

ROMAN SHUSTERMAN, 29, CONEY ISLAND, BROOKLYN

ROMAN SHUSTERMAN, 29, CONEY ISLAND, BROOKLYN



WOTS: You said you’ve been interviewed a couple times about your face-sitting project.

ROMAN SHUSTERMAN: Oh, yeah. A lot of it is online. Most people find it interesting, except for the people who hang out in the park. They don’t like me. Here, I’ll talk to you as I walk around.

OK. Why don’t people like you?

They call me a pervert and all this stuff. Some people support me—like other perverts. And there’s a lot of them, so that’s good.

So you think of yourself as a pervert?

[To girl.] Are you 18? My camera guy is in the bathroom. I’m waiting for him to get back. I have some more pictures if you’re really interested [holds out folder and flips through photos]. I’ve gotten 16 girls to sit on my face in about a month, so, that’s pretty good.

Do women usually sit facing you or in the reverse position?

I like women to sit on my face as they would naturally. See, that’s what people on the internet like: some guy goes to the park and he gets random girls to sit on his face. It’s like a fantasy sort of thing—for perverts. That’s why I get a lot of hits. Me, I’m a political activist. I’ve got my blog, NoPoliceStateCoalition.BlogSpot.com and I get on YouTube.

There’s a comedy element to it. Do I get off on face-sitting? I mean, I would get off more if the girls did it naked, but it’s a good storyline. I get more internet hits than celebrities—50,000 hits in two weeks.

How did you first think of the project?

I started off with a sign that said free massages, like backrubs and foot rubs. Then after I finish with the foot rub, I’d ask them if I could suck their toes. A lot of girls would let me suck their toes. After that, since Craigslist got censored, I decided I would just do face-sitting in the park. I’m a pioneer.

What’s the best face-sitting place in New York?

I got one girl to sit on my face in Times Square but she didn’t even send me the picture. Union Square is the best because it’s a very diverse place. You can draw a crowd. People will argue about it. It really promotes itself.

How would this go down at Madison Square Park?

Ah, it wouldn’t work out.

What’s the best question a journalist has asked you?

They ask me how face-sitting is going to bring about world peace.

Have you ever turned down a potential face-sitter?

As you can see, I’m the one asking people to do it. This breaks social convention. It’s a revolution. This is still only the beginning. A lot of guys ask me why they can’t get women to sit on their faces, so something I’d like is for women to walk around with me so they can sit on the faces of men.

You might need to pay the women to do that.

No, the thing is, this is anti-capitalist. It’s free love. Maybe we could get outside funding down the road, but this can’t be about the money.

Tell me about the first time in your life a woman sat on your face.

I think I may have paid for it. I don’t think she was a prostitute—she was more like a dominatrix. I was about 18.

When did you bloom? You know, early or late?

You mean in terms of sexual stuff? I guess I was pretty early. When I was 13 I had friends who wanted to experiment with oral sex, or whatever.

When a woman publicly sits on your face, do you inhale?

Oh, yeah, of course. I’m into it.

Any women more fragrant than others?

Most of these women are very good looking, and good-looking women tend to take good care of themselves. One was very fragrant, though, but I didn’t mind.

What boundaries do you set for yourself?

Well, their weight is all over my face so there’s not much I can do.

You could still purse your lips, though.

I’ll be honest with you: Most of the reason I’m doing this is for publicity. That’s why I like the woman to sit on my face full-weight because that’s what people like. But I’m a political activist. Face-sitting is a part of freedom of expression.

Your activist group’s blog is called No Police State Coalition. Are you against policing in general?

I’m against having any rules. I’m against conventional morality. War is a part of conventional morality. If we can defeat [conventional morality] here at home, then we can go against the wars and the military budgets. If I can make a woman sitting on my face become a normal public activity, then eventually we’ll get gay people to do gay acts in public, and people will get used to it. They’ll be more tolerant of gay people.

What do you think about bestiality?

I think anything goes as long as it’s consensual. With an animal you can know.

You mean, if it has a hard-on?

Bestiality is legal in Europe. You can go to some video stores on 42nd Street and see them. I’m personally not turned on by bestiality, but I don’t think the government should treat people like kids and tell them how to live their lives. If you want to have sex with an animal, that’s your business and you should do it.

In public.

Yeah, and I think toilets should be in public, too.

If children get used to seeing adults having sex in public…

…That will get rid of violence. Right now they’re used to seeing adults beating up their mom—you see what I’m saying? If a woman was just shared in common with everybody, kids would just be raised by the community and they wouldn’t see violence anymore.

But isn’t violence just a natural occurrence?

No. In countries like Canada that are more socialist, there is no violence. People leave their doors open.

There’s violence in Canada.

That’s because Canada is not completely communist.

Communism equals heaven?

Yeah. You can look up a article about how North Korea has no violence. People there leave their curtains open—they have no curtains!—so everyone sees each other having sex and going to the bathroom.

But aren’t North Koreans stripped of some basic human rights that you would presumably champion?

No, that’s a lie, that’s just propaganda. And it’s not the North Korean government that has taken some people’s rights away but the enemies that have infiltrated the country.

What about the famine?

These are allegations that have not been proven. I think if North Korea does have a famine it’s been imposed on them by violent, warring countries. I think they’re doing the best with what they have.

So you’re pro Kim Jong-il…

I like his son, Kim Jong-un. I wrote a post about him on my blog.

-WORD ON THE STREET