Posts tagged Times Square
Taking on the daunting task of working 100 jobs in 2012
We now have the video for the Telemundo flash mob for Job #96!
Press Time!
Since my 100 Jobs 1 Year project is over, I won’t be blogging on my 100 Jobs 1 Year page as much anymore.
So please follow my personal page!
Also, follow my 2013 project 10,000 Kevins!
My 100 Jobs 1 Year story has been appearing not only on NBC, but in New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press, Macedonia, and Croatia!
Headline literally translates to “Swapped 100 jobs for a year!”
For those of you unfamiliar with Central New Jersey’s biggest newspaper, you may remember it from Clerks.
Job #100 - New Year’s Eve Correspondent
Wow! This actually happened.
Oh hey guys! Did I tell you this happened?
It’s been a good year. And a great Job #100.
Job #21 - Selling Comedy Tickets
Ah, Times Square… huge billboards, the largest video screens in the world… almost every animate and inanimate object tries to market to you- signs, cowboys, video screens, dancers, free samples- to make you get something or go somewhere. With all that competition, a guy has to be pretty persuasive to convince you to get what he’s offering. Add when his wages are solely commission-based, the race is on! That’s where I was on that Saturday.
As a salesperson, it helps to believe in your product. And I know that- although not a stand up comic myself- there’s a plethora of clubs in NYC willing to showcase any level of talent to fill their wallets. Because once you’re in the door, they’ve got your cover and two-drink minimum. Thankfully the club I promoted only premiered talent that had TV credits- from Letterman, Comedy Central, and so on.
You’d think that a friendly New Yorker and the chance of seeing famous comics would convince tourists to want to buy tickets. But I didn’t sell any in the nearly four hours I was there. It was cold. I’m inexperienced. And I’m too nice. It almost pains me to look at that video.
What do YOU think of the people who sell comedy tickets in Times Square?
Remember my post about working the Tostitos Fiesta in the Square?
I got in OK Magazine!
You can see me in the back, behind Nick Lachey.
On Friday I helped people kick field goals in Times Square.
You’re wondering where the football field was in Times Square? 44th and Broadway. Duh. (Okay, to be honest, it was really more like the last 20 yards and the endzone.)
Tostitos held its “Fiesta in Times Square” to support the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Foundation. They gave $100K to the charity, and pledged to give another $100K if we could get 100 people to kick a field goal.
Which they did.
I worked as a brand ambassador, or a promotions person who’s the face of the event. My job was to place the football on the kicking tee about 500 times that day (yes, we counted).
Knowing I’d be working from 8am-8pm, I decided to stock up on carbs. Thankfully, carbs are what Tostitos is good at. Over the course of the day. I ate at least 7 bags of black bean artisan chips. Vegetarian, protein, and healthy carbohydrates in a single package? What will they think of next! (Tostitos, I expect royalties on that product bump.)
Each person got two field goal kick attempts. I myself tried it out. And for never having attempted a field goal kick, I did pretty well. Meaning the ball went in the air and goal-ward.
Two representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records were there to make sure it counted. One of them wore a track suit, but the other guy wore a business suit, as if to try to convince us he had a real job. Dude, you WISH watching football all day was your real job.
Nick Lachey was there, and a few other retired quarterbacks. Oh you don’t know who Nick Lachey is? I didn’t either. He sang in that late nineties boy band 98 Degrees and used to be married to Jessica Simpson. We were told not to request pictures or autographs from him.
Wait, hold on. Nick Lachey, you think you’re enough of a celebrity to request no pictures? I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he only requested no pictures so that he could focus his time on the charity and not bring attention to himself.
Still, people waiting on the other side of the barricades wanted me to move out of the way so they could take his picture. Instead, I acted as if they wanted to get a picture of me and started posing, so some of them laughed and took my picture. (This is my sole strategy to attain stardom.) “Hey Nick,” I said when he came by. “I think they want you to get a picture with me.” He ignored me… can’t really blame him.
Note: If I’m standing in the way of your camera and any celebrity, it’s never a bad picture.
I met a few actors there. They told me to apply to Central Casting where they cast extras. Maybe that’ll be one of my 100 jobs!
Corrections since first posting: It’s Nick Lachey, not Nick Shea. Some of my followers also chided me for acting like Nick Lachey is only a moderately popular celebrity. So I’ll say that from what I can tell, Nick is a friendly person and I have no issues with him, and anything that looks like that in my post is only a result of my own ridiculousness.
