“How would I describe what we do? We make people smile. We make people laugh. There isn’t a lot to it. But it’s clean and it’s good-natured, and it makes people feel good,” said Robert Burck, better known as The Naked Cowboy.
Burck, who still calls Secaucus home after all these years, was discussing his mission to bring good cheer to the masses. “The act is all about positivity, which is why it’s been so successful all these years.”
Given Burck’s calling, it’s only natural that he’d want to spread it as far and as wide as he can. But he’s only one man, and can only do so much. So, Burck is now recruiting others to help him on his mission, while earning a little cash along the way.
And like Burck, his first two recruits – Robert Coffman and Cindy Fox – are fellow Secaucus residents.
They plan to do for naked public acoustic guitar players what Starbucks did for coffee.
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He’s been working this one note since the late 1990s – and tourists apparently never tire of seeing him play it.
But now the original Cowboy has back-up, and together with Coffman and Fox, they plan to do for naked public acoustic guitar players what Starbucks did for coffee.
‘Circumstances necessitated it’
The Naked Cowboy/Cowgirl “schtick,” as Coffman called it, is all in good fun. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a larger business plan behind the smiling photos with tourists.
Burck owns the rights to the Naked Cowboy/Naked Cowgirl name and franchising, he said, which grew naturally out of a need to protect his brand and image.
“Circumstances necessitated it,” said Burck. “There’s been reasons why somebody either needed or wanted to use the outfit, or wanted to use the name, so I needed the ability to franchise to protect the image and how it was being portrayed to the public.”
Earlier this year, Burck and TMR, his management company, sued stripper/comedian Sandy Kane, another Times Square busker who bills herself as The Naked Cowgirl, for trademark infringement. Burck, who finds Kane’s street act rude and unwholesome because she flips people the bird, said he tried to get her to clean up her act and come into the official “Cowboy” fold as a franchisee. When she refused, he slapped her with the lawsuit.
A franchise agreement between Burck, TMR, and another Cowgirl, Louisa Holmlund, appears to have also fizzled. (Holmlund believed she had a franchise agreement, but TMR said some of her paperwork was never signed.)
To end the confusion and to strengthen the brand, Cindy Fox said, “This is a good time. I’m going to sign an agreement. I’ll be the first one to sign the licensing agreement and help promote the fact that there is a franchise.”
Fox, Burck’s girlfriend, became an official Cowgirl franchisee at the beginning of summer. Coffman came on board around the same time.
All business
They each hope their work in Times Square will generate cash and customers for their other businesses.
Although Fox has worked as an X-Ray technician at Hackensack Hospital for the past eight years, she has been a fitness trainer since she was 17. She’d like some of her adoring fans in Times Square to book her as a personal trainer.
Similarly, Coffman hopes to attract more clients to Hudson Hair, a salon he owns in Secaucus.
Like Burck, Coffman and Fox both advertise their businesses on their guitars, which they use as billboards.
And what’s in it for Burck? Naturally, more business – and more money.
Franchisees can pay up to $5,000 a year for the right to don the Cowboy getup and use the brand name.
The brand has become quite lucrative for Burck, who makes thousands off of personal appearances, Cowboy merchandise, use of the brand, and even weddings. (He’s a recognized wedding officiant in New York City.)
Accepted worldwide?
For now, it remains to be seen whether the Cowboy brand will translate into a payday for franchisees.
Burck hopes to take the concept national, so that one day Naked Cowboys and Cowgirls are as ubiquitous as McDonald’s. But not every city is New York, and not every neighborhood is Times Square. Many towns – including a number of large cities – have laws against public indecency. And with nursing moms still getting arrested for breastfeeding in public, it’s easy to foresee franchisees having trouble with the law.
For example, Burck was arrested last year when he took his routine to a park in San Francisco.
“The bottom line is, there are laws,” said Coffman, who found himself under arrest in New York three weeks ago. “So, you need to know what is the law, and what can I do to comply with that law?”
But not to worry – the trio has no plans to bring their act to the Secaucus Plaza.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.