As a clown you will find numerous interesting opportunities to perform in all sorts of venues. One of the most potentially rewarding venues is on the streets. As a street performer you have the chance to try out new material as well as pass out business cards to new customers.

A few important parts of street performing are patter, tip lines and routine. You will find that you will have more success as a street performer if you perform out of clown, but the lessons you learn will grow you abilities of a clown.

Patter is an integral part of any great performance, on the streets or otherwise. Patter is the small talk you make, the little one line jokes that bring your show along. There is nothing worse then a performer who is just doing a gag or trick without some sort of dialogue. Most really good patter is planned out and written down. Unless you feel real comfortable doing improv then I would suggest writing down your patter ideas so you can keep track of them.

Tip lines are what you use to entice the audience to give you those precious dollars. Most people will not even think of giving you a tip unless you ask for it. There are numerous good places to find tip lines, the best being watching other performers and adapting their tips lines to fit your performances. You should plan on asking for tips before your last big trick. This big trick needs to be the finale and should make people want to give you money.

Having a standard routine that you do for all of you tip based performances. If you are trying out new material you should still have a routine. Just slip your new material into the middle of you show. Make sure to have something awesome afterwards in case the new material bombs.

Another advantage of working for tips is that it will help build up you confidence as a performer. Also working with the general public will help you learn how to better handle hecklers and audiences in general.