Naked ambition drives this cowboy

REUTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday, Jun 05, 2003, Page 16

Robert Burck, a street performer known as the ``Naked Cowboy,'' sings in Times Square in New York as a snow storm hits the city. Come rain or shine, he stands in Times Square, strumming his guitar and croaking out a tune, almost naked except for cowboy boots, hat and the tight white briefs which occasionally reveal his politics. PHOTO: NY TIMES

Come rain or shine, he stands in Times Square, strumming his guitar and croaking out a tune, almost naked except for cowboy boots, hat and the tight white briefs which occasionally reveal his politics.

To most, the Naked Cowboy is just another street performer, and not a very good one at that. But as he struts his stuff daily on Broadway for dollars from tourists, the Naked Cowboy is convinced he has achieved his goal of becoming "the most celebrated entertainer of all time."

"I've become the pin-up symbol of New York City," the Cowboy, also known as Robert John Burck, said. "I'm ready for the Statue of Liberty to throw down her torch and swim back to France." The Empire State Building? Strictly second-rate, he says.

Dressed only in cowboy boots with spurs, a 10-gallon hat perched on his flowing blond hair and a double pair of form-fitting bright-white briefs, the Ohio native has become a daily fixture in Times Square over the past three years.

With his bodybuilder torso only partially obscured by his guitar, this street-corner Schwarzenegger interrupts his strumming and vocalizing to wrap a muscular arm around the latest in a stream of tourists -- virtually all women -- who stop to pose for a snapshot.

"Dollar in the boot -- no room in the underwear," he says, if the visitor fails to take the hint from the word "Tips" and the dollar signs painted on his white boots. He says he takes in US$700 to US$1,000 on an average day.

Burck takes his stand on a pedestrian island in the middle of Broadway, smack in the snarl of midtown Manhattan traffic, with the flashing signs of New York's theater district presenting a colorful backdrop.

On his Web site (http://www.nakedcowboy.com), 32-year-old Burck tells of setting a goal a few years ago to become the most celebrated entertainer of all time. Asked how that plan was coming along, he said he had achieved it.

"I've done more work than any other entertainer in the history of the world," he said. "It just hasn't been seen because it's been done with each individual person."

Comparing his fame with that of Jennifer Lopez, Burck said, "J Lo goes on TV and a billion people see her. I go to a billion people."

The only difference, in his view, is that he reaches his fans one at a time.

Burck's Web site chronicles in great detail a career driven perhaps more by ambition than by talent.

His first foray into show business came in 1997 after he won a Cincinnati radio station contest. The prize took him to California to appear as an extra on the television show Baywatch. He appeared onscreen "for about two and one-third seconds."

Back home in Ohio he took a few much needed voice lessons, borrowed a beat-up guitar from his mother and headed for Nashville, where he planned to become a famous country singer.

When this plan didn't quite work out, he returned to California to try playing for donations in Venice Beach. On his first day he grossed US$1.02. A friend suggested he needed a gimmick.

"Play in your underwear," the friend advised. "That'll make 'em stop."

The next day Burck returned in cowboy boots, hat and briefs, and his guitar case quickly filled up with dollar bills. The Naked Cowboy was born.

These days, Burck has "a suitcase full" of white cotton briefs. Most of them say "Naked Cowboy" -- his registered trademark -- in red and blue across the derriere, but the message sometimes becomes topical. During the Iraq war it read "Down with Saddam."

"I am the epitome of what America is," he said.

"It's about personal initiative. It's about ingenuity, entrepreneurship, capitalism, free markets. This is like the extreme of what you can do in America."