"When my show's going well I feel invincible, like a higher being", says Flying Bob. For the last ten minutes he held an audience in the palm of his hand. But now the spell is broken, the audience begins to chatter and get on with their lives. "If I don't make enough money to get home, I will stay and breed with the locals", jokes Dexter Tripp the trapeze artist. But his voice belies a powerlessness, which is both gift and curse of the trade.

"On the street if you're not constantly talking, doing something, people will just walk away", explains Matt the escape artist. Yet the performers wouldn't swap the freedom of this occupation for anything. "We're a rebel sort of people", says Jeep who runs a dog show "we work on the street because then we can do whatever we want". For society's misfits, the street offers a moment of adoration which is addictive.

"What do I get out of performing?" says Michael the juggler "I get to get along with people for half an hour". Whilst for the Blue Girls, it is only "in the fabulous worlds that we are making, that we are breathing again, we're alive!"

But the pressure is mounting, "rent is due and you're thinking "well I hope it doesn't rain!" Performers pick fights with each other over pitches"she said she was only going to be half an hour!" The crowd is losing interest - "if this is boring, why don't you just go somewhere else you losers!" The trapeze artist falls to rapturous applause.

"I've broken each wrist, countless ribs", he says. But physical costs are not the only pay-off of this all-consuming trade. "I haven't spoken to my son for 12 months", admits Gazzo the magician. "My obsession with my work did lead to the breakdown of my marriage", Michael confides.

Risking injury, arrest and fights over pitches, the Buskers throw themselves wholeheartedly into the roulette wheel of life, all for the unpredictable love of the crowd. "You lose that dream [of fame and fortune] you're finished", says Tony, who lost all of his teeth in his fire-eating act. From the heights of artistry to the depths of hunger, this is the human condition at its most freakishly wonderful.

Best Film, DIY Film Festival 2008

Official Selection, Santa Cruz Film Festival 2008

Official Selection, Coney Island Film Festival 2008