You might have seen a guy in any carnival or fairs, who is screaming and cracking jokes to get the attention of the visitors. He is actually doing his job, and he gets paid for that. He is called Carnival barker
A Carnival barker is a person who uses voice and words to attract patrons to buy tickets for entertainment venues ranging from booths in carnivals to strip joints. Carnies, as they are called, might promise more than the show actually delivers in order to bring in a crowd. In fact, barkers have reputations for being hustlers who specialize in parting customers from their money. A barker may conduct a brief free show, introducing performers and describing acts to be given at the feature performance. Professional barkers dislike the term and refer to themselves as "talkers."
For this job all you need is a very good voice, the ability to learn a carnival language and to be happy to work up to 18 hours per day. The pay for this job is around $250 per week.
This could be a good summer job for students. The job offers good pay, travel, and excitement. Long hours--often an 18-hour shift--are standard, and strong vocal cords are a must. It's also necessary to learn carnival language. A barker is a carny, a customer is a mark, a booth or concession is a joint, cheap prizes are slum.
In carnival lingo, a barker is a carny, a customer is a mark, a booth is a joint and cheap prizes are slum.
Traveling carnivals used to be more common before than they are today as small towns had less entertainment and fewer attractions for people to enjoy. Barkers were part of the overall carnival experience. People who attended carnivals would be enticed to pay their entry fees by a barker.
Traditionally, barkers were unskilled laborers who had good voices and good people skills. A barker might also be a con artist. Even so, some barkers successfully moved into show business, including comedian and actor Jackie Gleason, television personality Ed McMahon and Col Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager.
Being a barker still has attractions for those who want to travel. The life of a barker can be challenging though as the carny must know how to deal with not only customers, but other eccentric carnies as well. So is it your cup of tea?
Doing that for 18 hours a day sounds exhausting. You'd definitely need a strong voice and a larger than life personality for that one. Unfortunately my voice wouldn't be strong enough and I don't think I'd have the energy for those hours.
ReplyDeleteInteresting job, I hadn't heard of it before.