I have been a Living Statue Performer for over twenty-two years. I would like to share some of my experiences with you.
All performers need to take a class on how to be quiet. It might seem easy, but it is not. You need to know how to stand very still and not fidget or move. You might also want to learn how to breathe without moving your body. A Living Statue should not move unless there is a good reason for it.
In April of 2012, I arrived at The Frick Museum to audition for a summer job. I had never done street performing before and was incredibly nervous. I had been an actor and dancer all my life, but this felt different. You are always told to be careful when you act in public places because people don’t know if you are a crazy person or an actor. As a Living Statue Performer, you want people to believe you are neither, even though you are both.
I stood outside the museum for two hours on my first day as a statue performer, with no response from passersby except for the occasional “You’re not real.” On my second day as a statue performer, one of the other girls who worked there came up to me during her break and said, “Hey! If you raise your left arm and smile at people who walk by you can make $10 in four minutes!” The third day I made $100.
I was hooked.
The business is easy: Get dressed up, go somewhere where there are lots of tourists, stand still and smile until someone gives you money. There is obviously more to it than that, but it is really that simple.
Most people who take up statue performing are actors who can’t get acting jobs. They’re out of work, so they start standing still for money. But in my case, it was the other way around. I was already standing still for money when I decided to become an actor.
I stand still for money because I’m a “living statue” performer, which means that at parties and corporate events, I dress up as a bronze statue of Beethoven or Cupid or Aphrodite and stand very still until someone gives me a tip and I come to life.
Some people are surprised by how much money you can make as a statue performer—far more than most actors earn. Last year, I did 70 gigs, including three 40-minute shows at the Super Bowl Village in Indianapolis, and took home $80,000. And this is without any agent or manager taking a cut.
But there’s a reason it pays so well: It’s really hard to do well.
Living Statue World.com is a blog written by a living statue performer. A living statue performer acts like a statue until someone puts money in their hat, and then they give the people watching them a show. They are also called street performers or buskers.
In one post, the author talks about how being a street performer can be hard mentally and physically because they have to stand still for hours at a time and they get ignored by the public. The author gives tips on how to deal with these problems. They say that when they have to stand still for hours at a time, they imagine that they are in another place so that their mind is distracted from how tired their body is. They also say that you should try not to take it personally when people ignore you because it’s part of the job, and you can’t make everyone happy.
People often think of a living statue performer as “just standing there,” but the truth is the performance is anything but static. A living statue performer must be aware of everything that happens around him or her, and take it all in. It’s all about the motion: when to look down at your clothes, when to look up at an audience member, and when to start moving again. The challenge is making these movements appear random and unplanned, as if you were just a normal person caught in a moment of stillness.
A student once asked me, “How do I know when to move?”
“When you feel like it,” I tell him.
“But how do I know if someone is looking at me?” he asks.
“Look at them first.”
In other words, the performance is completely intuitive. There are no rules or guidelines you must follow; you simply need to become comfortable with the art form itself, and let your own personality shine through.
Living statues are a form of performance art where performers hold a pose, often covered in some sort of body paint. The performer will create an illusion that they are a statue and remain still and silent for long periods of time. While in this state the performer will collect money from onlookers who think the performer is a real statue.
There is not really any training needed to become a living statue. You do not need to study with the masters or learn how to work with one type of paint over another. There is no curriculum that you have to follow and no standardized tests that you must pass. The only requirements that you need are strong acting skills, creativity, and discipline.
“When you first start performing as a statue, people are going to be very curious about what you’re doing. They are going to walk up to you and stare and ask questions. You have to stay still and quiet, no matter how much they try to make you laugh or break your concentration. It’s crucial that you master this physical discipline, because if you move or change expression it will ruin the whole effect.”
“You need to give people a reason for stopping and looking at you. When someone asks (and they will), “what are you doing?” answer with something like: “I’m a living statue of [name of a famous statue–Michelangelo’s David is a good choice].” Try saying it in different languages. If people feel like they have enough information they won’t bother you while you’re working. But if they aren’t satisfied, they’ll keep talking.”
“Your costume should be all one color. You should find out what color tourists like best in the city where you’re performing. In London I used to wear gold; in Spain, white.”
“The key thing is not letting anyone know that there’s a human being inside the costume. You’re not just wearing it; the costume is part of your body.”