Chris had spotted an apparently easy money-maker
The archive continued with another Chris Stark theory which only required testing because he was so confident about it.
He had seen groups of musicians moving between outdoor restaurant tables and serenading diners.
To Chris, the economics looked excellent.
A trio had to split whatever they earned three ways.
If he did the same thing alone, he could keep everything.
Scott and Beccy were considerably less convinced that people eating lunch were waiting to hand cash to a stranger with a guitar.
This was not ordinary busking
Scott pointed out an important difference.
A busker plays while passers-by decide whether to stop.
Restaurant musicians walk directly up to people who are already sitting down and make themselves part of the meal.
That sounded much more confrontational.
It was also a nightmare for Beccy, who said fast music while she was eating made her agitated and could make her eat too quickly.
Chris remained sure there was money in it.
The only fair solution was to send him outside.
The Sexy Mexican costume was assembled
Radio 1 found Chris a sombrero and guitar.
A packet of novelty moustaches failed to contain the ideal option, so he ended up with a very yellow, drooping moustache which made him look more like a skinny Hulk Hogan than the character he had imagined.
Bright blue sunglasses completed the outfit.
Chris named the act the Sexy Mexican.
Beccy positioned herself across the road in a café where she could watch the experiment while remaining far enough away to deny any involvement if it went badly.
Price Tag was the obvious opening number
Chris walked into an outdoor restaurant area full of people having lunch and introduced himself.
Then he launched into Jessie J’s Price Tag.
There was something beautifully self-defeating about singing “it’s not about the money” during an experiment designed entirely to discover how much money he could make.
Diners looked over.
Some smiled.
Chris added enthusiastic leg movements and carried on performing.
Nobody paid him.
One woman made it clear she would rather he went away.
The businessmen were an even tougher crowd
Beccy directed Chris towards another restaurant with a more businesslike lunchtime crowd.
He decided the problem might have been the choice of song rather than the entire concept.
For the second attempt he introduced himself again as the Sexy Mexican and performed Do It Like a Dude.
The reaction was worse.
People made the universal hand gesture for “please leave”.
There was still no money.
Chris tried returning to *Price Tag* and encouraged a singalong.
The diners did not suddenly become his audience.
The theory collapsed in real time
After two restaurants and no income, Chris accepted the evidence.
The musicians he had seen were not effortlessly making a fortune simply by approaching tables.
His solo version of the business had generated nothing.
The radio audience, however, loved it.
Messages came in laughing at the image of a Mexican Hulk Hogan interrupting lunch.
Even Chris’s performance noises betrayed him
Back in the studio, the team replayed one of Chris’s enthusiastic performance noises.
He insisted it had sounded very different in his head and in the street.
On the recording, it suggested something else entirely.
That became the final humiliation.
The Sexy Mexican had made no money, been waved away from tables and then discovered his own vocal ad-libs sounded far more embarrassing on playback.
As a career change, it was over before dinner.
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