Reuters

Background

Robert Burck came to New York City determined to succeed. He worked as a stripper, a model and did “everything under the sun,” to find his way. Motivational books helped inspire him, and ultimately he figured out how to capitalize on his individuality - transforming himself into a Times Square Icon.

After meeting at the gym, Robert Burck and Cindy Fox started dating, but he was elusive about his job. To find out for herself, Cindy went to Times Square and was surprised by what she discovered.

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Credits

Photography, Audio & Video - Lucy Nicholson, Reuters
Editor - Jassim Ahmad, Reuters
Producer - Bob Sacha, MediaStorm
Additional Audio & Photography - Jassim Ahmad, Bob Sacha
Transcription & Ideas - Loretta Rae / Loreffrey Photography
Graphics - Tim Klimowicz, MediaStorm
Workshop Director - Jessica Stuart, MediaStorm
Intern - Tim McLaughlin, MediaStorm
Executive Producer - Brian Storm, MediaStorm

Produced in partnership with MediaStorm.

Video transcript

Cindy Fox:
We're on an elliptical together and you know start a conversation like everyone does on the ellipitcal.

What exactly do you do when you leave here?

We're talking all this time and you know everything I do and still don't have a freaking clue what it is that you do.

He's like, "I'm a one man band."

I said, "Oh, so where do you play?"

He's like, "45th and Broadway."

So now I'm thinking, OK it must be like this little dive of a place because he's not telling me the name of the place he works at.

He's like, "I'm famous, people know me."

And I'm like, "Oh."

Robert Burck:
I grew-up in a small town.

I was basically a notoriously bad kid. I was literally once arrested for farting in a woman's face.

I was constantly told what I couldn't do.

No one ever told me that I could do something with my life.

So of course I just showed that I could.

I had already been a stripper.

Danced naked on a hundred different bar tops across the country.

Every thing short of being just a full blown prostitute. You know what I mean?

I went every single place you could possibly go to be seen, filmed, videoed, you know, the center of attention.

I want to be a movie star or I'd wanna be President of the United States. Those are the coolest people.

I wanted to be the most beautiful thing in the world. Every man woman and child would want to come up...because I was so freaking cool.

I went from going nowhere... fast... to going anywhere I wanted to go.

Cindy Fox:
Alright, I gotta check this out for myself.

I've been friends with him for a few months. He's Robert from the gym to me.

I got over there and I went, "Oh my god."

This guy is seriously like in his underwear.

Oh my god this is ridiculous. I'm like afraid. I can't even go over there now because I can't keep a straight face.

We get to the parking garage and he opens the hatchback of the truck and starts putting his clothes back on.

He gets in, and all of a sudden we are having our normal conversation.

I have to tell you honestly, I like this Robert better than the one out there - that's just like too weird for me.

Robert Burck:
I went out there to just to sing and play guitar in my clothes.

I was ignored and the photographer who was shooting me for the naked magazine said "Why don't you play in your underwear?".

I thought it was the greatest idea I'd ever heard.

So the next day I went out and played in my underwear.

No brainer, why didn't I think of this before?

First naked cowboy tour I get in my car I go to Nashville, get arrested, make the news.

I call all the newspapers. The news comes, they film it and I'm in the next city an hour later.

Page after page after page after page - about 40 something arrests.

Fan:
I think he's adorable. We feel like Sex in the City.

Robert Burck:
I was like 40 thousand dollars in credit card debt.

I wasn't making money. I never even thought to ask for a dollar.

Fan:
He's hot.

Robert Burck:
A lady tried to put a five-dollar bill in my boot one time.

Fan:
He's got a lot of muscles.

Robert Burck:
After that five, every time they tried to give me a dollar, I said, "Ah just put it in the boot."

Fan:
He's got a nice butt.

Robert Burck:
After that it was like 600 bucks to a thousand bucks a day.

Fan:
Except he's not all the way naked. Maybe I'd like to see him completely naked.

Robert Burck:
So I literally went from massive debt to completely out of debt and sending money to everybody I know.

Cindy Fox:
There is definitely a huge difference between the Robert I met at the gym and the one I started dating.

It's becoming more of the cowboy and less of Robert.

There was even a point when he tells me he's changing his name officially and I need to call him that.

I'm like, Bob, I'm very sorry, I'm not calling you that.

Robert Burck:
What I'm doing is creating a huge advertising campaign for the city of New York.

The last two Popes together don't have as many pictures as I do. And now I'm the third rated tourist attraction in the city of New York, after the Empire State building and Statue of Liberty.

Even grabbing asses is boring now. I mean I've been doing it all freaking day. Oh yeah — you're hot — come on, let me squeeze it and get out of here.

It's a movement. And it's a word of mouth epidemic where a guy comes into a city, throwing naked brashly into advertising and now it's naked this, naked that, naked everything.

It's like a virus it's going across the entire world.

We're in a world of branding. What can you make yourself into — represent it, and then proliferate it.

Cindy Fox:
"I'm not attached to you. You're my girlfriend."

Um... I know he loves me. I do know a big part of that is his ego and his image that he upholds but it doesn't make it any easier to hear.

When he does at the end of the night finally sit down, he is a totally different person.

It's like he doesn't have the energy to put on the act anymore.

He doesn't want to think about all his goals and everything else.

He wants to just relax and now all of a sudden he's a big baby and he wants 100% attention from me and he wants to know why I don't love him like I used to.

Robert Burck:
The way you feel about yourself and the way you communicate to yourself about who you are - that's the kind of life you're going to live.

Who are you? Naked cowboy. What's your religion? Naked cowboy. What's your philosophy? Naked cowboy.

You know what I mean?

You know, it's freaking unbelievable.

That I would be the leader of the free world where I'm the free-est man in it.

In the freest society, living without any inhibitions or rules or regulations and doing whatever...I want regardless of what anybody else is doing.

And a guy who doesn't have a care in the world naked, just singing and playing the guitar in the heart of it all.

People just conform and do what everybody else does but your power is in your individuality.

Cindy Fox:
He desperately needs attention, which is why he is good at what he does. It's why he's become so successful.

But not everybody's fame lasts forever, so when that's not there and you push away all the people in your life, you know, then what?

Robert Burck:
Like Emerson says, work like a digger in the field all day long. That's how you get rich.

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Description

One Man Brand by Lucy Nicholson & Jassim Ahmad
After meeting at the gym, Robert Burck and Cindy Fox started dating, but he was elusive about his job. To find out for herself, Cindy went to Times Square and was surprised by what she discovered. See the project at http://online.thomsonreuters.com/onemanbrand.

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