Sign Twirling: A Legitimate Art?

Far behind the glitz and glam of LaLaLand, an extraordinary group of people occupy an inglorious niche. During afternoon rush hour along Lincoln Boulevard they shake their booties at the mundane. These are L.A.’s own ‘human directionals,’ more commonly known as ‘sign twirlers;’ billboards come to life. But it is the people who wave these surfboard sized signs that are truly off the wall. Often costumed and always eclectic, their dancing style--for lack of a better word--is best described as a fusion of ballet, break-beat, and drum major. Like birds of paradise in an urban jungle, sign twirlers flaunt their plumage for the eyes of passing motorists. On the periphery of the Big-time, these craftspeople make the big time where they’re at.
But to play the devil’s advocate: aren’t these impresarios merely targeting without shame the American propensity for impulse buying? Is this not brand-promotion at its tackiest? Roadside-distraction at its worst? Yes, yes, and yes—but so are supermarket check-out lanes, professional soccer uniforms, and cell phones.
Sign twirlers stake a legitimate claim to the dynamism of Southern California culture. As marketing budgets continue to shrink in an ailing economy, human directionals offers a cheap advertising alternative to local companies, not to mention the employed themselves. At hotjobs.net, a typical want ad offers $8 an hour for two 5 hour weekend shift. The demands: “As a Sign Walker/ Twirler you wear a company t-shirt and twirl the sign.” Yet, implicit in this description is an increasingly familiar caveat, signified by the word walking. In more and more cities in Southern California sign twirlers are now subjected to strict rules and codes; from the ordinate equivalent of lemming laws that restrict stationary spinning, to the more absurd. In Tustin, where “human signs shall not spin, twirl, swing, or gyrate,” it seems Elvis has not left town. Recently in Huntington Beach, sign twirlers were outlawed altogether.
Despite the industry’s detractors, all signs point to more spinning. Last month the first annual “West Coast Spinning Championships” were held on Hollywood Boulevard, the very epicenter of Big-time. For Mathew Doolan, who won the competition with his patented “Roman Spear Toss,” the process of inventing new moves “will never end.” And by Jove, nor, it seems, will the ingenuity of the American imagination.

- Joseph Picha