Ricky Syers is a very talented puppeteer and musician who delights the streets of New York with his artistic performances. He hasn’t always been an artist, there was a time when he was just like most of us, driving to a job he didn’t really like to make a living he was unsure of. In his own words: “I hated work more than anybody. I hated having to be there, driving there when everybody else was driving there. Being in the rat race was just… (sighs) and I wanted to be out so bad so, you know what, music was my halfway step out.”
After he chose to do just what he wanted, it was all so much better. As he continues, “I had all week doing what I wanted to do and these marionettes…I started making them and I took them to the park when I was only a street performer and, you know, I would rather die on the street as a street performer than try to create some sort of life that’s gonna’ satisfy somebody else”.
He met his perfect colleague performer on the streets. Her name is Doris and she is an 86-year-old community activist, very young for her age and very energetic. Ricky made a marionette that looks just like Doris and together they perform on the streets of New York
“People would walk by and take pictures of her with the puppet and she felt like a queen, you know and her friends are telling me that since this puppet she’s getting younger”, says Ricky.
“All these years I haven’t been a labouring trying to be an artist or a steel worker trying to be an artist. I was an artist trying to be all those other things. So that’s who I really am”, he explains.
Source: YouTube
