First off, let me just say that my partner in crime, Catwoman By Day, is finally here! Now I can give her a name and quit calling her my partner, ’cause that sounds a little more intimate than we really are. Anyway, fast forward to the weekend after my last story. We hadn’t seen each other during the week because we had other things to do, but Catwoman and I talk all the time through email. It’s like a non-committal chat for us. Anyway, we’d sent pictures back and forth of the costumes as they came in — in her case, piece by piece — and we were really feeling it. This weekend would be good.

I showed up at her place early with a t-shirt and jeans pulled over the costume, because it’s pretty revealing and it was a cold morning. Besides, no free shows to the truckers on the freeway. From there we carpool over to Hollywood & Highland (H&H), because we’re poor and cheap and it’s better to split parking. The regulars recognize us right away, which is nice, and promise we’ll do loads better with these new costumes. And we do! I’m still lagging a bit, because a lot of people don’t recognize me as Star Wars or think I’m Leia. Plus, Catwoman can work with Batman, which the tourists love. And the Japanese businessmen are obviously turned on by the bondage aspect of her costume and the whip, so they want her by herself, even though I’m in a torn shirt and wielding a gun. Perverts.

Things are going well, and we’re getting to know people better during the quieter moments. It turns out we worked the morning with Bat M, who loves to talk. It’s nice to be around social people who want to know your story and gladly tell theirs, but M talks more than everyone else, including Superman, and he always has something to say. We start to learn who the crap and beggar characters are (Business Suit Zorro, Pervert Zorro, Miss Unidentifiable, Yoda, Homeless Jack and one of the Supergirls, who I’m going to call Super Braces for clarification), and who we like having around. Denim Jack is very friendly, and while seeming warm to these ladies’ forms, he’s also a gentleman and doesn’t expect things. By the end of the week he’ll be fretting over us like a mother hen, keeping us warm and making sure we’ll get enough business, but that’s later. For now we stand around and joke and make a very surreal scene, which draws business.

In the early afternoon Superman shows up, and not long after that he notices Andy Dick down the street. We’re in front of the Chinese Theatre at that point and Andy is down the block near the Kodak Theatre, so we wait to see if he’ll come our way. It’s not that any of us are fans of his, but who knows what could happen? He eventually comes our way with a small entourage, and he’s obviously plotting out something for a video shoot. I have no idea if he has a show or he’s getting one or what it was ever used for, but there it is. Superman asks Andy if we could take some photos with him, and Andy very hurriedly says that he’ll be back in ten minutes and we can get pictures then. We wait while doing a little business, but things have started to die down for the lunchtime lull, and Superman has his camera at the ready. I don’t know where he keeps all the things he keeps stashed about his person, honestly, but he hides a lot.
So Andy comes back and we take a picture, but no one’s really a photographer there, especially Bat M, and he cuts most of me off. Luckily Superman catches it in time and asks Andy to take another picture with me, and we fared better this time:

me, Andy, Catwoman, Superman

l-r: me, Andy, Catwoman, Superman

Then Andy had to rush off to begin filming whatever it was he was working on, and off he went. About half an hour later he came skipping up the Walk with a giant red balloon in his hand, and that’s the last we’ve seen of him. Unless you count him making The Smoking Gun’s 2008 Mug Shots of the Year list. *shudder* After that, Saturday was pretty dull, but it was our best day financially to date. Towards the end of the day we stopped by Café Audrey with Superman to see if they had a deal for us yet, and they seemed disappointed to find us in different outfits. We mentioned that dressing as Audrey on the boulevard was crap financially, but they didn’t seem to hear. Anyway, we sat and waited for the manager, and when he came he had a vague outline of an idea where all of the characters would hand out menus and flyers for the café and tell people to come over, and for every five groups or so, that character would get a credit. Each character could have a chance at earning free food and drinks. He mentioned something about unifying the characters because there was a lot of in fighting and tension, and for the café to be seen as the hangout of choice for all of them, but I stopped listening because my ears were full of disappointment. So they just wanted us to be flyer monkeys like everyone else.

On the way back to the car I ran into a friend, and though we only talked for about five minutes, he came off with a distinct impression. I didn’t introduce him to Superman or Catwoman because I knew we couldn’t talk long and we were mainly writing friends anyway (I’m more shy in person), but that night he emailed me and said, “Superman’s kind of a dick.” While he had been good to us our first week out, he was starting to show a different side of himself. His real side, I guess, and from what everyone else says. I didn’t hear what he was saying when my friend was around, but he was a lot more crass that day than he’d ever been before. Kind of disappointing.

The rest of the week passed fairly quietly — at least for the boulevard. On Sunday we worked a half day and I took Tuesday off for my mum’s birthday, and we learned firsthand that weekdays are only worth it in the early mornings for all the tourist buses that let out. Maybe the evenings do pretty well, but the guys themselves admit it can get pretty hairy for them, let alone two scantily clad skinny chicks, and it didn’t really seem worth it to us. Besides, it was starting to get pretty cold for southern California.