Ad-toting sign spinners ply their trade near Las Vegas Valley intersections

Sign wavers. Sign spinners. Sign flippers. Human billboards. Sign dancers.

They go by many names, and passers-by see them during the day in many parts of the Las Vegas Valley. Their job is simple: to get your attention.

“I feel like a celebrity. I love this job,” 22-year-old Charles Clements of Las Vegas said. “People stop and speak to me all the time.”

He got the idea of sign waving from someone he chatted with while taking public transportation. Then, Clements said, he filed his taxes with Liberty Tax Service.

“I’m not a sign waver; I’m a sign dancer. I dance,” he said as he danced holding a Liberty Tax Service sign.

Clements said he has been sign dancing for two years, but only during tax season from Jan. 21 to April 15.

His uniform consists of a velour mint green Statue of Liberty robe; a red sash that reads Liberty Tax in white letters; a black Styrofoam crown with white engraving; and a “Get $50 Cash Now” sign. He earns $8.50 an hour and works six days a week, with Sundays off.

“I average about 26 hours a week,” he said, standing near West Cheyenne Avenue and North Martin L. King Boulevard. “I get maybe five or six honks a day. One lady even called me her baby daddy.”

Latokie Marshall of North Las Vegas was seeking employment when she was hired as a sign holder for Cricket Wireless.

Marshall said she has been working with the company for about two weeks. She makes $15 an hour and works three-hour shifts, five days a week.

“I love this job. It’s simple: I get to hold a sign,” the 39-year-old said as she waved at drivers at West Craig Road and Simmons Street.

Marshall said she previously worked as an in-home nurse caring for the disabled.

“I’ve been out of work for two years. I’m happy to be working again,” she said as she held a sign that read, “Cricket Free 4g LTE Phone.”

John Hubbard, 50, of Las Vegas said he has been spinning signs for Toro Taxes for five years. He said he makes $10 an hour and works a six- to seven-hour shift five days a week.

“I started sign spinning as an attempt to practice for the World Sign Spinning Championship; it’s through AArrow,” he said.

AArrow Sign Spinners, a San Diego-based sign-spinning advertising and marketing company, was created in 2002 by high school friends Mike Kenny and Max Durovic.

This year’s championship is set for Feb. 24-25 at the Fremont Street Experience.

“The WSCC is sign spinning on steroids,” said Kenny, chief operating officer at AArrow Sign Spinners. “It’s an entire different world.”

Sign spinning is a sport, he added.

“About 100 competitors from 30 different cities and five different countries will be represented,” Kenny said. “There will be competitors from Poland, Germany, Mexico and South Korea.”

Contact Raven Jackson at rjackson@viewnews.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @ravenmjackson on Twitter.