Mime Vice

Street performers are part of the way of life in NOLA. From musicians who set up amps and take requests to dancers in elaborate costumes to kids who stomp bottle caps into the bottoms of their shoes. And, there are mimes.

There has been a change in the mimes over the years. When we first started visiting NOLA, the mimes were the popular type you imagine. White faces, suspenders, imaginary boxes and walls in their way. I remember one year, repeatedly we ran into one particular "chatty mime." The Chatty Mime didn't try to escape boxes for change . . . he would barnacle onto tourists . . . and for the cost of his meal would recount and embellish his varied experiences in the city. From the fights to the bizarre to the silly . . . tourists ate it up, and he earned many a meal. We kinda admired him for figuring out a faster way to earn a meal.

But, for the last few years, only rarely see the classic mime. Now, we see kids who paint their bodies and clothing a metallic color . . . as if they were a bronze or iron statue . . . and they perch themselves on a milk crate or bit of public art and stand very very still for long periods. People will gather and if the mime is still enough, long enough, a few coins will go in their hat or basket.

This last trip, the mimes were decidedly low tech. There was one hyper young man who jumped around a lot and was a very bad statue. And there was a woman who looked like she drank too much who would strike a pose for all of 30 seconds . . . and then whine when no one was sufficiently impressed to toss her money. The whining mime. I think I preferred the Chatty Mime.