World Famous Bushman

David Johnson, also known as the World Famous Bushman, was a busker who scares passers-by along Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, active since 1980.

Crowds usually watched Johnson across the street from where he usually sat, to see him entertain people.

In a "good year", Johnson claimed to earn $60,000. However, he cited the same figure to one of his victims (after said victim chided him) in 1992. At one point, he employed a bodyguard to protect himself against attacks by the unamused, distract his targets, and to alert him to the approach of elderly people so he could avoid scaring them.

The police have received a number of complaints about the Bushman, and Fisherman's Wharf merchants have tried to shut him down. In 2004, he was charged with four misdemeanors; however, a jury cleared him. The District Attorney subsequently dropped several remaining public nuisance complaints.

Although engaging in his street performance utilizing the bush as a prop, as of the mid 1990s, Johnson did not formally refer to himself as "The Bushman" until he was befriended by then Alameda residents John and daughter Alison Nowakowski, who would refer to him as such. Eventually, the name stuck and Johnson adopted the name as his formal street performing moniker.

Two Bushmen From the 1990s until the death of Gregory Jacobs in 2014, two World Famous Bushmen operated on Fisherman's Wharf both as a team and as separate acts, each claiming to be the first to come up with the act. Initially, the two worked together, with Johnson as performer, and Jacobs working the crowd and collecting money.

However, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article in 1999 suggesting that Johnson was the original Bushman, joined by Jacobs in the 1990s. That article, which caused the act to become a nationwide sensation after being picked up by newspapers across the United States, Jacobs was also the subject of a short film, The Bush Man. Gregory Jacobs died February 23, 2014, due to heart failure at the age of 60 years old, whilst Johnson remained active until 2019.