Texture and depth to man of stone

NATASHA MARTIN/Timaru Herald

STONY HANDSHAKE: Jesse Orchard, 9, shakes hands with living statue Lord Livingstone, alias Chris Davis. Mr Davis was performing at the Roses on the Bay market day yesterday.

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It doesn't matter if he's at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or the Festival of Roses on Caroline Bay, women can't resist him – once they've realised he's not really a statue.

The professional entertainer has been performing as a living statue since 1992, with his latest Lord Livingstone, the fifth character he has invented.

It was Lord Livingstone who turned up at the Roses on the Bay Market Day yesterday, going down on one knee to propose to a woman, and chasing after a group of teenage boys.

Lord Livingstone is a gentle character. Gone are the days when he would suddenly move, giving people a fright or making children cry.

Instead he opts for a quieter routine, gradually changing position on his pedestal, or slowly bowing to a woman who has absent-mindedly stopped near a statue.

In one scenario yesterday, it took 10 minutes from the time he first caught the attention of a group of teenage boys to when he jumped off his pedestal and chased them through the crowds.

But it's when he is standing still that women approach.

"It just happens all day," he says as another woman walks up and prods him as he stands talking.

It's nearly always women who feel the need to touch. Men seldom do.

His rubber suit looks – and feels – like textured concrete or stone. Applying the matching stone-coloured greasepaint to the skin the suit doesn't cover takes an hour, and just as long to remove at the end of his working day. Chris says his skin gets softer the more he uses the grease paint.

"Maybe I should set up a day spa for clowns," he quips, suggesting he might have found the secret to a perfect skin.

When not posing on his pedestal, Chris juggles, eats fire, juggles chainsaws or even balances on a five-metre-high pole.

It's a lifestyle full of variety and a career that has taken him around the world.

This week Lord Livingstone appears in the Louis Vuitton store in Christchurch, with an appearance at the Horowhenua A & P show also on his calendar.

His only hope is there will be no "silly string" sellers at the show.

Unaccompanied 13-year-old boys with cans of the sticky stuff equal a nightmare day out for the heavily textured character.