Joe Ades, sidewalk potato peeler pitchman, RIP

Watch this master pitchman in action on a New York sidewalk. NYT has the obit.

His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.” Mr. Ades (pronounced AH-dess) died on Sunday at 75, said his daughter, Ruth Ades Laurent of Manhattan. She said he never talked about how many peelers he sold in a year, or how many carrots he had sliced up during demonstrations. She said he stashed his inventory in what had been the maid’s room of the apartment.

(Via Orange Crate Art)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

I’ll miss this guy…… he was one of the best. Union Square Farmers Market will not be the same without him!
barjoe

The David Galbraith article is probably closest to the facts, the New York Times obit is a generous and merited recognition of a great man. RIP
Roast Beef

FYI, Mr. Ades’ daughter is taking over to sell his remaining inventory: http://gothamist.com/2009/02/23/daughter_of_joe_ades_famous_peeler.php
ZenGwen

I used to see him every once in a while on my way to school – that looks like it could be where he’d hang out outside the Borough Hall subway station, actually. Rest in peace, Joe. We’ve lost an icon…
Anonymous

NOOOO! I never bought a peeler, but I’ll miss hearing him when I’m at the market… btw should’nt Bloomberg put up a statue of him? Can’t be too much trouble since they’re already doing construction right at his former spot.
spectraversa

Sad. He was part of my first real NYC experience. video’d him here:
http://blip.tv/file/26045/
jennyhart

Aw. I read about him in this Vanity Fair article from a couple of years ago.
postjosh

just saw him this fall for the first time. he was on broadway near chambers street. had no idea he was famous. simply mesmerizing. you really felt like he was teleported here from another era.
Marcelo

I’m actually semi-obsessed with finding the perfect peeler (I eat a lot of carrots). Can you still get the ones he sold?
Anonymous

so where can you buy a peeler like that online cause he sold me!
williamaowen

I never got tired of watching him if I was passing through the market. The peelers were $5, or 5 for $20. I bought a bunch, and gave them away as gifts, because they are great tools.

saddening news.
Jack

Very sad. From what I know, he was fairly rich and simply did this as a side gig to kill time.
tresser

sad. i just saw a clip about him a couple months ago…maybe 60 minutes or the like. he was still plugging along, hawking one of the thousands of peelers he had stacked up in his apartment.
GabrielMSharp

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UT69MY/ref=s9_sims_c2_s1_p79_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=16XQV27KWJKW3Q21CS5K&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383371&pf_rd_i=507846

You can buy the peeler here, Marcelo.

Great video, I never peel anything but I’m sure he’d get my $20.
Peaceflag2007

Patrick Stewart should play him in a biopic
Michael Leddy

On the question of Joe Ades and riches, follow the Kottke link â€”

http://www.kottke.org/09/02/rip-joe-ades

to

http://davidgalbraith.org/uncategorized/the-joe-ades-myth-deconstructed/1666/
Suburbancowboy

Oh no! this sucks. I loved watching that guy work. I bought a few of the peelers from him.

There is a flickr group devoted to him:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/gentleman_peeler/

One of my shots is in there.

Kurt C.
Anonymous

What a great street talker. I wish I had his gift of gab. Where can I buy some of those peelers?
RIP Joe. You were a classic.
Umbriel

I just saw him near Penn Station a few weeks ago. Regardless of how wealthy he was or wasn’t, he obviously enjoyed putting on a show, and did so to the end of his days.
jonathan_v

I saw him a few times a month at the NYC greenmarket

I always meant to get one of those peelers from him.

He was iconic.
zackly

I will truly miss watching him every week do his shpiel.
I’ve bought many many peelers from him as gifts (5$, not 20$ as someone said…at least, that’s what he charged me)

Here’s a pic I took of him, on my flickr page.
http://flickr.com/photos/zackly/3251413084/
jfrancis

Ed McMahon did that when he was young.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_McMahon

“McMahon began his career as a bingo caller in Maine when he was 15. Prior to working as the announcer, he worked as a carnival barker for three years during his teenage years in Mexico, Maine, and put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk.”
Anonymous

This guy is surely a mentor to Vince Offer.
Youtube “Slap Chop” and “Sham Wow”
You’re gonna love my nuts.
bcsizemo

Pull my peeler @ 2:15 was priceless….
brightblue47

awwwww! I was sincerely hoping I would have a chance to see him in action and buy a peeler since I read the vanity fair article on him a while back. Sad!
sodium

LOL! This guys sound and face looked familiar to me and then the penny dropped. I know this man’s son David, who is something of a wannabe sax player in Australia. Dave also resorted to selling perfumes on the street’s of Sydney(complete with the fake cockney type accent) when gigs were few and far between. I guess the carrot doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Roast Beef

Oh noes! I always meant to buy one of his peelers. :( RIP, Mr. Ades.

Agreed with Anonymous 14 about the statue. Put it on the northwest corner where he used to set up (because he didn’t have a permit, according to TFA). He’d make a good balance to Gandhi in the southwest corner.