You might try going old school and start "passing the hat" literally. The best use of a hat pass I have ever seen was at Pier 39 in San Francisco where the vaudevillian built up our expectations of an AMAZING feat of dangerous juggling and jokery. Kept mentioning it throughout the whole 10 minute show until finally the time arrrived. Before she presented this amazing stunt though she passed the hat. She made a lot of money from what I could see. After she passed the hat she blew us all away with exactly what she'd promised.
Another thing you might consider is when you see someone about to put coins in your hat put your hand out instead and quickly stow the coins in your pocket. The last thing you probably want is to inspire others to give you their lint covered pennies. Always smile and make eye contact with everyone who gives you any amount of money but be sure to eliminate coin collecting as much as possible.
If you're collecting tips statically while doing balloon animals or something you might consider a cute way to go about it like having an animal puppet with a sign that says "Please feed the animals." I am sure you could play with the idea and make it funny!
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