New York City is full of people who want money. There are people who want money in other cities and towns and villages and even on farms, but New York is different than most of these because it is full of people who have journeyed to it from all over the United States and all over the world to get money there.

Why?

Once there was a rumour that the streets of New York were paved with money. This isn’t true. Though the law of averages dictates that you are more likely to find money in streets of New York because there are more people to drop it there, the streets are actually paved with cement and asphalt, when they’re paved at all, and not being stripped and repaved.

This makes it harder to get money in New York than generally thought. Most people have to resort to working for money. They usually get jobs in one of the many businesses that fill the city, or else they drive a bus or run a hot dog stand. There are some people, though, who get money from the streets in a sort of roundabout way. They use their hat to catch money falling toward the street. They make that money fall by performing on, around, and under the street. These people form an integral part of New York City and its culture.

What?

Street-performers are people who technically are begging but are also willing to put on a show in return for the money they collect. Performances may vary: the least active panhandlers may just hold up a sign about how their dear mother whom they haven’t seen in ten years is dying in Guadalupe and could you please contribute a few hundred toward the ticket they’ll need to see her in her last moments? Considering the likelihood that an estranged mother in Guadalupe could contact her homeless son in New York, this should count as rudimentary theatre—a melodrama of sorts.

Thankfully, most panhandlers are more lively than that. Many play some sort of instrument—not necessarily a musical one, but almost invariably an instrument. It may a culinary instrument. Some panhandlers are astonishingly adept at producing music off a percussion set of pots and glassware. It may be a signal instrument. Some creative performers play pleasant (if deep) compositions on foghorns. It may even be an instrument of cleanliness, such as a washboard. But usually it is a musical instrument with an official name, albeit in a different language and hearkening back to a distant culture. Some of the more ambitious performers costume themselves appropriately, making the morning commute of the average New Yorker a colorful education in international culture. Of course, there are also panhandlers who play boringly common instruments. These fellows often attempt to make up for this letdown by singing along; both the lyrics and the music of their own composition.

Musical panhandlers keep up with the times. Many will happily sell you a CD of their musical accomplishments for a modest sum. Others try to cheat, pretending to hook their instrument up to an amplifier, but really playing canned music through the speakers.

There are energetic panhandlers who work even harder for their income. It isn’t rare to find a dance routine being conducted in an open area of a subway station or public park. Dance styles vary, and there will be the occasional tangoing couple, but break dancing is most common, and it draws the largest crowds.

Any routine not of music or dance falls into the ‘others’ category. Living statues are not as common in New York as they are in England, but they do crop up in the most heavily trafficked tourist spots in the summer. Yogi contortionists, stunt artists and street magicians also limit themselves to the most lucrative locations and seasons, but there are always teens and young @dults trying to earn their way to somewhere else on the kindness of strangers. For example, a young man claiming to be an Australian university student trying to earn his way home to visit his dying father set up shop near the Mid-Manhattan Library on 5th Avenue early one autumn. He promised to beat any contenders at a game of speed chess in less than three minutes. Another, armed with two skateboards, five bins, a banana peel and a hard-luck story about his grlfriend, earned an impressive amount working a ferry line. It takes a lot to catch a New Yorker’s attention, so panhandlers are constantly inventing innovative ways to make the money fall.

Where?

Well, almost anywhere. In good weather, there may be performers at gathering places around Central Park—particularly near the captive audience in line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets—and near the central commuter routes. They also frequent the ferry queue in Battery Park, and there may be half a dozen at South Street Seaport on any given summer afternoon. But their most common haunt—especially in the winter—is the subway system. Subway stations provide an ever-changing crowd, a dry, warm place to perform, and on the platforms, a captive audience. The subway is so ideal for panhandlers that commuters sometimes suffer the musical accompaniment of multiple performers: one on their platform, one on the platform opposite, and one well-amplified in the station above.

How?

Well, you’ll need a routine, but that’s about it. Performing on the sidewalk, in the parks, and in the subway system is completely legal. In fact, in some high-profile stations, the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) presents professional-calibre performers as part of their MUNY (Music Under New York) project. If you’re that good you might want to audition; otherwise, just set yourself up anywhere and make the money fall!

If you’re a would-be New York City panhandler, know that New Yorkers are always rushing off somewhere. Furthermore, during rush hour they are invariably grumpy, feeling tired, hungry, and crowded. Even if they would like to throw you some change, they won’t if it is at all inconvenient. Your challenge lies not only in attracting their attention, but also in easing the transfer of the money from their pocket to yours.

As they say in real estate: location, location, location. Nobody is stepping out of their way to give you money, so position yourself just to side of the main stream of humanity, within tossing distance. Between two sets of stairs is prime property.

A group of Mexican salsa players worked a street fair once. After 45 minutes, they’d only made $5, and their bewilderment was understandable. An enthusiastic, dancing crowd followed them from location to location, but only a few tendered cash. Reason? The Salsa players kept their sombreros firmly on their heads. New Yorkers are not touchy-feely people. They do not want to place any money into your hand. Not only is in inconvenient and intimate, but it is very difficult to transact with coins. A Styrofoam cup isn’t much better than nothing; too small, too easy to miss with a moving shot. A guitar case, a pot, or a large hat will do much better.

Constancy of location is a hotly debated point of contention among panhandlers. Or anyway, it should be. If you always work the same platform, some initial tightwads, after being subject to your brilliant routine day after day, might loosen up at the wallet. On the other hand, people who have already supported you once or twice may feel they have fulfilled their obligation forever after. The best idea may be to strike a balance by working a location for a week and then moving on. This does not apply to tourist sites, where the crowd changes daily.

Tourists are always good fodder because they’re already conditioned to shell out money for the privilege of looking at things. The Statue of Liberty line in Battery Park, the CBS studio in the wee hours of morning (5th Avenue and Central Park South) and South Street Seaport in nice weather; the corner of 42nd and 5th Avenue by Bryant Park and the research library (the one with the lions); the ticket lines in front of Radio City, Rockefeller Center and Broadway theaters; Times Square at any time of the day or night or year; the Macy’s in Herald Square around holiday shopping season – all these are prime tourist sites. But be warned: many of these sites attract other performers, so be sure you can compete.

You will be glad to know that psychologists have put their ready minds to your cause, and have pasted some outrageous labels on important business tactics:

Reciprocity: If you can’t get your tongue around this one, don’t worry. All it means is that you provide New Yorkers with the service of alleviating their boredom, thus putting them into your debt. If they aren’t heartless (and honest, they mostly aren’t), they should feel uncomfortable until they’ve balanced the ledger. Of course, this presumes that you are indeed providing quality entertainment. New Yorkers have high standards in street and subway entertainment, so if you can’t compete, find a different city.

Scarcity: It helps if you’re unique. If you’re the third pipes-player in the corridor connecting the green- and yellow-line platforms in Union Square, you can’t expect the same results as if you’re the only player in the station, or even just the only player playing on soda bottles.

Social Validation: This deals with the contents of your hat or case at the start of the day. Nobody wants to be the first to validate your performance, so you’ll want to start with something already inside in your collection tin. A dollar bill persuades people to shell out a bit more, but you’ll want to chuck in a few quarters to validate people with change in their pockets. At the same time, you don’t want to validate pennies, and a $5 bill won’t fool anyone.

When?

Any time is fine, really. There are people on subway platforms at the strangest hours of the night and morning, and not all of them sleep there. However, there are times when the stations are more crowded. Rush hour is one of them. Rush hour officially begins at 6 am and ends at around 10 am, and begins again at around 4:30 pm and runs until almost 7 pm. During these times, platforms are crammed and trains can run as often as every three minutes. Do the math – that’s a lot of people passing by your hat.

Different trains and stations also have different prime times. Outer borough ‘switchboard’ stations, like Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, are more crowded in the earlier hours of morning rush hour and the later hours of evening rush hour while business district Manhattan stations (like Times Square) will have more people toward the middle of day. You won’t want to play on any express green-line platform during rush hour though, because it is so crowded that there isn’t any room for you, and everyone is concentrating on squeezing themselves into the next train that rolls in. Because that line runs up through the business district, though, it’s relatively crowded all day. Grand Central, Herald Square and Bryant Park are other stations heavily trafficked all day. Smart performers shuttle themselves around the subway system to take advantage of prime playing time in each location.