ANDREW MCGILLIGAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

SAINT JOHN - All along the Market Square boardwalk people stopped and stared.

A woman dressed completely in white, standing stalk still, drew a crowd of curious onlookers.

A few metres down the road Rachel Peters had roped off a portion of the boardwalk and was busy creating artwork on the pavement, including a large fish and what appeared to be a stove complete with waving arms. The words 'Keep this girl on the streets' was written in chalk in front of Peters" display.

The two women were part of the 2009 Buskers on the weekend Boardwalk festival, which wrapped up Sunday.

The boardwalk was packed as the sun began to burn through the clouds Saturday afternoon making it easier for performers to attract a crowd in the busy area.

However, further up the street Jonathan Burns wasn't as lucky.

He blended in to the crowd strolling along the sidewalk except for the big yellow case he pulled behind him.

When he reached the City Market entrance on Germain Street, he was greeted with four people.

"We may not get to have a show, we'll see how it goes," Burns said of the small gathering.

With the sun not yet shining through, Burns warmed up his tiny audience with some magic tricks as part of Burnsy's Flexible Comedy Show.

The crowd steadily grew as Burns interacted with as many passersby as possible; ending his show some 20 minutes later with approximately 100 people crowded in front of the entrance.

"It was weird walking up because no one was around and you never really know how it's going to go. You just sort of cross your fingers and hope," he said.

The 27-year-old performer used all the tricks in his arsenal to attract the crowd, including comedy, contorting his body into weird forms, juggling a torch, fork, apple and knife and a toilet seat. It paid off as several donations came his way after the show, a relief for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania native.

"I was so happy people stopped and watched," he said.

Burns was one of several performers in Saint John and said his summers are busy travelling across the country performing at various buskers festivals. Throughout the school year he's on the college circuit entertaining frat boys and sorority girls and says the constant travel can be draining.

One gets the vision of street performers as the modern-day equivalent of carnival folk, travelling in a procession of vans and trucks seated next to the bearded lady until the next stop.

For Burns nothing could be further from the truth. He's not on a first-name basis with any bearded women and lives a normal life with his wife and dog in Lancaster.

"The job is sort of give and take," he said. "You're away from family for large chunks of time and then off for long periods as well."

His time away from home performing has also made him an amateur psychologist when it comes to crowds. He can tell what tricks will go over well and how to play them to bring in bigger donations and draw those simply passing by into the fold.

His talents were on display Saturday as the crowd grew by 20 times throughout his performance. Cruise ship passengers Glenn Buckmaster and Beth Flynn from Michigan were impressed with Burns' flexibility as much as his ability to draw attention to himself.

"There was no one here and he just kept talking and getting more people into it," Flynn said. "We actually had to drive through (Burns') hometown to get to the cruise ship in New York."

With one crowd wowed, Burns packed up and joined the rest of the people walking down King Street toward the boardwalk, hoping it might be easier to draw his next audience.