Making music their way

If Ryan Ahern had only a guitar to play on the streets of Las Vegas, he would be borderline homeless.

But Ahern has more than that: a piano; a big rig called, appropriately, the Piano Rig; and a line of merchandise, including CDs and T-shirts.

So, even though Ahern makes a living as a street performer -- something he says there's no money in -- the local pianist is in no danger of becoming a starving musician.

"You have to have a product to make it as a street performer in Vegas," says Ahern, who has been playing on the sidewalk at the Fremont Street Experience for the past two years. "The only way to turn a profit is to have albums. Even the best guitar player would have a hard time making enough tips to live."

Ahern, 29, says this during a break in his show at the Experience. Moments before, he sat in front of his digital stage piano mounted on the bed of a big rig cab, playing "Tomorrow" from the musical "Annie." Passers-by slow their gaits to listen but few stop, as Ahern plays on the sidewalk where Fremont meets Main Street, the coldest part under the canopy and the hottest during the summer. On this Tuesday night, the chilly wind reddens cheeks and turns breath into tiny white puffs of air.

Ahern is a member of an exclusive club: the Las Vegas busker, or street performer. While they certainly exist, you'll rarely see a spontaneous entertainer on the streets and almost never on the Strip. Ahern once did a stint in front of the Strip's Westward Ho -- which has since been demolished -- but that was planned by management. Power supply limits performers from working the Strip, he adds. That, and crowd control.

"We have the authority to regulate the activities that go on at the Fremont Street Experience," says Jeff Victor, president. "That includes the frequency of it (and) the kind of entertainment that's presented."

What is available is the controlled busker, like Ahern and the other entertainment at the Experience.

"We don't really have a name for the street entertainment," Victor says. "They're so well-received, great atmospheric entertainers. I think it's really special for people to get close to performers on that level, be able to circle around them."

Though they're invited, the Experience doesn't pay them; performers operate like kiosk owners, generating their own revenue through sales or tip collection. Tonight, the crowd is thin and overall sales seem sluggish.

This kind of career could be a difficult one, Ahern concedes, but album sales are the key to success. On the nights when he sits back and says, "Wow, that was a great night," Ahern sells about 100 CDs for $15 each.

"If I wasn't making a living at it, I wouldn't be down there," he says.

The collection of songs he plays "is almost scientific," so he doesn't take requests, Ahern notes, calling it "the right collection that will move the merchandise."

It's important to have a range of material to perform; Ahern plays everything from Broadway to boogie-woogie. Some kind of hook helps, too.

"If I was out here just playing classical or jazz, I'd be done. You can't just pitch yourself in one genre, you'll lose your audience and that's not good," says Ahern, a graduate of the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Visual and Performing Arts.

His hook is the piano rig, something he had built just for his street shows. The motivation for it was to have a mobile stage and piano that he could take anywhere.

"I wanted to put a little keyboard in the back of a pickup truck, so I could drive around and cover some ground," Ahern says. "But I'm not a fan of keyboards so I decided on a (rig) to hold a piano."

With about $70,000 of his own money he earned performing on cruise ships and in concerts, Ahern ordered the custom-built rig.

"I had a lot of naysayers who didn't get it; they didn't understand it," he recalls. "But I've been proving them wrong for the past two years."

He describes his show as Liberace-style, complete with elements and arcs. It's the sort of performance that belongs in a showroom, but it's expensive to mount that kind of production, he says. Ahern, who also does corporate events, hopes to have an indoor venue one day, either in a local theater or on a cruise ship. In the meantime, the street offers a good venue alternative.

Finances aside, the weather probably is a big reason more performers don't take to the streets.

"Extreme weather is one thing street performers deal with in Vegas," Ahern says, warming his hands and fingers in a casino near his piano. He's taking a 15-minute break so he doesn't compete with a short acrobat performance 30 feet away. "But the show will go on, come rain or shine. Well, not rain because I don't want to ruin the equipment."

Still, Ahern knows his business and knows when he should pack it up for the night. It's nearing 8 p.m. and if the crowd doesn't pick up, he'll go home. It makes economical sense: no crowd, no CD sales or tips in the giant brandy glass. Plus, it's too cold for his hands and Ahern says he doesn't want to risk injury.

It's much warmer in the center of the Experience, especially with the Golden Nugget's doors open. The heated air pours out onto the sidewalk and the body heat from the small crowd makes it quite a cozy spot for people to stop and listen to Carl Ferris play smooth jazz on his saxophone. With his white-blond hair, leopard print jacket and red Santa hat, Ferris, 51, looks like a cross between Santa Claus and a Vegas lounge performer.

Ferris plays for the camera, closing in on people who stop to film and photograph him, ensuring he'll be a permanent fixture in their vacation videos and photo albums. He has been playing the Experience for eight years and says he could go another eight. It has been a pretty good gig, Ferris says, and it enables him to sell his original jazz music.

Ferris didn't want to reveal how many CDs he sells for $15 each or what constitutes a good night financially, but he says between his street performing and Internet sales on safe-sax.com, he makes about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. It's good enough that he doesn't have to work other gigs.

"This is home to me," Ferris explains.

Texan Donna Hillin bought a CD after listening to a couple of his songs. She and friend Polly Gibbs stopped to listen as well as look.

"You don't see someone who draws your attention like he does," Hillin says. "I don't want him to take off the Santa hat and spoil the image."

A guy on the street dressed outrageously and playing the sax is a great form of entertainment, says Carman Kabala, who is visiting from Illinois.

"It's just something that's unexpected. It's nice, you're walking and you can stop and listen. And you don't have to pay for it."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4564.