Helping Hand

Before singer-songwriter-performer Amanda Palmer was known for her music, her day job was working in Boston as a “living statue,” dressing up in a wedding dress and handing people flowers. In her time as a street performer, Palmer learned to ask for help and later applied that to her music...

By Amanda Moutinho

November 20, 2014

Audio By Carbonatix

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Before singer-songwriter-performer Amanda Palmer was known for her music, her day job was working in Boston as a “living statue,” dressing up in a wedding dress and handing people flowers. In her time as a street performer, Palmer learned to ask for help and later applied that to her music career — sleeping on fans’ couches and using crowdfunding to support her latest album with the Grand Theft Orchestra. Last year, Palmer gave a popular TED talk, which later turned into a book, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help.

“I really learned how to trust in a sliver of the population to support an artist,” says Palmer. “The whole world doesn’t need to support you to have a sustainable career as an artist. The most important part is to focus on that sliver instead of [on] those people ignoring you.”

Palmer’s approach to selling her music was to stop focusing on how to make people pay and instead ask how to let people pay. In her book, she details her lucrative relationship with asking and the connections she’s made along the way.

Palmer will discuss and sign her book at the Tattered Cover Book Store, 2526 East Colfax Avenue, today at 2 p.m. Tickets for a place in the signing line are available in advance; tickets for seating will be first come, first served at the door. Visit tatteredcover.com for information.
Sun., Nov. 23, 2 p.m., 2014

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