{"id":3121,"date":"2011-01-17T14:15:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=3121"},"modified":"2012-09-29T20:16:41","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T19:16:41","slug":"half-naked-unicycling-knife-juggling-street-performer-covent-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/half-naked-unicycling-knife-juggling-street-performer-covent-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Half naked, unicycling knife-juggling street performer, Covent Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-01.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The tradition\u00a0of street performers at Covent Garden dates back to the 1600s, but the area has changed\u00a0dramatically\u00a0after the famous covered fruit and vegetable market closed in 1974.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-03.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/london\/covent-garden-performers-london.html\" target=\"_blank\">protracted battle with\u00a0developers<\/a>,\u00a0Covent Garden was reborn in 1980 as a\u00a0major\u00a0tourist destination, with shops, street performers, buskers and market stalls packing &#8217;em in.<\/p>\n<p>If you walk down from Covent Garden tube station today, you&#8217;ll pass <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/london\/covent-garden-performers-london.html\" target=\"_blank\">an assortment of living statues and some very odd sights indeed<\/a>, but the open street performance area outside St Paul&#8217;s church is where you&#8217;ll find the most dynamic acts.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-04.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This guy was hugely entertaining, and pulled in a large crowd with some sharp banter and insistent demands for audience\u00a0participation.<\/p>\n<p>Here, some bystanders are\u00a0employed\u00a0to haul him onto his unicycle.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-05.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m not a fan of\u00a0unicycling and I&#8217;d rather watch paint dry than sit and watch a juggler\u00a0pointlessly\u00a0lob things in the air, but this guy&#8217;s sense of fun was infectious.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-06.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After a long, teasing build up, he\u00a0finally\u00a0got on his\u00a0unicycle. And as unicycles go, this looked to be the\u00a0s<em>kyscraper <\/em>edition.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-07.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With the crowd enthralled, knives\u00a0were juggled dramatically, with a chainsaw waiting nearby.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/covent-garden-street-performer-08.jpg\" alt=\"Street performer, Covent Garden Piazza\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I had to leave before his set reached its chainsaw-wielding climax, so I&#8217;l leave you with a picture of the cheeky fella flashing his bum to the crowd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tradition\u00a0of street performers at Covent Garden dates back to the 1600s, but the area has changed\u00a0dramatically\u00a0after the famous covered fruit and vegetable market closed in 1974.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[194,17,193],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-3121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-features","category-photos","category-places","tag-covent-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/covent-garden-street-performer-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-Ol","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9715,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions\/9715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}