Stephen Yang
Naked Cowboy still roams free
Robet Burck is the Naked Cowboy who schleps around places like Times Square wearing only his underdrawers.
“I’m from Green Hills, Ohio. Dad was acting mayor. Halfway through my master’s of business at Xavier University, I started working out, went to a gym and began stripping at bachelorette parties. I wanted to be a singer, model, anything to get famous. Some photographer suggested shooting me naked, even in underwear. Next day I made news and suddenly felt like a king.
“So I started this idea. In Japan, I threw all my clothes out which meant they couldn’t put me in jail. In Cincinnati and DC, I got arrested. I also get smutty remarks half a dozen times a day. But I put it all out on the table.”
Schlepping around with your things nearly hanging out, where do you stash your tips?
“They’re put in a hole on top of my guitar. Yeah, people say stupid things to me. Somebody once punched me in the face. People have thrown stuff at me, ripped my underwear off. They all laugh, giggle and find me enchanting. Once some guy yanked my underwear off and I was thrown to the ground. I just got up, went into my nearby garage and took out some fresh BVDs. I travel with about 50 pair. Like an outfit, they get washed and reworn.
“Once on a drive to California I got arrested 15 times — but at least I got on TV.”
Although he saves on wardrobe, before he grabs a buck his daily cost is about $80. It’s tolls in, tolls out, garages at $1,200 a month, the gym, the weights, the dumbbells and the fur coat he wears to and fro. “But I get deals, endorsements, fame, and things come and go.
“New Year’s Eve’s tough. It’s like Mardi Gras. I sometimes wait in my car three to four hours and read books until midnight. I mean, you know, you do whatever it takes.”
He has a wife, a child, a home, a so-called career for so far 26 years and nobody’s looking to thwart his career. We’re talking job security.
These jewels of the high sea-ize
Climate change, water temperature increasing, Caribbean and Australian reefs shrinking. Australia and Florida’s famous coral reefs disappearing brings up a personal story.
Years back I owed my friend Judge Judy a thank you. She admired my red coral necklace. Something similar was at a Park Avenue jeweler. When she was away I charged that and shipped it to her.
Six weeks later the AmEx bill. My $55 necklace was $55,000!! My thought was to do myself in.
Famous story between us because I told her to send it back! She did — but not until she told me she’d ordered her own jeweler to create matching earrings. He did. His price was $35,000.
Neither of us have ever worn any of that stuff since.
Possibility is the Naked Cowboy in real life is a natty dresser.
Listen, this isn’t confirmed but rumor is that last week he had his urologist tie off his vasectomy — into a Windsor knot.
For sure only in New York, kids, only in New York.