Does anyone know of any memoirs of street performers?

This one about New Orleans Street Performers looks pretty good.

Edit: I sent your question to crazyivan, who is a US street performer.

Here is a video about street performing by one.

Here is a brief biography of street magician Jim Cellini, who also wrote books on performing on the street, including one called The Royal Touch.

Here’s one: thesubwaydiaries.com. That’s the website but there is also a book. There’s a link to it on the site.

I read a book titled “Passing the Hat” by Patricia Campbell that was a lot of fun. It was somewhere between an expose and a how-to manual so I don’t know if it will suit your purposes, but it was a fun read.

@crazyivan Even better! As a beginning street performer, I was hoping to pick up indirect tips through these but direct ones work too :)

Ah, if you are interested in tips, Top Performer is excellent. While it is geared towards the sales and service industry, it’s all done through five steps used by any successful street performer.