Busking

Busking is the practice of performing in public places for tips and gratuities. People engaging in this practice are called buskers. Buskers may also be known as street performers, street musicians, minstrels, or troubadours. Busking performances can be just about anything that people find entertaining. Buskers may do acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, card tricks, clowning, comedy, contortions & escapes, dance, fire eating, fire breathing, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime and a mime variation where the artist performs as a living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or recite poetry or prose as a bard, street art (sketching and painting, etc.), street theatre, sword swallowing, and even putting on a flea circus.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busking

Throughout history, buskers have been pushed to the fringes of society, by the very society they seek simply to entertain. Even today, it is illegal to busk in most major cities, all over the world. Yet people continue to sing, dance, juggle, draw, act, paint, sculpt, and prestidigitate on the streets and sidewalks, willingly risking punishment (albeit less violent than in times gone by), for the pleasure and entertainment of passersby, and a coin or two.
– www.pikemarketbuskers.org/busking.html