Pixar's 2005 animated short film riffs on the beloved mobile 'one-man band' feature of movies and entertainment going back to minstrel shows and vaudeville. Attaching as many musical instruments as possible to one mobile human is the busker's ultimate Rube-Goldberg-esque challenge.

During these shelter-in-place Covid times at Camp Teacup, our resident Busker has had to adapt. Grandma's repurposed oak knitting-and-rocking chair is now festooned with most of the trap set, extra cymbals, a triangle, kazoo, the second accordion**, and harmonicas arm-mounted at mouth height. A complex system of gears and pulleys allow the seated musician to operate various instruments, while the rocking motion provides the bellows support and bass drum rhythm.

Instead of the guitar case or top hat for tips, the Busker informs us that he accepts e-transfers from his remote viewers on TickTalk and the Tube of U.

*with optional wheels attached to the rocker

**The Busker had his accordion in the back seat of the car when he went to the pub downtown. When he got back to the car, the car window had been broken...and a second accordion thrown into the back.
-- Sgt Teacup, Mar 17 2021

+ seeing that one man bands are baked, I’m assuming it’s the rocking chair that is the innovation. Not easy for buskers to drag around a rocking chair but this is the halfbakery! I am proposing a type of wagon or putting wheels on the rocking chair to drag it around...
-- xandram, Mar 17 2021


Bun but I'd want the system to be powered entirely by the rocking motion so anybody could just sit in it, rock and rock out.

I picture it programmed to play hillbilly music. Not sure why.
-- doctorremulac3, Mar 17 2021



random, halfbakery