Wowing the crowds
Waterloo’s busker carnival attracts world’s top talent
Busker festival attracts world’s top talents
WATERLOO — Escape artist Rob Roy Collins knows how to work a crowd.
Under the hot sun at Waterloo’s Busker Carnival on Saturday, Collins promises he will escape from padlocked handcuffs and a 20-foot long steel chain wrapped and locked around his torso.
Oh, and he will do it in two minutes while standing atop a 10-foot ladder.
But before he gets to the main act he needs a crowd, because it’s the crowd who pays at the annual Sun Life Financial Waterloo Busker Carnival.
“You wouldn’t realize how much thought and detail and basic psychology goes into working a crowd,” said Collins.
For nearly 40 minutes, he works his magic using humour, music and audience engagement until a crowd of a couple of hundred people have circled around him in the parking lot behind Waterloo City Hall.
“He gets good, large crowds; he’s very popular,” said Randy Warren, executive committee chair of the Waterloo festival.
“He does a good job drawing them in.”
And at the end of it all, he has to convince the audience to pay him.
He repeats the routine eight times over the four-day festival.
Collins is a world-class entertainer from England who has performed countless escapes including from a straitjacket while hanging from a crane, a billboard and even a helicopter.
But Collins, who has performed at Waterloo’s festival for four years, wasn’t always in this particular line of work.
“I was a pole vaulter and I have a law degree,” he explained.
It was about 18 years ago when he was trying to fund a backpacking trip to Australia that he first started busking.
“I had to pay the way and it was either that or fruit picking or something and I thought: ‘I’m just going to try being a busker,’” he said.
“And I quickly realized I was terrible but that’s with any job — you start terrible and get better.”
Now, the 41-year-old performs between 50 and 100 shows a year, although he’s taken on a little less lately as he has two young children.
Collins said he really enjoys performing at the Waterloo festival.
“It’s one of my favourites, genuinely,” he said. “I mean, it’s in its 31st year, so everyone gets it.”
One of the draws for him is the quality of performers invited to the festival.
While the festival had more than 200 performers apply this year, only 12 acts were selected, said Warren.
“We’re considered one of the top three (busker festivals) in Canada and the neat thing about us is we’re all volunteers,” he said.
Ten volunteers make up the executive committee for the festival and another 60 to 70 volunteer at the festival, which runs over four days.
“We’re really just trying to build a whole carnival atmosphere and make it a really fun weekend,” he said.
You wouldn’t realize how much thought and detail and basic psychology goes into working a crowd. ROB ROY COLLINS Busker