It's funny," whispered Madame Buskerfly into my ear. It was the opening reception for the buskers attended by all the corporate spon­sorship types and their wives.

"We're being hosted by a room full of people whose parents told them not to grow up to be like us." The men in their pin-stripe suits, the women 'dressed to the nines' stood in absolute rapture and fascination as magician and prestidigitator extraordinaire, Jeff Sheridan pulled cards out of thin air and caused watches to abruptly leap forward several hours. They also stood entranced as 'firedancer' Robert Heart spun  fluorescent batons and staffs to a lyrical musical soundtrack.

For the third year in a row some 43 acts from 8 countries hit the Halifax streets for 18 days of music, mime, dancing, juggling, acrobatics, puppetry, magic and displays of skills not easily named or described. This year mini-festivals in Fredericton, N.B., Summerside, P.E.I. and a seven-town Nova Scotia heritage tour preceded the festival, and an early fall event in Waterloo, Ontario, followed,. The format for Buskers '89 was much the same as before -- anything goes. The results - unpredictable!

IN KEEPING WITH the number of available busking spots in the city the number of acts was reduced by about 20% but the crowds were just as large and enthusiastic, and the hats, at least according to rumor, just as good. For juggling aficionados there was plenty of action to be seen. A number of new faces were here and the level of skill and entertainment was high.

Quebecoise jugglers Pierre Robert and Gabriel Gagnon both studied with Daniel Le Bateleur, who strongly influenced their juggling approach. The result is a two man show with lots of talent, energy, good-natured clowning, French-Canadian humor and -- naturally enough -- juggling. Gaby starts the show rolling with a well­choreographed 3-ball routine -- nice rolls down the back, three in one hand and moves using the balls, pressed together, in cigar-box fashion.

Pierre followed suit with a real cigar­box routine choreographed to upbeat music. It is well-rehearsed and has some nice moves in and around the legs, with the boxes rotating in vertical and horizontal planes, finishing with a single pirouette.

They also had a six club routine which had them rotating in a semi-circle throwing variations. They simultaneously broke into individual 3-club shower patterns, rotating once around and then resuming passing. Pierre and Gaby pass torches between a rolling globe and a six foot unicycle. Pierre also does a balance on the globe with mouthstick and plate, while spinning one ball and juggling two others.

Another all-juggling duo were the flamboyant combination of Johnny Toronto (John McCorkell) and Madame Buskerfly (Kristi Heath) who this year teamed up under the banner of Rebels With Applause -- move over Jimmy Dean! Both hail from Toronto (in fact they are real-life beaus) but usually perform solo acts.

Buskerfly's particular shine is stilt­walking. McCorkell is a deft juggler with polished and funny solo ball and club rou­tines. They team up for some torch juggling -- unicycle to stilts. They also do a comedy passing routine knocking ice-cream cones out of the teeth of two volunteers.