"Stop!" he shouted to passers-by. "Watch me, I'm good!" This was a special performance for Owen Lean. The Dublin busker was celebrating his graduation from Trinity College Dublin yesterday by presenting a morning show on Grafton Street.
Mr Lean (23) began with a card trick in the middle of the street, then moved back to make room for the growing crowd.
"For the last four years I've been doing a degree at Trinity College and paying my way through it by doing street shows here in Grafton Street," Mr Lean told the makeshift audience from atop his black felt box. "In that time, I've also been travelling all over the world."
Mr Lean wrote the final dissertation for his BA in Drama and Theatre Studies about street performing, its historical role in society and the way it lets adults play in the same manner as animals and children. A street magic performance on Grafton Street served as his practical component.
Mr Lean is making plans to take his act on a worldwide tour and is editing a novel he wrote for children.
"You've had fun - spread that around to your friends," he told the crowd at the end of the show. "It's not magic, but it's got to help the world somehow."
