to steal my money
So I was sitting out on Grant St. in Chinatown doing my pink man show and waiting for someone to push play. Then this guy who wasn’t wearing a t-shirt or shoes comes by and picks up my money can sitting between my legs and starts walking off.
At first I thought is this guy joking?
I told him to stop and he kept walking. So I threw him with a judo throw. It happened fast and I can’t remember what kind of throw it was, it was something like osoto gari or o guruma or harai goshi.
He hit the ground, my money went flying and then there was that moment of thought…
“Arm bar him, get on top or this guy is probably going to go away…”
That was my mistake. He got up hit me in the side of my temple and than ran over to a store across the way and grabbed a bin of umbrellas.
Then he tried throwing them at me and eventually ran off.
After that I was thinking about my mistake. I was telling myself… “You got to get on top of the guy and finish him with a submission. That’s why he got up and hit you. That happened cause you didn’t control the situation. Don’t assume he is going to go away.”
Luckily most people are good people and a few people collected my money that had flown everywhere and watched it while this was happening.
Weird too, after that the woman who works next door gave me $20 and another guy $5. It’s weird how that works. The same thing happened another time when a guy was being a jerk throwing these loud firecrackers near me and then I got angry and went over to him and said some things.
Drama.
Maybe people like drama or maybe it’s compassion. Maybe some people feel a sense of compassion for this pink or blue dude who people are messing with.
Anyways back to the story…
Part 2 – He comes back
Then he came back.
He started saying I took some of his stuff. This guy was crazy. He wouldn’t go away and kept walking around me. This time I took off my sign that I wear. Then he took his shirt off the ground and started whipping me with it.
This is all happening on the sidewalk and middle of the street.
There was that thought (a moment) of, “do I back off or attack?” I actually attacked him and grabbed him and got him up against a car from behind in a rear naked choke.
But his chin was tucked and I couldn’t finish him. Later I thought how I could have got that choke… more on that later.
Then another guy comes and asks if we could get off the side of the car. So I threw the guy again on the pavement and got on top of him. He was pulling on my shirt and pushing towards my face.
I was going for the americana. I was thinking of a choke, but he had no shirt on and I’m less confident about my arm triangle chokes. So I went for the americana.
The guy is fighting, but eventually I got his wrist to the ground. I kept my elbow by his head to keep him from biting me. I was thinking this guy could bite, try grabbing my balls or any other dirty thing.
Once I got my grips I pulled it down and up toward his hips. Then I heard some pops and cracks in his shoulder or elbow, the guy yell and then suddenly he became limp and apologetic.
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“I am sorry”, he said.
“Sorry.”
He stopped moving.
If I wanted to be mean or really destroy his elbow or shoulder I would have done it again even deeper. But he stopped fighting and started saying sorry.
So I just held him there in that arm lock.
I was thinking, “do I let him go or hold on or what?”, but I held on, the cops eventually came and handcuffed him. I guess he was causing problems up and down Grant.
Things I learned from that fight
So that’s my story about using judo and jiu-jitsu in a street fight. I always wondered if it would work. I mean it should right? I had been training in jiu-jitsu for maybe close to 3.5 years frequently and in judo for a few years less often.
But you never really know until you are in a fight.
Even after part 1 I was thinking about that mistake and well like most things in judo or jiu-jitsu there are no mistakes.
I know it sounds a little cliche, but…
There are only learning experiences. You may have heard that if you have been practicing jiu-jitsu. It may sound cliche, but it’s the truth.
And I got the chance to immediately apply what I had learned from the first episode. I knew this guy was a problem when he came back so I took my sign off. He took his shirt off the ground and was whipping me with his shirt and then I attacked.
In the end I submitted the guy until the cops came. But learned a few things along the way.
Don’t just throw the guy and think the fight is over. Get on top and/or submit.
I think I could have gotten the rear naked choke had I used my other bicep on his fore head to open up his neck more for my other hand. Probably hard for some to visualize what I mean.
Be aware of your vulnerabilities because the guy may try the dirtiest stuff.
But that’s jiu-jitsu.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a real fight, rolling at the gym or a competition.
The same sort of reflection happens every time you roll with someone. When you fail you can look back on what you did and think about what you will do next time.
The damage
My performance glasses got f*cked up, I got a bump on my temple from getting hit, scratch on my forehead and a bruise on my knee – mounting on the pavement is a lot harder than a mat in the dojo, but otherwise I am o.k.
I noticed that guy had a bloody hand when I had him in an arm lock and I am pretty sure by the sounds of things mentioned earlier that something tore or broke in his elbow or shoulder.
I didn’t punch or kick him I just did what I learned.
In the end
I wanted to get a video because I saw some people recording it, but left by the time the altercation was finished. So hopefully one will surface on Youtube or somewhere else that I can use in the next week or so.
Seeing some pink street performer dude fighting on Grant Street in Chinatown, San Francisco is a little unusual so maybe a video or two will surface somewhere.
Before I got into jiu-jitsu I heard people talk about how it can make you more confident. I always wondered if it had made me more confident. I still don’t know, but had these things happened 4 years ago I think the outcome may have been different.
The cops were actually pretty cool to me which was surprising considering I had known one of the cops for a long time. I think that same cop seems to respect me more now for whatever reason.
I think I might have a little bit of an idea of what being famous is like.
I remember reading once about a famous actor who punched some paparazzi in the face. I totally understand. I have felt like doing the same thing countless times.
It’s about them it’s not about you. They don’t care about you. You look cool to them and having your picture on their Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram feed is going to make them look cooler.
I remember looking out the window of the bus the other day in Chinatown and this guy had all these pictures of himself with famous people: Yao Ming, Jeremy Lin, and others outside of his shop.
But I think his shop had nothing to do with sports. I think it was maybe a book shop.
Want to know what it is like to be famous? Dress up, paint your face, be weird, do something totally different that is somewhat appealing to some people and then you’ll get a taste of what it is like.
You’ll get attention and it can feel nice, but it’s not really about you.
I have been meaning to do this for a long time. I find pictures sometimes around the web that people have taken of me street performing and I thought it might be cool to put them up.
For the last 3 years I have been painting my face blue (or occasionally white), dressing up and going out into the streets performing and trying to make some money. I have been doing a bit of beatboxing, miming, and storytelling.
This was a recent interesting pic that was taken by Trevor Ryan in Chinatown. Those were actually people walking by, but it sort of looks like some paranormal activity or something.
It looks like I was trying to scare someone here. That’s pretty fun. I have seen some pretty fun things. Laughter is good.
I think most figure you are real, but sometimes you can catch someone off guard.
There’s a fair amount of picture taking going on. Which I don’t mind if people ask and if they tip something. Otherwise I don’t really like pictures.
That’s just me and although I may look kinda cool, but it’s just like normal for me. If you had people pointing cameras at you wouldn’t you get tired of it?
Maybe not. People are different. I am an introvert for the most part and can live without them.
Can’t imagine what it’s like being a celebrity.
I am not surprised some of these celebrities flip out and punch people in the face for it. Always ask.
Here I am telling a story that I made up. It’s about “my boat trip” to Taiwan and an encounter with a pirate I had.
This one is old school. It’s probably close to 3 years old. Those hats are cool. They’re great for keeping the sun and rain out. Guess that’s why many farmers use them in Asia.
Here’s a video that I made that combines some of the street performing that I do as well as some dj scratching.
I came up with the idea for this show since before pushing play many people thought that I was the robot kind of guy. They assumed I did the robot or danced.
Not really, but I do beatbox and scratch. And in this video I mix the beatboxing up a bit and then scratch it.
Here’s a video I made that combines a little of the street performing I do and some of my dj scratching.
The secret sauce is a sort of joke I made that was inspired from a kung fu teacher I had in Taiwan who used to break bricks with his hands.
It was tricky matching the video to the sound. It has quite a few layers to it with the music, the scratching and the video and getting it all to sink together was a challenge.
Are you wondering how much money street performers or buskers make? I can only speak for myself. I think a lot of people lie or don’t want to tell the truth about what they make.
I asked a few in San Francisco before I started and they didn’t seem to want to tell me, one did and another I think told me a lie. Then I found a video on Youtube with the title “Make $800 a day as a street performer”.
That’s a good click bait title. But obviously a lie if you watch the video and read the comments.
It really depends on you and what you do and how you do it. I make anywhere from $0 an hour to $20 an hour. But really most of the time the average is probably a bit less than $10 an hour.
It’s not lucrative for the most part. I have made over $130 bucks in a day on several occasions, but that came with like 7-8+ hours worth of work.
Some days suck and I might go out there and spend an hour and make no money.
It’s also up and down and erratic. A lot of it can depend on the time of the year, the time of the day and day of the week. Relatively few people tip (a small percent).
The more of a crowd that you can gather, the more you ask for money then the more money you can make.
Here’s a video a made of some of the highlights of my day out in the streets performing. It can be a lot of fun. We paint our face blue, dress up, freak some people out, do some shows and beatbox a bit.
I made this video over the last summer in Chinatown, San Francisco.
