(AUSTRALIA) Chayne Hultgren a.k.a. "The Space Cowboy" has just set a new Guinness worlds record by swallowing 18 razor-sharp swords. The brave performance artist acomplished the feat by swallowing the 72cm swords in Sydney. "The Space Cowboy" beat his own 2008 record of 16 and used different throat stretching methods to perfect the art.

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Gatecrashers: The World Buskers Festival is being gatecrashed by street performers eager to cash in on the crowds attracted by the popular Christchurch event.

Heymoonshaker, a guitar and beatboxing act, set themselves up on a street corner yesterday afternoon to take advantage of the crowds.

"If the festival is a boat, then we are on skis behind it trying to get as much out of it as we can," gatecrashing British beatboxer Crowe said.

British travellers Crowe and guitarist Andrew Balcon met in Nelson and decided to perform in Christchurch to raise money for their world travels.

"We thought we would be able to perform in between sets in the Square, but they wouldn't let us," Balcon said.

Festival director Jodi Wright has taken a liberal approach to the busker pilot fish cruising in the wake of the festival shark.

"It is too hard to try to police them. Unless...

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(ST. LOUIS) Remember collecting baseball cards as a kid? Now you can collect busker trading cards of all the wonderful street-performers in St. Louis.Thanks to Board Bill #181, busking and street-performing is now legal in St. Louis. They are now buskers to be memorabilia-ized! And collected! And traded!

It all came about when the city raised the busker fee in order to monitor buskers. Huh? That's exactly what buskers Fred Walker and Nick Pence said - along with the ACLU when it heard of such a preposterous notion.

Now that a wrong has been righted and the laughter has subsided, the buskers may be memoralized as a collector's card. The busker game includes finding each artist performing and having them sign their card. The winner gets featured in an upcoming street-performer festival.

It's a fun idea....

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(LONDON) Radio 1 star Olly Murs has received his makeunder as a homeless guy with head lice. His mission was to perform in Covent Garden and see how well he does.The trend of stars busking on pitches around the world seems to have manifested itself. Whether for a commercial, skit, or social experiment, the stars are coming out at all hours. The celebrities over the years include Sir Paul McCartney, Joshua Bell, Guns & Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Usher, Murs, and more yet to come.

You'd think Murs would be releasing some fantastic new album but this social experiment was at the top of the list. He demonstrates how important professionalism can be when busking in the real world. Even in his condition, it was more of an audition than a handout.

Murs performed 45 minutes of his own songs and even has the video to prove...

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I remember I was busking on a popular outdoor mall at a commonly used pitch. As a muse, I played and sang between an outdoor cafe and restaurant. Buskers had used the stage for several years. I usually got a coffee at the cafe while on breaks and was familiar with the staff.

One day, a new staff member came outside and asked me to move down the way. When I asked the blond middle-aged woman why, she simply said she didn't appreciate me singing outside on a beautiful day while she slaved away inside. I told her it was my choice in life to busk rather than being a server and I really couldn't help her. She again requested me to move on and left with the satisfaction of having told me 'what for'. I ignored her request and continued performing.

As a mature busker, I had seen the like before. They have a problem with someone busking because they can't do it. After several other altercations, I had...

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