I like pitchmen, well the good ones and Billy Mays was that. He was one of the best known pitchmen of the last decade.
You have to understand, for nearly I decade I performed in the streets, festivals and fairs in the U.S. and Canada, and encountered the pitchmen, talkers, hawkers and shills of all manner. Billy was the logical evolution. Were the things he pitched sometimes crap? Of course. Caveat Emptor has been the motto of all performers, not just the pitchman, since people started to barter. Did he make those inventors money… time will tell.
I just understand the tradition. I don’t expect you to respect that he sometimes sold crap, but he was never a grifter, and only took those willing to be sold. Was it honorable? I, as someone that learned to be a pick-pocket, I can’t judge for you, but in my world, yes.
I have always admired the barker, the street-hawker, the tin-man, the medicine show, the bally talker and the talker that turns the tip. Time for the Blowoff Billy. I promise the lady is naked this time.
