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Busking is a funny thing. Some love what you do. Some don't. Many people will comment on your playing. When you busk with a single-note continuous drone instrument like didjiridu, the comments (good and bad) can be quite amusing. Over the years, I've jotted down the more memorable comments I have heard.
I think I started this list in '98 or '99. Either way, all comments are listed oldest to most recent, so for those who have read these before, scroll down to the year you last read.
Enjoy.
I think I started this list in '98 or '99. Either way, all comments are listed oldest to most recent, so for those who have read these before, scroll down to the year you last read.
Enjoy.
1998 or 1999 comments
“You could do that behind someone and say they ate too many beans and franks”
“I can make the same sound out of my ass”
“Daddy, that sounds like the X-Files music”
“Don’t hurt yourself”
“Are you alright?” (asked after doing full body high speed yelps and yips)
“That sounds like a vibrator on steroids”
“That sounds like a bear on steroids”
“Is that the Beastie Boys song?” (serious question - asked by different people on different nights)
“Ricola” (heard an average of 50 times in any evening while busking - no exaggeration)
“Where are the reeds?”
little girl: “Daddy, What’s that thing for?”
father: “They use it to call in the sheep.”
“Dude, here’s a dollar just because that’s the most unusual instrument out here”
“That sounds like an alien or something”
“Man, what the hell are doing?!...... don’t you know that sounds like crap!”
“Where’s the tape player? - you CAN’T be making all that noise yourself.”
“You RULE!”
“Do you ever breathe?”
“Got wood?”
pointing to the bell, a little girl says to her father: “It would be funny if a fly went in there.”
“You’re a brave man.”
“What the f**k is that?! Play a guitar or something!”
“Get a life”
“That is sooooo awesome!”
“Do it Gandhi”
“Does it have a purpose?”
“That’s the biggest bong I’ve ever seen”
(variations on the drug comment are heard many times every night, especially in June when Ocean City is crowded primarily with High School Seniors. During June, the drug jokes average about 50 a night.)
“Look at the big scary horn”
“Oh..... you play it like a shofar”
“You go Tarzan”
“So what do you do with it?” (asked WHILE I was playing)
“You’re the only one out here who really deserves that tip.”
“This is so cool.... why am I so caught up with this instrument? I don’t want to leave.”
“That girl’s lookin’ at you like you’ve got 4 ‘nads’”
“That doesn’t take any talent.”
“Get a job.”
“...no, it sounds like someone didn’t have any lunch for 3 days, and their stomach is rumbling.”
“Do you drink beer through that thing?”
when reading printed info on circular breathing that reads: “....air that I store in my cheeks....”
a lady looks at my bum for a moment, then looks at my face and says “Oh, THOSE cheeks.”
“You must be exhausted.”
“Don’t you get bored playing that thing?”
“Can you play any Skynard?”
“But can you actually play music with it?”
“That’s not a pot belly, that’s a third lung.”
“You don’t smoke, do you?”
(muttered quietly in a tone of disbelief while gazing for many minutes with a dumbfounded look) “Get the f*ck out”
“Does he talk?” (I usually play for 1/2 hour or more at a time while people read a written presentation that I interact with in my playing.)
“Isn’t that annoying?”
“I bet you pick up a lotta’ chicks with that thing.”
“Well, at least you got the circular breathing thing down.”
“This made my whole trip worth it.”
“Keep on didjin’”
“That’s the biggest sex toy I’ve ever seen!”
“Give it up.”
“We should use that in our church.”
“Look at his face. He looks like he’s on crack.”
Summer ‘00 comments:
“Did that come from the sea?”
“I wonder how much money he makes doing that.”
“That’s worth a buck!”
Little girl: “Daddy, why is he crying?”
Father answered: “That’s how he breathes”
“He must get a headache doing that.”
“You have great communication skills” (after reading my interactive book while I play, and asking several questions that could be answered without having to stop and talk)
five minutes later someone else asks: “Can you talk?”
“You ‘da pimp, dude.... you ‘da pimp.”
“Here’s a dollar for your lungs.”
“Are you running out of air?”
“Are you going to hyperventilate?”
“I could spin some phat-ass sh*t to that.”
“You’re still out here keeping it real.”
“That sounds like Peter Frampton.” (I’ve heard this a couple times. I guess one of my licks sounds like a vocoder.)
“They play those in Australia too.”
“Does he ever talk?”
“Does he ever stop?”
“That sounds like aliens.”
“4 hours and 15 minutes?! How do you pee?”
“You want money for doing that?!”
“I bet there’s a lot of spit when he’s done.” (actually, sometimes my “drool pool” is nearly a foot wide at the end of the night.)
“Didjiridu is my favorite instrument.”
“Honey, do you remember when the washing machine made that noise? We had to get it fixed.”
“You’re awesome! That’s the best didjiridu I’ve ever heard.”
“I know an Aboriginal guy who played one of those. He was pretty good... You’re alright too... but he didn’t sweat when he played.”
“He’s still playing the same song.”
“Cool! The didjiridu guy is here!”
“Wow.... I learned something on my vacation.”
“That’s the sound my wife makes in the morning.”
“I’m just waiting for the next song. Play something happy.”
“Look. He’s playing a donkey d*ck.”
“Listen to how he uses his tongue. I bet he could eat p*ssy for hours.”
“Play the Survivor theme.”
“Do you know how to stop?”
“You should play for Yanni.”
after placing his head by the bell, a guy said: “Dude, it stinks in there!”
“He’s been watching Survivor too much.”
“He does that by sustaining one breath.”
“This guy is really jammin’.”
“These kids just don’t understand what they are being treated to.”
“Mommy, can we give him a tip?”
“That guy can really play.”
“That’s orgasmic..... simply orgasmic.”
“I don’t have any money. I’ll tip him some cigarettes.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“You're a bad-ass.”
“Fred Flinstone!”
“OK...Shut up.”
“A dingo ate my baby!”
in the voice of the Crocodile Hunter: “Here we have a male playing his didjiridu far away from his natural habitat. What a magnificent instrument this beast is playing!
With all her feminine charms turned on, a young woman asks: “Can I blow your horn?”
“Why would anyone want to listen to that all night?”
ADDED 2002 SEASON:
“That’s the same kind of breathing we do in my yoga training. If you do it very long, you pass out. Honey, I think he deserves another dollar.”
As I passed 2 guys on a bench while walking home one night after playing, the first guy says to the other: “That guy is awesome.” The second guy says: “I think he sucks.”
“”Go back to Australia!”
“Australian for bong.”
“Do you play any Celine Dion?”
First guy: “Hey that guy’s got a dungaree.” Second guy: “It’s a didjiridu, you dope.”
guy passing by: “Ricola!”
guy sitting near the bell listening to me play replies “Wrong country, dumbass!”
“Yo, you’ve got crazy lung power.”
“Does your Mom know you’re doing this?”
“”He has to keep it going.... or else it stops.”
“That sounds like Celtic.” (pronounced Seltik)
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
“Is he a caveman?”
When reading about mouth cavity manipulation, where I point to the oversized printed syllables “YOU” and “YEE”, someone said: “This is like Cat in the Hat for big people.”
“That’s Capeira.... It’s Brazilian.”
“I thought it was called a conga.... or a zucchini or something.”
“Deep throat it.”
“Mom, look! It’s a didjiridu player.”
“I’ll give you a dollar to stop playing.”
While I was playing, a guy walking by stops for a second and whispers in my ear - “Nice article in the journal.” He gives me a grin, lightly chuckles and keeps walking. (This was one of only 2 people who ever mentioned to me the article.)
When walking out to play on the boards with Karl Sangree, a little boy came running up to us and asked “When are you goingf to shoot those off?”
Karl asked him what he thought they were.
He replied “Roman candles.”
ADDED 2003 SEASON:
“Have you taken a break since I saw you here last July?”
An older gentleman walking by stops and says to me “You can’t dance to that.” Five minutes later someone walking by starts dancing to the same groove.
While looking in my tip tube, a little girl asks her Dad “Do we have any cash?”
“Blow on this.”
“That’s a tusk.”
“Is that a big horn or are you just glad to see me?”
“He makes a living doing this? I’ve got a tip for him. Get a real job.”
“Is that a conch?”
“What happens if I blow in the other end at the same time?”
“That’s a Jamaican thing. Back to the Jamaican roots.”
“That’s the coolest thing EVER!”
-someone else 10 minutes later-
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s ABSOLUTELY the coolest thing.”
When reading aloud the didj tour and getting to the first interactive page where I play what the page describes, a girl smiles and says “You’re cute.”
“Whatever.”
“You’re freakin’ me out, man!”
“He’s not doing that.”
“Oh. There’s that horn thing.”
“What’s the name of that song?”
“You’ve got something on you.”
“Nice lungs!”
“D-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-g! That’s talent right there.”
“Play the big one!”
A group of teens listening to me are trying to describe their location to a friend on a cell phone. One of them yells “Tell him we’re next to the Bongo player.”
“Can you play Jeopardy?”
(I did, but he walked away without even realizing it.)
“That’s what they have on SpongeBob, but his breath stinks.”
“Is that hard to play?”
One guy asks “What is that thing?” while standing directly in front of the big print “didj tour”. He asks again a couple seconds later, and someone else walking by shouts “Read the page, you moron!”
“You’re really good.”
A little boy walking by asks “Mommy, why does that say spit?” His Mom laughs and tells him he is reading it backwards. “It says tips, dear. That’s where you give him money.”
(My tip jar is really a 4 inch PVC pipe that stands vertical. It says “T-I-P-S” with an arrow.)
When someone reads the info I have on display, eventually each page describes a simple playing technique. I suddenly play only the technique they are reading about. As someone was reading about the basic drone, 3 girls walked up. One girl had a fly-swatter and was putting it over the bell while the other 2 girls watched. The person reading got to the page about vocalizations, and I gave a sudden yelp. People have jumped back in surprise at this before, but in this instance the “Boo factor” far surpassed any response I’d ever seen. The girls literally jumped back a couple feet.
Three people stopped to listen for a minute, and one guy throws a coin in the tip tube. I gave a head nod in thanks, and a girl with him excitedly says “He said Thank you..... Did you hear that?... I swear he said Thank you.” I didn’t... but... while she was looking at me in anticipation as she threw in a coin of her own, I did then say “Thank you”. I can’t speak words all that clearly while playing, and she just wasn’t quite sure then if I actually said “thank you” or not. An interesting side note - unless you can enunciate VERY clearly while playing, then saying “thank you” sounds just the same as “f*ck you”. I learned this as a group of guys last year asked me to repeatedly say “f*ck you” while playing.
“I wish I had something to shove up that thing to shut it up.”
“That sounds kind of... sexy.”
A little girl looks in the bell and her father says “I don’t think there’s anyone in there.”
“You’ve got to appreciate that.”
A girl who looked to be about 6 years old sat by the bell. She was facing me while listening, and she was completely entranced with the didj. It was one of those really neat moments as she was so connected to the sound, and it lasted about 15 minutes. Eventually her Dad said something to her, and she said “I like this music. I’m going to give him a penny.” This was one of those moments that really make busking so wonderful.
“Mommy, we wanna stay until he runs out of breath.”
“Daddy, when does he stop?”
“You know there’s a radio in there.”
A couple of kids tonight, not older than 4 or 5, started dancing. One girl started with just her one shoulder moving up and down, and eventually her whole body got more and more into her dance. Her sister joined her, and both girls were doing their own moves. Then their Dad started dancing with them as well. That’s really fun to watch. Some people dance every night even if for only a few seconds as they walk by, but the coolest thing is watching children really get into their own moves.
“Awwww, kewwwwwl. It’s the sound effects thing."
“Look at his face.”
“That’s the stupidest instrument. It just keeps doing the same thing again and again.”
“That’s retarded. Shut up.”
“Does he stop?” a guy asks 2 girls reading the flipbook. One girl replies “No. He’s been playing for 1 hour and 17 minutes.” She then looks at the stopwatch again, turns to me, and asks (seriously) “or is that 1 day and 17 hours?”
“We should give him his props. He’s been going like forever.”
a little boy sporadically made these comments to his parents:
“He looks funny.............He’s spitting...........He’s been playing for weeks.”
“He’s like all sweating and stuff. OWWWWW!”
“You are definitely the hardest working street performer out here.”
“Oh wow. That’s coming from you. I thought it was coming from up there.” - a man says as he points to the giant kites above me.
later the same night, one kid says
“It’s coming from down there.”
then the second kid notices me and says
“No. He’s doing it.”
“Rock on didjiridu!”
“Crickey!”
“That’s frikkin’ sweeeeeet!”
a father has his son put a dollar down the tip tube. While delivering the dollar, the boy reaches his hand as far down the tip tube as he can. The father says
“I didn’t ask you to make change.”
“So is this instrument something you came up with on your own?”
The sad thing is he asked this right after flipping through the large print info which starts off crediting Aboriginal Australians. I just shook my head no, and pointed back to the first page. This time he took the 2 seconds to actually read it.
“I’m going to tip you this time instead of just bugging you.”
“I could stay here all night and listen to him make all these wacko sounds.”
ADDED 2004 SEASON:
“That sounds typical.”
“It’s really a boring instrument, but you’re entertaining us.”
“It’s a Tibetan instrument.”
“Right on, didjiridu. Right on, didjiridu.”
“Didjiridu or Alphorn?”
“You’ve gotta’ be tired of that.”
“Keep blowin’, baby. Keep blowin.’”
after getting the answer that the didj I was playing was made from aluminum trays, a guy answers
“Bullshit!”
“That is one messed-up instrument.”
“Is it super-glued on?”
Overheard while setting up:
1st kid: “There’s that thing... No. No, seriously. There’s that thing. The thing that goes weeeeeeeeeoooooweeeeeeeooooo.”
2nd kid: “Oh yeah. That thing’s awesome.”
a girl comes from behind me, looks in the bell, then says to her friend (who is still behind me)
“It sounds better from this end.”
“It’s like a tuba with a kick.”
“That is some [pause] CREEPY-ass shit.”
“It looks like he’s trippin’.”
“Oh crap! I don’t have any change.”
lady to boy:
“See that, Matt? and you thought playing the saxophone was tough.”
“What I want to know is, how do you find out that you have this talent?”
a girl makes a cell phone call:
“Hey. The didjiridu guy is here. Come to Dorchester Street.”
“It’s didjiridu guy. I love him. You’re awesome. Good job.”
“It’s like rap music from Australia.”
“He deserves a tip for playing that..... I don’t know what that is.... but he sure is playing it.”
“I bet you can play rock ‘n roll on that. Come on. I betcha’ can. You can play rock ‘n roll if you want to.”
While I’m playing, a boy says to me:
“Excuse me, can you play a song.”
“Oh yeah. That is the sound on that tampon commercial. When I heard that I thought my mother-f*ckin’ stove was broken. That sounds so weird. I was messed up then. I thought my mother-f*ckin’ stove was broken. So that’s what that sound was.”
“That sounds like something going down the drain.”
“Are you Swiss?”
“That guy’s awesome with that tuber-thingey.... Really.... It’s true.”
“Git it....... Git it!”
A guy about 10 feet away calls to a guy who is standing frozen in front of me:
“Tom...... Tom!........ He’s mezmorized by the didjiridu player.”
A Mom is so engrossed in trying to sound out “didjiridu” to her daughter that she doesn’t hear her daughter say “didjiridu” - twice. The Mom starts reading that it is from Australia, and her daughter emphatically says: “I know, Mom. Of course it is. It’s a didjiridu!”
One night Karl Sangree was playing while I was listening. The next week one of the boardwalk train drivers I know told me she heard someone say about us:
“What is that? Some kind of religious movement?”
“Play a TUNE, man.”
“Big Blow and the Bushwackers? I’ve never heard of them.”
Seemingly upset by others’ fascination with the didj, a man yells from a distance:
“It’s just a frikkin’ horn you blow in!”
“That’s house music.”
“That’s gangsta’ sh*t.”
“Shut the hell up for 2 seconds.” (Though I don’t know if this lady was talking about me, or talking to her child.)
ADDED 2005 SEASON:
“Lil’ Jon! ...... You sound like Lil’ Jon!”
(I make didjs from used aluminum trays covered with fiberglass. Once fully
decorated, this is only evident by looking inside the bell.)
A woman gets to the interactive quiz page of the didj tour, which reads:
“Guess what material the didjiridu I am playing is made from.”
I hold up 3 fingers, indicating that the answer is “used aluminum Chinese
food take out trays”.
She says: “No it isn’t.”
I nod yes while continuing to play. She adamantly replies: “No!... It isn’t!”
Still playing, I hold the didj in the air and face the bell towards her, and
then point to the bell. She finally looks in the bell and quietly mutters
“Oh.”
While taking the ‘didj tour’ with some friends:
“This book’s too long. It’s interesting though.”
“Indiana Jones!... Yeah!”
"Is that all you can play on that thing?"
“That looks hard to play.”
“We saw that on the ‘Wiggles’.”
Older gentleman says to a little boy:
“Do you know what that is Luke? It’s a Big Blow from Australia.”
asked while I’m playing:
“That’s an electric instrument, isn’t it?”
“That sounds like stoner music.”
“Yeah! Didjiridu! Do it like Xavier!”
a little boy runs to his Mother and says
“Give me cash.”
“Play the other one.”
(I hear this all the time now that I usually take 2 or 3 didjs.)
“Glad its not a bagpipe.”
“Mr. Blowhorn. Can I take a picture with you?”
ADDED ‘06 SEASON:
“That sounds like the Simpsons theme music.”
“That’s a crapload of spit!”
“Sir, is that your saliva?”
“Go do that in your own country.”
This year I started using a boombox for “didj karoake” - playing along to didj-less mixes of new music I’m creating at home. Due to the boombox, some people believe that the didj sound is a recording and I am trying to somehow trick them. One night this guy looks at me and asks: “Is that you?”
After placing his hand in the bell to prove to himself that the sound really is coming out of the bell and not the boombox, the guy looks at me and asks - “Where’s the air coming from?”
“It sounds like an unidentified flying object.”
A group with 3 strollers stops so the kids can all see. After a moment, the parents say
“They’re so still. They may go to sleep. We need to stand here in front of the man every night.”
“That sounds like my outboard motor.”
“He’s fakin’ it.”
“That’s annoying.”
A little boy about 3 years old on a man’s shoulder suddenly starts screaming and cries “That’s scary.”
ADDED ‘07 SEASON:
“Yo, are you on acid?... ??... yo... hallucinogens?”
A boy about 8-10 years old is asking what it is while his Father is videotaping him. I turn my pages to display the name (and pronunciation) of the instrument. The Father videotapes this page, clearly looking right at the name.
His son asks again “What is it?”
The Father walks away and says “I don’t know, but I bet it has something to do with al-queda.”
“Can you play God Bless America on that thing?”
a guy on a cell phone says:
“Listen to this guy play this trumpet.” ... then holds his cell phone at the bell.
(This happens more often every year.)
“It’s harder than it looks.”
“I like your blowhorn.”
“Niiiiiiiiiicccceeee.”
“Keep blowin. Nice work, bud.”
“Stop fartin.”
“Go do that in your own country.”
“I just wanted to tell you that we put one of your songs on our wedding CD.”
“I always thought that I was the biggest blowhard. But you are by far the biggest.”
“Everyone should learn to play one of those.”
“Keep on jammin’, man.”
“It’s like something to call the whales.”
ADDED ‘08 SEASON:
“It sounds like your’e sh*tting.”
“Didjiridu! Didjidridu!”
“I know what that is. I learned about it in music class.”
“That sounds like it hurts.”
“That’s all he’s doing is circular breathing.”
“He’s playin’ a yamika.”
“It’s like kinda’ relaxing.”
“Are you guys seriously gonna’ listen to this?”
“It’s an oboe.”
“You’re good at blowin’ things.”
“Best instrument on the boardwalk.”
“Oh yeah! You know you’r e gettin’ a dollar! You’re jammin!”
“I’ll give you a tip just for the sound.”
“Look. He’s gonna play the bassoon.”
“Is that a boat tiller?”
“Can I get a high five? That’s awesome.”
“Look at the bottom. That’s huge!”
--------------------------------------------------
Most annoying reaction: The stoner who insists on trying to light the bell of the didj on fire as a bong related “joke”
Most pleasing reaction: A young child who through his/her enthusiasm and excitement at the sound, convinces his/her parents to stay and listen, and the parents read the whole presentation to the child, and become enthralled themselves.
Every night I am treated to great visuals. First, I most often play near the huge colorful kites at the 6th Street “Kite Loft” store. The other visual is the entertainment of watching people pass by. That’s interesting enough just in general, but when people are walking by a guy with a long tube attached to his face making weird noises they have never heard before...... well..... I am treated to some really funny facial expressions. Everything from extremely scrunched-up faces, to dropped jaws, to looks of disgust, to laughter, to pure connection with an unspoken source of joy. A couple of times, I almost lost the drone because I was laughing at some people’s facial reactions to me. I guess that’s like the circle of laughter.
