T'was in Boulder, Colorado - "the scene" in the American West - where I had been busking for years when a strange occurrance, indeed, occurred. There I was playing for drops running through my usual sets of artists - Bob Dylan, Neil Young, America, Cat Stevens, and my originals. Everything was going smoothly when an unexplained phenomena happened.Out in front of me was a grassy area that had been chained off to promote growth. A squirrel had come from nowhere into the rectangle and started his own show. He started doing backflips here and there. Just why, I haven't the foggiest. However, this went on for quite some time as he gathered his audience.
I felt like yelling, "Hey! You're on my pitch!" but, of course, that would be about as rediculous as a squirrel doing backflips. Over and over, he performed undaunted. In the old lingo, he was "chopping heads" and stealing my audience. He had evidently just learned to perform the backflips and was fascinated with his new-found acrobatics. I had been upstaged by a squirrel!
I had to stop my performance and take a coffee break for twenty minutes. When I returned, the squirrel had gone - hopefully to another busker's pitch!