As editor, he sometimes pedals his bicycle down Main Street to community meetings and to report on island politics…On Main Street, where red buses adorned with American flags shuttle residents free of charge, people stop Mr. Lutz with news tips or problems they hope the WIRE will resolve.

“I am the idol of many children,” said Mr. Segundo, 51 years old. “When I go on stage the kids go crazy. I go home with pain, but in my mind I think, ‘Wow, everyone was so entertained!’”

Richard Bossong, 70, who sometimes performs as “Nollaig the Wizard” and “Hobo the Hobo,” ate mushroom barley soup…Mr. Bossong placed two sponge balls inside a visitor’s closed fist and one into his own. When he opened each hand, the visitor held three balls; Mr. Bossong’s had vanished.

On Wednesdays, Mr. Culian, 61 years old, stacks boxes filled with about 2,000 papers into the back of his car, then spends about six hours driving around Queens, delivering the periodicals to bakeries, restaurants, and other businesses with Romanian-American clientele. He also mails newspapers to all of his subscribers, and ships hundreds more to distributors throughout the U.S. “People say, ‘This guy’s crazy! How the hell is he doing it’ But I am proof that this thing is for real,'“ Mr. Culian said.

Mr. Rivera, who likes to mimic the sound of percussion instruments in everyday speech, said his secret lies in his choice of metal. “That’s why the sound is great,” he said. “Percussionists come here, they go crazy. ‘Doo! Doh-kah-doo! Doh-ka-doo! Do-kah-doo!’ They know what they’re looking for and they buy it.”

“You’ve got the Empire State Building, you’ve got the 42nd Street lights, and we’re playing Smash in the park. I can’t believe it.”