SF eccentric street performers have gone dark during the pandemic. Now they light up the city again

The 63-year-old man turns 15 buckets and several pots and pans over, places them in a Jenga-type semicircle, and lets his pestles fly. And sometimes his fiancée lights the ends of the pestles on fire, and he plays with them before licking the flames.

“It’s my trademark! ” he said. “You won’t find anyone doing this!” “

It is a safe bet.

Hunt is one of many street performers who recently resumed their places in the city’s downtown, the Ferry Building and Pier 39 after the pandemic-induced calm. It feels a lot more like San Francisco when you can again stumble upon breakdancing, singing, guitar strumming, juggling, and, yes, even flame-licking on the city streets.

Street performers have been part of the San Francisco landscape for decades. Robert Shields was a classically trained mime who enjoyed entertaining tourists and locals in Union Square in the early 1970s. A. Whitney Brown starred in “Saturday Night Live,” but only after making his debut as a juggler in street when Pier 39 opened in the late 1970s. Edward Jackson has been tap dancing on a wooden platform at the bend of the Powell Street Cable Car since 1998.

I recently met several of the city’s top street performers through impromptu tour guide Don Propstra, who lives in North Beach and writes a book on the Golden Gate Bridge. He walks around the city every day and has gotten to know several of his best street performers. He reached out, thinking they deserved a spotlight after a difficult 18 months.

“During the ups and downs and turbulent times in our city, I find these street performers to be a delightful force for joy and healing,” Propstra said. “They are like civic ambassadors.

We started with a visit to Hunt, who has been playing buckets since he was 3 and growing up in Kansas. He moved to San Francisco about 20 years ago and said he was “following the yellow brick road to success.”

“If I play my music, I’m happy,” he said. “Take that off, I’m unhappy. “

He has been homeless on and off, but currently lives in a one-bedroom hotel in the Tenderloin with his cat and buckets. With his drum set, he can earn from a few dollars on a slow day to $ 100 on a busy day.

The highlight of his bucket career was his appearance with Will Smith in the movie “Pursuit of Happyness”. The weak point, he said, was dragging his real drumset – not buckets – by a city team during downtown sweeps ahead of the Super Bowl in 2016. He’s still trying to collect funds to buy another one, and anyone who wants to help should do so. throw money at him.

Just across the intersection of Stockton and Ellis streets, the incredible voice of Parris Lane, 63, carries on boulders. She discovered her talent by singing spirituals as a child with her sisters in their living room in Maryland so as not to be afraid during thunderstorms. She has performed with the Backyard Party Kings almost every night since 2015.

“People can’t believe they’re hearing music live – it’s all on a boom box now,” she said.

She said a couple met while listening to her sing “Stand by Me” and returned to visit her as husband and wife. Harold Wilson, a 59-year-old drummer and handyman, formed the group in 2008, but they didn’t perform for over a year during the pandemic.

“It was great to come back and play,” he said. “We’ve lost our touch, but now we’re back.”

We also watched Javon Mabon, 23, and Gideon Mekwunye, 25, from the Oakland Originalz Dance Team at Fisherman’s Wharf. Their shtick makes six tourists stand in a line and bend at the waist – while Mabon all runs, jumps and turns around.

When they returned to their seats on June 15 after the town reopened, Mabon was out of shape and could only jump three people.

“You could smell death on the quay,” Mabon said of his return when there were few tourists. “Our goal is to keep the energy going. A great day is when every show has positive energy.

Every day is a big day for Marc Coleman, 48, who plays guitar and sings outside the Ferry Building. He wrote his first song at the age of 5, but held a variety of hospitality jobs before turning to music full-time at age 40.

He laughed that his dad told him he was crazy back then, but he’s now making enough money from delighted spectators donating to his Venmo account and scoring private concerts from impressed passers-by to raise his money. toddler in the Excelsior district. He met his wife when she stopped to listen to him play “House of the Rising Sun” and continued to listen for two hours.

“It’s a great way to live,” Coleman said. “I don’t need to earn that big pot of money, but for me to be able to maintain a lifestyle, take care of my family and live in the city, I’m very proud of it.”

Coleman has a knack for spotting a stranger walking through the Embarcadero and playing a song he thinks will fit. Often the person will exclaim, “It was my wedding song! or “This song was just stuck in my head – how did you know that?” (He confessed that when he’s not sure, the Eagles or Coldplay are safe bets.)

“I’ve done this all over the world, and nobody reacts like San Francisco,” he said. “It’s pure magic.”

That’s for sure – and it’s good to remember that there is still some special stardust left in San Francisco.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf