Have you ever seen a statue breathe? If you’ve visited Bayfront Park in the past two years, chances are that you have. Meet Joe Abel—Sarasota’s own living, breathing statue. Plated in gold and silver,  Abel is known for his sport-inspired character statues, like “Happy Stillmore,” “Gold E. Glover,” and “Goldie Howe.” Happy Stillmore, for example, is a silver golfer with skin that matches his shining ensemble.

Abel began his entertainment career at the ripe age of six years old. In his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland,  Abel found himself bored at a craft fair his parents were running. “My mom didn’t have time for me,  because she was getting all the vendors checked in,” Abel recalls, “So she told me what any good mother would say, ‘Go streaking,’ So, I went into the bathroom and ran out wearing only underwear.” In an effort to channel their son’s desire for an audience, Abel’s parents made him his own clown costume and the following year, they hired him as a clown at the craft fair. “It all started then,” says Abel. After a decade of craft fairs and working at haunted houses like Howl-O-Scream, Abel developed the ability to stand still for hours on end, hardly moving or blinking. 

“I remember seeing a human statue in Mexico 15 or 20 years ago, and I knew I could do that.” Only anxious about his ability to garner outfits, Abel trusted his creative ability and traveled to Downtown Sarasota one Halloween dressed as a statue. “So, I’m standing there, I’m scaring people and next thing you know they’re coming back asking where to put the tips!” Insisting that it was all for Halloween fun, Abel passed up more than $50 worth of tips before he picked up a littered cup and began accepting donations. At the end of the night, Abel left with a solo-cup full of cash. Halloween fun turned into more than $100.  

“I knew I was on to something. I started to come up with different characters and I worked New Years’ before I started going to the Main Street Farmers Market on Saturday mornings,” he shares. Fed up with his 9-5, Abel quit his job as a wrestling manager and fully committed to his characters. “I’m making more money now, and I’m having more fun.”  Abel often performs as Gold E. Glover, a gold baseball statue, at professional games. This led him to be featured on Bally Sports, a television provider of sports media. After the interview, Major League Baseball took an eight second clip and uploaded it to their YouTube page—garnering over 96,000 views. Abel reflects on how he felt at that time, “I’ve never had anybody look at anything I did. You know a couple hundred, maybe a thousand. To go from that to 96,000 is amazing.” It was especially exciting for Abel, fueling his newfound dream of working for a major league baseball team. Abel’s advice is this, “Follow your passion, no matter how silly you think it is or if you think people are going to laugh at you. Follow your passion. If you don’t, you can sit back and say, ‘What if?’ That’s the biggest regret in life. Take the chance.”