When I first moved to NYC, the only people selling stuff on the street were hookers and dealers.  And not the ones from Sweet Charity.

It’s quite a different story these days.  Take a look at some of the street teams we snapped pictures of over the last few weeks.  So many shows were street walking:  Chicago, Shrek, White Xmas, Altar Boyz, Spamalot, 39 Steps and 142 comedy clubs (not to mention the caricaturists, photographers, people like Duane, and more).

Why the change?  Simple.  When Times Square became a destination in the 90s, instead of a destination to avoid, the marketers descended upon it . . . because the pond was suddenly stocked.

Let me explain.

When I was a kid and used to fish . . . ok, scratch that . . . when I was a kid and used to make someone else put the worm on the hook and someone else take the fish off the hook and I would just hold the pole . . . we always knew when our local lake had been “stocked”, or when lots of fish had been literally dropped into the water for the catchin’ (a bit sick, I realize).  We used to look for the place along the lake where they had put in the fish, hoping the fish stayed in that area.  We stick our pole in the water and pull out fish after fish.

Times Square is now stocked with tourists, now that it’s a much healthier 
environment for our fish to live, breathe and buy tickets for shows.

Thankfully, you don’t have to put a worm on a hook to make that happen.  You just have to have a killer street team that knows how to sell.