Going to prove once again, there's nothing like a stroll across Fountain Square in your undies to get yourself noticed. And, we might add, a spot on the Jenny Jones Show. Oh yeah, and a $63 citation.
Consider Cincinnatian John Robert Burck, a k a the Naked Cowboy because he sings in clubs in his underwear. He was in Chicago Friday,taping a Jones segment.
Here's how he got there: Last year, Christmas day it was, the 27-year-old Greenhills High School grad was a street musician in Venice Beach, Calif.: "I came home with $1.96 after playing seven hours and wasn't feeling good about it. A friend suggested I try it in my underwear.
"I did, the next day, and I came home with more money than I made in a month."
Flash forward to late summer, and Burck does the same here - on Fountain Square.
"It didn't take long, and I was surrounded by police on horseback. I got a $63 citation for 'improper use of Fountain Square.'
"We shot a video that I sent to the talk shows. Jones called, so here I go."
This isn't Burck's first talk show. Four years ago he did Jerry Springer's show as a male escort.
One more thing: he doesn't always parade around in his undies. In the May 1998 Playgirl, he got rid of them, too. Same goes for Wide World of Naked Sports, where he plays soccer buck nekkid. That video is due soon.
There's no air date yet on his Jenny Jones appearance.
CARRY ON:
Well, that's what happens when you start a tradition . . . you think maybe you'd like to curtail, and you just plumb can't.
Witness arts patron Joni Herschede and the third annual Great American Artists show at the Museum Center at Union Terminal - the one where curator David Bowen brings 50-75 artists and works to town for a show and sale.
The first two years, Herschede wowed the artists with a private reception and pig roast at her Hyde Park home. But, she said Friday at her third reception, "I wasn't going to do it. There's so much going on. But artists started calling and asking."
"I think David (Bowen) put them up to it. I'm glad he did."
As were the 50 or so artists who mixed 'n mingled with about 50 artsy types with the bucks to pop for high-end paintings (when not in the buffet line for spit-roasted pig and turkey).
How artsy? This: Even bartender Mike King was an artist. He worked free just to be there.
And the party buzz? Paintings they just had to have: "Last year, works sold for as little as $300 to as much as $200,000," Bowen said. "It will happen again, because so many here follow certain artists and already have an eye on one."
He wasn't kidding. Near the bar, Psst! overheard an artist and buyer (the buyer insisted on no names, the way really old money does when dipping into the trust fund great-grandmother left behind): "I don't care about price. Put sold on it as soon as you can."
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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