My European Magical Tour – Week Two: Berlin
Two weeks ago I started my six week magical tour across seven European countries. My goal is to use magic as way of meeting as many interesting people as I can, explore every city that I visit, and to help cover expenses.
If you missed my previous blog of my first week in Prague, be sure to check that one out too.
I had an amazing first week in Prague and traveled to Berlin with the same expectations. The week overall was a very different experience. It was a few standout moments and fantastic final day that really made the whole trip to Berlin worth it.
According to my research, Alexanderplatz, and Mauerpark on Sundays, were great places to find an audience for street performing. This was true, however, at Alexanderplatz the tips were scarce. Big audiences happened quickly but disappeared as soon as the hat came out. After having a drunk German try to fight me in the middle of a routine, I was wondering if this was the right place to be.
I realized that if I performed during the day instead of the evening, I would have smaller, more manageable audiences, that tipped more.
Fortunately, I made an amazing friend there. His name is Emil, and he is a magic hobbyist. He hung out with me for two hours as I performed. The following day, Emil spent nearly five hours of his time giving me a personal tour of Berlin! He showed me many of the sightseeing spots including the Berlin Wall, Berlin Cathedral Church, the Soviet War Memorial, and furthered my knowledge of German history. What a nice guy!
I visited two of Berlin's magic stores which is on my to do list for every city I visit. My favourite was Zauberkönig.
I met another magician named Q, from Taiwan. He is also a traveling magician. It turns out we will be crossing paths again on my final week before I return to Ottawa. We went for a beer after performing at Alexanderplatz and agreed to meet at Mauerpark on Sunday.
Mauerpark was AMAZING. If you are a street performer of any kind, this is the place to be. Every Sunday, thousands of people come here just to have a good time. The performers here are unreal! Some of the most amazing beat boxers I've ever seen. Every 50 feet there was some amazing talent surrounded by crowds of people.
This is me taking a quick break from busking at Mauerpark, Berlin. I was briefly checking out the other performers. I bumped into a street performer that I saw the two days before. There is music coming from every direction. So much talent!
There is also the greatest pitch I have ever seen for a circle show. It's basically an out door theater lay out for huge crowds. If you're a circle show performer, and want a huge crowd, this is the place to be. In this picture there is a magician from South Korea performing. Unfortunately, I never got his name.
I was so happy to be at Mauerpark, I didn't want to leave. It was this day that I finally felt that my week in Germany was a success. I made more tips here than all week at Alexanderplatz. As the sun lowered, people were more relaxed and out came the bongos and acoustic guitars.
Below is a video of me performing some coin magic at Mauerpark.
Once again, I'm on the train. This time heading to Amsterdam. I'll be spending the next week in this city and I'm excited to see where my magic will take me. I hope to be sharing my adventure with you again soon. Thanks for reading!
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