The Busking Project - Documenting Street Performance Worldwide

• Location: Marrakech, Morocco
• Medium: Music

The old man was sitting on a pile of cardboard, quietly. This seemed strange and new after five days in Marrakech. In Djemma el Fna every performer is hunting for an audience, but this man was calm and still. Nick and I were drawn in and were offered our own cardboard seats. He smiled, finished his glass of mint tea, and plucked at the his strings. What followed was head tilted, beard pointed, intense eye contact—music amplified through a car battery powered megaphone—and some cigarette tricks I have no wish to learn. Encircled with this mad musician, we were used as props for his ‘magic’. Ash appeared on Nick’s hands, smoke puffed from his nostrils when he pressed my nose, and the music rattled on. At the end, when we gave him a pitiful collection of Dirhams (13ish), our pockets emptied, we became the butt of his jokes. We sat with open hands, unable to understand his words, suddenly feeling small and trapped on our cardboard platforms. The gathered crowd laughed with him, at us, and tossed their coins for the show; everyone leaving happy in the end.