West Virginia daily

NEW YORK—Musicians, magicians, mimes, jugglers, acrobats and dancers performed for thrilled Mommy's and children, locals on their lunch brake and many tourists, who cheered and applauded. Open casting call for summer street performers was held last Tuesday at the historic South Street Seaport at pier 17. To secure their spots for street performance, each performer had three minutes to get the rapidly growing crowed excited and convince the judges they were worthy.

Fifty to seventy performers registered for the auditions because at South Street Seaport street performance has been a well-established tradition for the past twenty years.

“On the streets you can get a ticket,” said Magic Brian, a magician of course, who was a returning performer auditioning for his third year.

Scott Samuels played exquisite acoustic guitar. Last year he performed at the pier 44 times and was trying to get in again this year.

David Valentin of the South Street Seaport Museum said they were looking for street performers who were family friendly.

Joan Cooney from the Seaport Market Place said they were looking for originality, as well as nice, clean, fun-oriented acts with a neat appearance.

“We have twelve million visitors a year, a lot of tourists and that is the impression we want to leave them with,” said Cooney.

John Turner played the trumpet and sang “Bye Bye Blackbird” to the evident enjoyment of Donna Contreras, who was visiting New York from California and sang the words with him. Contreras, who has seen street performances in Venice beach and Los Angeles, said she was lucky enough to walk in on this great fun and was impressed by the tremendous talent, music, dance and detailed space-age artwork done by spray painters.

Trumpeter Turner moved to New York from West Virginia eight years ago. A couple of years back he got tired working in clubs, or as he called it “selling booze as your job,” and found that performing out doors was more enjoyable and he could reach a wider range of people.

Miss Saturn mesmerized everyone with her twirling hula hoops. As her body swirled she kept all eight hoops turning on her arms, neck, waist and legs all at once. Miss Saturn, who moved to New York from Tennessee, met circus performers who turned her on to the hula hoops. She originally enjoyed hula hooping as a form of exercise and practiced it a lot. Keeping the hula hoops up and turning is all about rhythm, she said.

Yogi Lazer, a contortionist, kept spectators in awe as he folded his body into un-imaginable positions and squeezed himself completely into a two feet by two feet Plexiglas box. Yogi Lazer started as a break dancer on the streets and has been performing for the last 25 years.

Though his body was his tool for performing, he said yoga is much more spiritual then physical and that it is all about self-realization and communication with your body since body, mind, and spirit are all one.

“Be one with the divine energy that created everything,” was his message.

Following auditions, all of the performers mentioned in this article were accepted. They can be seen with other street performers at a weekend festival on June 17 and 18, at the South Street Seaport.

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