The entertainer

We were in Stratford this morning, running errands, when R spotted the bicycle piano busker Rimski in the Bancroft Gardens, surrounded as usual by a crowd of amused onlookers. We haven't seen him for a while (it's nearly three years since I last posted a shot of him), so it was a pleasure to follow him around for a few minutes, listen to his performance, and give him a small donation. I was also happy because there hadn't been much to see down at the river when we'd walked along it earlier, and I now knew that I had a more interesting subject for today's post than yet another swan or gull: there's something Chaplinesque about Rimski and his piano that make them an irresistible subject for me.

Rimski's real name is Oli Cumming, and there's a short film about him on Vimeo, if you're interested. It gives a flavour of the persona he projects and the songs he performs, as well as his performing history, which I'm not surprised to learn includes circus work. His own web site can be found here.