Joe Ades The Peeler Man, and The King does Paparazzi !

Joe Ades is an infamous moving landmark who traverses the city streets pitching his one product, a potato peeler. Yes, you heard me, a potato peeler. He refers to himself as a "grafter" and not a salesman, he pointed out to me that he learned his trade in impromptu markets over in England where people would be hawking their own items like shoelaces to cough medicine. There is a reason he sits down which is how all the grafters did it in England he says because you can have a crowd around you and by passers can't see what's going on and therefore will be so curious that they will join the audience and watch Joe's brilliant performance.

He is 74 years old and this is him set up on Wall St Monday morning when I got to my day job. I spoke to him briefly as he ate his early lunch preparing for a busy day he told me. I then saw him later on my own lunch break and video taped this New York legend. He is supercool and does what he does better than anyone I've ever seen pitch a product on the streets of New York. Joe lives on Park Avenue and frequents The Hotel Pierre bar where he is known to polish off bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne along with the regulars who know him very well there as I learned later. Read on, check out his work and enjoy the videos I took of him on my lunch break.


As you can see he decided to turn around and face Trinity Church when I returned on my lunch.

This is the bucketful of the product he sells, Star peeler.

He also shows off on his cart all the notoriety he has gotten in the past from Vanity Fair, The Daily News and the New York Post and others. Surely my article will be on there as well if Joe wants to make even more money.
Definitely a slice of the action, he just sits there and creates a buzz. Wherever he goes.
Joe on the Post.
More media publicity.
The Perfect Pitch man begins his routine, no one around, he just starts talking and showing how the peeler works and slowly people stop and listen. Cool stuff.
Now he's getting them hooked.
Showing off his Iron Chef skills.
I wonder if he is a Guinness book candidate for most carrots peeled ever?
Hook....Line....and BUYER !!!! She looks quite happy with her purchase !!


In the following videos you can hear a guy trying to ask him about the books he sold ten years ago to which he ignores, stays professional and continues on, also in the second video which shows his full show the bells of Trinity Church are ringing but Joe can drown them out with his passion for the peeler.






And yes indeed......The King had to buy a few too, thats my hand holding this AMAZING product that you know you want to have now.





It was then when I got out of my office late so I couldn't get a taxi now and had time to kill before I got my bus home. There is a catering hall righ across the street from where I work that has celebrity functions all the time and in one of my prior posts I got pictures of Brett Favre and The New York Jets who were attending here as well.

There were only a few paparazzi waiting in front of a small red carpet with a banner for the World Wide Orphan foundation. I walked over with my camera in hand and asked this small Chinese paparazzi dude who was coming and he replied" The Weeds" are coming.

I had no clue what he was talking about so I asked the gentleman below who informed me he's just a tourist from France and he was just watching to see who was coming. His name is Eric and he came here to run the NYC marathon which he did successfully, so I congratulated him and as you can see he was wearing the medal that the finishers received for their well done achievement. I told him about my blog and would he mind if I took a pic of the medal and he was more than happy to do it . We give the French a lot of shit, but this guy was real gentleman with a sense of humor too joking with me that we were waiting to see someone we probably didn't know.
Here is a close up of the medal you get for running 26.2 miles in NYC.
As Borat would say...VERY NIIIIICE!!!!
I have no idea who these two women were and the paparazzi standing next to me didn't like me rubbing elbows with them as I snapped away and asked who are these people to which they wouldn't tell me.
Then the lady on the left heard me asking who they were and she asked where was I from and I jokingly replied "Fox News" to which she grunted something about how terrible and unprofessional they are. I told them as I was laughing I was kidding and the paparazzi people didn't find it funny at all. If you know who they are please tell me. I think the Asian woman is a newscaster. Not sure though.
So then my little Chinese paparazzi dude ran up to me and told me "WEEDS" was here, so I saw a tall bald guy in a tuxedo and asked my new friend " Is that the weeds? " He said" No No No ...The WOMAN !!" Oh ok..I recognize her thats Mary Mcdowell I said to a paparazzi next to me, to which she replied " No its not" ...hmmmm...ok waiting for a follow up from her to tell me who it is and she wouldn't tell me !!! Damn poopanazzis!!! I told her I know its Mary something and I'll find out on the internet anyway. And I did ...Mary Louise Parker from the Showtime series "WEEDS" which I've never seen. She is a good actress in the movies I saw her in and as you can see she looks pretty good at age 44.
Here she is looking into The Kings eyes and trying to seduce me....I'm not THAT easy !!

This is Mary Louise Parker and Dr. Jane Aronson who is an advocate and is on the Board of Directors for this foundation that helps orphans around the world.This is her website. http://www.orphandoctor.com/ Good stuff.


After that nice photo I screamed at the both of them which I was no further than 3 feet away " How about a funny face picture ?!?!?! " I do that all the time with my family, nieces, nephews etc..ITS FUN !!! However the pooparazzi started apologizing and put their cameras down telling Mary and Dr.Jane how unprofessional I am , but the Doctor MADE a funny face and I got the pic of it !!!

One paparazzi told me its people like me who are ruining the business, I told him " Go fuck yourself, this is show business and I got the money shot sucker!! "Even better I told them I have a blog with millions of readers who will get to view my photo which is funny !! And then the president of SBG communications Shanta Bryant Gyan who overheard all this nonsense, and who was running the event gave me a press packet and took my information and was laughing along with me as the poopanazzis were still trying to scold me.

Dr.Jane, you rock for making the funny face...Mary , lighten up, kids like funny faces and that's who you were there to help isn't it. As you can see she is still looking into my eyes trying to seduce The King.
The following is a video of what Dr. Aronson does to help children around the world .



So in closing, Joe Ades is a character that gives New York that special pulse along with actresses like Mary Louise Parker and dedicated professionals like Dr.Jane Aronson who achieve great things unselfishly for other people in need, and then there are pooparazzies who make our pulse a little weaker.....but that's where I come in and bring the pulse back to a proper rhythm and also why I'm The King Of New York Hacks. Peace Out Peeps.