Local musicians promote with reverse busking performance

A man with a blue trombone waited in line for the A bus at the Third Street and Jordan Avenue bus stop Tuesday night.

Once on board, he began playing in unison with a woman already seated with a flute.
Rehearsing haiku poems and using the bus railings as dance props, Bloomington residents Neil Parsons and Zara Lawler performed an act they named “Reverse BUSking.”

As the bus riders realized they had turned into audience members, they took out their cell phones to record the performance.

Instead of collecting money in a hat as is typical of busking, the pair played music and then handed out free tickets to their show on Thursday, “The Flute on its Feet.”

The concert features original music by Lawler and dance choreographed by Parsons.
Dance, poetry and music are combined to make the act, which takes place at 8 p.m. Thursday at Windfall Studios, different from classical flute performances.

Lawler said they wanted to promote the event by performing in an unusual location.

“We had the idea to be on a bus,” Parsons said. “And then we tied it to busking and realized the play on words.”

The pair practiced by setting up chairs to imitate a campus bus — a narrow aisle with chairs facing toward it with front-facing seats toward the back.

On Monday, the pair went through a reconnaissance on the bus without their instruments to work out the timing.

Assuming there would be little traffic on campus, the duo timed each individual piece so it could be performed in full between each bus stop.  

“On our recon trip, the bus was really full,” Lawler said. “We thought, ‘How is this going to work?’”

Lawler said the bus driver was cooperative with their efforts.

“I should have told everyone to thank their bus driver,” she said, shaking her head in disappointment after the first performance.

They arranged to play their instruments while staying seated if there was no room to dance, but the A bus had plenty of extra room for the performance Tuesday.

The duo will perform again on the A bus beginning at 7:28 p.m. tomorrow at the Third and Jordan bus stop and will be passing out additional free tickets.

Audience members will be able to take the bus to Windfall Studios for “The Flute on its Feet.”

Although he said he probably wouldn’t attend the show on Thursday, a big grin crept across Kevin Skinner’s face as he stepped onto the bus at 10th Street and Woodlawn Avenue and realized he would have entertainment for the trip.

“This is fantastic,” he said. “I’ll probably be at Tiesto, but ‘Flute on its Feet’ is the next best act of Little Five. It’s pretty good promotion.”