When the Naked Cowboy’s arrest at this year’s Bike Week generated national headlines, it also jump-started interest in one of the many spin-off products bearing the veteran street performer’s likeness.
Naked Cowboy bobbleheads now compete for attention with pop culture icons such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, an assortment of professional sports franchises and politicians on the website of Kollectico, a collectible production and distribution company based in Long Island, New York.
“We’ve started to see a little uptick in sales,” Andrew Hazen, the company’s founder and CEO, said of the Naked Cowboy bobblehead that depicts the New York City-based undie-clad busker and his red, white and blue guitar next to a street sign for Times Square and Broadway.
DAYTONA BEACH Naked Cowboy Robert Burck might have received a hero’s welcome when he returned to Main Street for Bike Week’s closing weekend, but the street performer and media coverage of his arrest on panhandling charges are receiving harsh reviews from Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young.
Young on Sunday tweeted strong criticism of homophobic slurs and racial comments made by Burck during his arrest on March 6 for violating the city of Daytona Beach’s panhandling ordinance as he did his act on Main Street.
The chief also criticized The News-Journal for “slanted” reporting in stories tied to the arrest.
Burck was arrested by Daytona Beach police officers on Saturday afternoon near the 800 block of Main Street, where he had been posing for pictures with Bike Week visitors and bystanders. It’s a shtick that he has been presenting at Bike Week, virtually without incident, for 21 years, he said.
On Saturday, however, Burck was charged with violating the city s new ordinance on panhandling and resisting an officer without violence. In making the arrest, officers broke the headstock of the performer’s red, white and blue acoustic guitar.
The ordinance, among other things, make it illegal for anyone to panhandle within 10 feet of the door of any commercial business. But Burck insists he doesn t panhandle; rather, he s a street entertainer.