Where have you gone, Pantomimus?

"Hey mommie, why is that man painted silver?" Little Gretchen points out, as her and mommie stroll down a busy street.
The silver painted man jerks around, kicks his leg up and makes a big smile followed by a quick look to the west, then a frown. He then sticks his hand out to little Gretchen, who gets startled, and runs to the clutches of mommie.
Mommie says,"Oh dear, that's because he's a Mime."
Little Gretchen asks, "What's a Mime?"
Mommie says, "A Mime is a street artist. They are usually kind of like circus people, always travelling, doing basically anything for money. But you never hear them say a word. It's very interesting to watch!"
It was 6:30 in the evening, and silver painted man had been there all day, in the hot sun doing the best he could, but not much return on his antics. Mommie and little Gretchen stood quietly, awaiting the silver man's next move. The silver man puts his hand out, as if for them to follow suit and hook him up with some change. Instead, Gretchen runs over and gives him a hand on hand slap, giggling. The silver man sighs, and lets out a little noise. "Mommie, he said something!" Silver man is frustrated with these turn of events and steps off his bucket. He gives them one last look and flicks a bird at Mommie and little Gretchen. "Oh!!" Horrors! What kind of carnival man are you?! Have some respect!" says the mommie. As he walks away, silver man yells out " Ahh, Sit on it and rotate, Sister!" while still holding up his middle finger, ending a long day of body motions and facial expressions, with no success at financial acclaim.

Now, most scholars say that Miming can be distinguished from silent comedy. But regardless of the body motion choices, or the unorthodox, sometimes shocking facial expressions, or random middle fingers late in the afternoon all qualify at some point as some pretty funny stuff.
Today I got out in the public and had my first dose of what it's going to be like not talking for a long time in front of people. Walked into the Mac Store at Lenox, and a spore of "Mackies" standing right at the front door greeting you. Short workers in the front, tall workers in the back..seriously.. Looked like they were gonna break out singing christmas carols or something...They were polite and welcomed me in, and as I walked by all 6 of them I could tell they wanted an instant gratification from me like "Hey! It's great to be here!". And I wanted to reciprocate the generosity, but all they got from me was a long, fake, almost laughing warm smile lasting 10 seconds as I made my way into the heart of the store.
I'm warming up to this bit by bit....