Therisa, age undisclosed, sets up her milk crate stage four days a week and strikes a pose that can only be broken by a tip. She thinks the discipline she got at the Royal Academy of Dance in London is what makes it possible for her to be a "living statue".

My friend, who is also a living statue, kind of talked me into this. He brought me to Times Square the first time I did it and it was horrible. I thought, "I just want to go someplace secluded to practice," and I landed on this spot near the Sailboat Pond on 72nd Street, and the afternoon was just amazing. It was so lovely; all the kids loved it, and by the end of the first week I had my rent, and I never looked back.

People try to break my concentration all the time. Kids will actually stamp their feet, as if that's going to make me move! Or they'll start a joke, "Did you hear the one about the rabbi?" and then they'll just stop! And I think, "Is that supposed to make me laugh?"

No one's been able to make me laugh yet. Though I fought it to the bitter end with one little boy. He cracked up the entire audience. He figured out that I was alive, and declared it like it was the only thing on earth that mattered, and as his dad was trying to drag him away, you could hear him all down Fifth Avenue, "She's alive! She's alive!"

Sometimes I get nasty comments. But I brush them off, because I pay my rent with it, and that's all the validation I need. I live in Manhattan and have vacations and can afford to go back to visit England, and I'm doing what I love: I'm performing!