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Beth, I do demo oil painting when I have a public booth of any sort (at the one art show I've been doing and at various school "art night" events.) I'm easily bored when I'm not painting so it passes the time.
The main reason I demo, though, is to attract attention. I bring a fresh canvas with the image already sketched on, and my photo reference. I work on backgrounds and clothing mostly, so it doesn't take too much concentration. The early blocking in work that I do at these shows goes fast and gives people something more interesting to look at than the slow finish work.
Once upon a time, in another life, I was a public pastel portrait sketch artist. I was burned a few times by bounced checks. I would definitely get set up to accept credit cards, to avoid this problem, and, as Michael says, to handle larger transactions. Also, these days, a lot of people don't take their checkbooks anywhere with them.
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