That was a good bet you made! You couldn't pay me enough to do this in Times Square at least. Maybe it's different in Vegas and other places. There is a constant skirmish going on in Times Square between these guys, the tourists, the locals and the police. I work around 4 blocks from there and I give it as wide a berth as possible. I hate to say it, but I have heard so many stories about the 'characters' (ones who dress as superheroes, etc.) being really aggressive towards tourists, grabbing people who take pictures of them without paying and demanding money before they'll let them go, going up to people and hassling them to take photos, getting into brawls with other characters and with tourists, etc. I've had them get in my face when I was walking near there and the area's already so congested that you can feel really trapped. And on the other side of the coin (coin, get it? We're on Steemit, eh?) performers complain about constant harassment by the police and 'false complaints' from tourists. NYC ended up passing a regulation where these character people have to remain inside a designated area in Times Square and can be ticketed for soliciting outside it (but plenty of them just ignore that.) The ones who follow the rules have to share the area with these topless women called desnudas who also try to take pictures for money and the characters complain this scares away families with kids.

I'd like to go along with the story of the noble side hustle and in the case of many, many talented street performers I would say more power to 'em (I've heard world class musicians playing for money in Washington Square and watched dance troupes and comedians there and near Bethesda Fountain) but the Times Square characters are the exception as far as I'm concerned. Well, them and loud musicians who start playing on a packed subway car then demand money from their captive audience when everyone's tired and just trying to get home.

Just yesterday a local headline stated, "Times Square Costumed Character Complaints on the Rise Amid Drop in Arrests."

Maybe selling the costumes on Ali Express could be the side hustle?