Mickey Blank, better knows as New York Mickey, is a different kind of celebrity photographer. She’s gained a massive following online by showing a side of celebrities you don’t usually see. We talk celebrity photography, professional fans, the nicest and meanest celebrities and paparazzi. Then, we countdown a special “celebrity” themed Top 5.

Mickey Blank (New York Mickey): 01:45ish

Pointless: 29:53ish

Top 5: 46: 50ish

nickvinzant@gmail.com (Show Email)

316-530-7719 (Show voicemail)

https://linktr.ee/mickmicknyc (New York Mickey Links - Linktr.ee)

Interview with New York Mickey (Mickey Blank)

0:11

Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, celebrities, the real story, and ah, celebrities.

0:23

But I was very naive, and I started it. And I learned that a lot of photographers can be very aggressive, very aggressive, and covering the scene, like, I don't really care if they're going to look at me or not, I just covered it. This scene is what's interesting to me. Most of the celebrities, I do not recognize the only way I know like, I look at the other photographers where they point in their camera. And that's where I point,

0:49

I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or a review. We really appreciate it, it helps out the show and more than anything, we just like hearing from you. So our first guest is a celebrity photographer. But she's different than most other celebrity photographers. And that's why she's gained a massive online following, because she specializes in showing the side of celebrities that we don't usually see. And even if you're not interested in celebrities, I think it's fascinating to find out what they're really like. And even more than that, what the world around them. And the people around them are like this is celebrity photographer, Mickey Blanc, better known as New York. Mickey, are you surprised my people's reaction to your videos?

1:50

I'm just surprised with how mean people can be either towards me or just the people featured in the video.

1:59

When you look through the comments, like are most of them nice? Or did the mean ones just really stand out? So that's what you see.

2:07

Mean ones always stand out. Yeah, you can have like tons of great comments, and then you'll have a few really nasty ones and they will always stand out.

2:17

Did you kind of set out to do this? Was this the plan? Like I want to be a celebrity photographer videographer. Was this something that just kind of happened?

2:28

No, I had nothing to do with a celebrity. I'm not I'm not into this world. I wasn't. And people used to ask me Oh, you live in New York City, what celebrities etc? I don't know. Maybe I saw Jerry Seinfeld once. And now like you asked me, I've seen everybody in a year. I've seen like, once you get your Bubble to notice they're celebrities around you. You can find them anywhere I've seen so many like I cannot even count. And that's the difference between like my before and my after before. It was like eight years one Jerry Seinfeld. And now it's like a year and it's every anybody just named the person I I've seen it. It's on my videos. It's crazy.

3:12

Does that mean that they're kind of like walking around us all the time? don't notice.

3:17

Like in Manhattan all the time. There's like events happening in premieres. New York Fashion Week is like basically a parade of celebrities. If you know where to stand. They're just gonna parade in front of you one by one. It's, yeah, you just need to have the Intel that's it.

3:36

How do you get that Intel then?

3:40

Well, that's. So basically, I have a big community of people and they know what I'm doing. And they know I cover celebrities and I cover premieres. So they will send me the information. Sometimes I get the information directly from the brands that like, oh, we are going do you want to cover us here? Do you want to cover us there?

4:02

That's what I was always kind of wondering, right? Like, how do people like yourself, find these celebrities, but it kind of sounds like one way or another either the celebrities people or the brand they are working for is directly telling you where they're going to be

4:20

like, Listen, I don't do I don't do private life. I'm not like there's some like paparazzi standing outside there where they live and just waiting for them to come out. I do not do this kind of stuff. That's like, that's creepy. But if they're on a filming set or filming on the street, if they have a premiere, if like the brand is reaching out, hey, this celebrity is going to be this restaurant at this time, then it's legit and it's like it's like public relations. Right? It's completely different story between the two. It's not the same. Is that

4:51

usually how it works, how celebrity photographers find out about it is like somebody from the brand or the celebrity is telling you where they're going to be

5:01

a lot of times yes. Like most of for filming set, no, I have this information filming set will not announce Oh, they do announce but they don't want a lot of people they have to announce because they they film in a public street. But most of the public don't know how to get to this information for premieres, they will announce that's why all the photographers are there, the Getty photographers the bag, read all the photographers out there, because they send them the information, they gave them credentials to stand there and take photos and videos. But if that's somebody walking outside of his house, that's paparazzi that's like a photographer that knows where the celebrity leaves and just park there the whole day waiting for them to come out. And people like me, I think I'm completely new to the industry because I'm a content creator. I don't see around me other content creators. All the other people around me are photographers that have been doing it for years. And some of them started putting their videos on social media. But there are photographers that their main priority, like selling their photos to magazines. They're not really, you know, creators. So I'm like the first person, I think, step in this borderline,

6:13

kind of moving away from the idea of selling the photographer's to somebody else, but you're just putting the content directly on social media, and doing if not

6:21

sell any photos or videos. Even if I have an exclusive videos. You do not believe the amount of email I get, oh, we want to this video unlike nope, not that like I didn't sell any of them. Zero.

6:35

How much? How much will they offer you for that?

6:39

They usually like Don't say that. We want the video, let's go through the contract and the contract and always, Oh, you like I gave them full rights, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't want it. I just want this is my video. I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. So I don't even have the I don't even have the time to start negotiating with them. I just like usually ignore these emails.

6:59

That surprised you like I would feel like I couldn't resist the curiosity being like, well, what would you pay me though?

7:05

It's a hassle. And they're very manipulated, because they like a big company with a lot of people and I'm just one person and the contract, like usually, like you have to have the time to read it and to understand what they're asking for. And I don't I don't have this time. And so I don't I don't deal with it. Maybe I should but I don't. What's

7:27

kind of your typical like approach, say you're going out on a shoot or what's your day, like?

7:32

My weeks my days are very, very different. It's not like something fixed the day. So I just find a spot I do not like most photographers will shout like, looking at or looking at each other names. I don't feel the need to do it. Because there's so many photographers and I just feel like I'm I'm covering the scene, like I don't really care if they're going to look at me or not. I just covered this scene is what's interesting to me how this person Calvin surrounded with all the photographers and how they react.

8:03

What is that kind of scene usually like when celebrities arrive?

8:07

I? Well, it depends on the celebrity. It depends on the photographers around me, which by now I know most of the photographers. It depends how many people are there. There was like a scene going viral on Tiktok of Gigi Hadid arriving at Rockefeller. And we were like about 10 photographers there covering the event. And most of the photographers standing on one side, one photographer was standing with the fans. And before she arrived there, like fight in where she's gonna look if she's gonna look at him or she's gonna look at us. And when she's arrived like everybody like JJ Look at me. No, don't look at him. It was like, that was amazing. And and yeah, there were like showering it was like very emotional. And other scenes even if you have like more photographers are not that emotional. Especially if the celebrities tap in for a long time. Like if you're stopping for a long time each photographer have a chance. But if you're just walking inside and it can be boring, it can be yelling, it gets very emotional.

9:18

What's like how much time usually passes like you've got minutes to get a shot or you've got seconds.

9:27

The same event Dodger cat came and we knew that her car and she was sitting in side her car for like a full minute not coming out. And then she came out and she immediately walk inside. And everybody that booboo like they were booing because they were waiting for so long and she was just walking in. And so one minute inside the car we can see here and then just walk in for like 10 seconds. But I have a good video because there was nobody blocking my view. And another instant I had the premiere For Amsterdam with Robert De Niro and my buyers, that was insane, there was so many fans there. And there were so many people working at the entrance. When a celebrity came in, it kind of disappeared between the sea of people. So we couldn't see him. Like I have Drake coming out of the car, and I see him coming out of the car. And then in a second, he disappeared between a sea of people and walking inside. That's it. So I have a second the same for a second, when it's coming out of the car. That's it?

10:32

Is it pretty competitive with other photographers? Or is it more just like chaos is happening around these people? So you've got to get? are you competing with the other photographers? are you competing with the other people who are there?

10:45

Well, obviously, the more people that are there, the less chance you have to get a good shot, because people just can block you. Usually, I don't really care because I'm, again, I'm not selling I'm just taking photo of the scene. But I was very naive. And I started it. And I learned that a lot of photographers can be very aggressive, very aggressive. They can they're like, I think maybe you have to enter the industry, I don't know. But they can be really not pleasant to be around, aggressive, they can harass you, they can threaten you. Just not people you want to be around a lot of the times, which is kind of sad, but they were trying to drive me away from doing that. But I was holding my ground and I'm still I'm still here.

11:34

What are some what like what are some of the things that have happened to you?

11:37

I got threats, I got photographers, paparazzi is more taking photos of me sharing them on social media calling me names. Going to the police officers telling lies about me. Telling me go back to Brazil, or you're not gonna be allowed to step another time in New York City, you know, threats, basically harassing bullying?

12:06

Does it ever get like physical kind of

12:09

as So apparently, they know not to touch you. Because if they touch you, then that's like, that can ban them from this profession forever. And some of them already have filed against them so that they can I cannot have another one. But they have ways on emotionally manipulate you, and make you and stress you out without touching you. Is it male dominated? Yeah. For Yeah. Yeah. That's how males with floods of ego and self esteem and territorial, a sense of territories is my territory you're not supposed to be in my territory,

12:50

is that kind of, I'm not like absolving people necessarily. But is that how the industry works in the sense that like, in football, people are gonna get tackled, right? Like, this is how the industry is it is super competitive. And people will do anything to try to get any kind of advantage over the other person.

13:11

They will look, some of them are really nice. People, I actually got two of them as my mentors, they're helping me to find my way and helping me with finding the information. And one of them actually started with being my worst enemy. But like, we were able to turn over a new leaf and now you know, we kind of collaborating and we have like communication between us. But some are just like, very childish behavior. And I just currently just ignore and I just do not address a talk or and whenever I see them, I try to hide myself so they don't see me and you know, nothing happens.

14:00

When you go to like film something. Obviously events are scheduled ahead of time. But how much notice Do you usually get if somebody's like, hey, this person is going to be at this restaurant in five minutes. Can you get there? Or is it like, hey, they're going to be there? It's four o'clock they're going to be there at nine.

14:15

Oh, that's different. That's different. If somebody is going like if a celebrity going to the restaurant and that's kind of a PR stunt. They send you like, a few days or enough hours before that celebrity comes. That's like a PR event that's not a filming set of filming said they are not they do filming set usually don't want photographers paparazzi nobody covering their work, because like spoilers, I don't know why I don't know. So they will not announced but since they're filming in the streets, there are ways to find out where there's they're filming. And the time is tricky. But since I have a big community, lots of people, lots of items. The city. Usually when somebody see a film instead, they will say, Hey, Mickey, they're filming here and here. So you know. So I have the exact timing.

15:08

Are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions? Oh, sure. biggest celebrity that you've ever gotten video of?

15:18

Probably Julia Roberts. She's not my most viewed video, but I think she's the biggest, I think, Julia Roberts,

15:27

she's up there. She's kind of a little old school movie star celebrity as opposed

15:33

to like, but that's why because everybody knows her. Like I have the younger ones from tick tock, which are booming, but like the audience generation does not know them. But I feel like Julia Roberts 90% of the people know who she is, right. So

15:47

well, she's like a celebrity in the sense that she was famous for doing something as opposed to famous for being famous. Yes. Where I think some people are now kind of going into that territory. Yeah. Is there a type of celebrity that like, this experience is going to be easier or more difficult in the sense that like, okay, a movie star, that's going to be pretty simple. But the internet, tick tock influencers going to be chaotic, right, like, can you expect anything based on the industry that they are famous for?

16:23

Listen, nowadays, even if you have somebody like really famous, it's not a guarantee for your video to go viral? Especially if there were like lots of people taking this content. And it's like a competition is like, randomly the algorithm would choose one. As for the comments, it's like, it's somebody tick tock famous, like Dixie, which I film for New York Fashion Week, then the comments will be like, Oh, she's a celebrity. Oh, she's not a celebrity. You know, she's famous. She's not saying she's just a person doing tic TOCs. I don't get this debate. She clearly is a celebrity. And she's clearly is famous. But she's different from Julia Roberts, right. In the in your mind and people's mind. Yeah.

17:08

I have this theory that somehow the reason that people like, what did the inner the Tiktok influencers celebrities get so famous, is because there's such argument over of why they're famous. And that just fuels the whole algorithm, right?

17:24

Yeah, that definitely makes her like, if I'll use the word celebrity in her video that will make the video blows up, because she's not a celebrity.

17:34

Oh, do you do that on purpose? Or did you just kind of like that out? No,

17:38

I don't do it on purpose. But sometimes I make I choose a headline. And then I'm like, Okay, this video went viral because of the headline, not because of the actual video. But I know it in retrospect, I usually don't know it when I you know, write the headline.

17:57

Last time that you were kind of like, Oh, it's this person when you were personally like,

18:03

if I look back at my two most in all moments was when I met Ed Harris on the Westworld filming set at Harris. That was amazing. And then when I met Chris north, on the end, just like that filming said that we're like, Mike, ah, this is so cool. Yeah.

18:27

Are they are celebrities themselves? Are they usually nice to you? Are they mean to you?

18:32

They don't know me, they just, you see just how they are that particular moment. Sometimes they have time. They're really nice. Sometimes they like really running late. So we they will not stop. But it's not like they address their behavior towards me or anybody else. It's just the circumstances. It makes you see what you see in that moment.

18:54

They're, they're reacting to the situation, not necessarily any person involved in the situation.

19:00

But I noticed that some fans are really good in getting them smiling and getting their attention. And some fans are more likely to get photos with them than others. Funny if you look at this industry, it's not just the photographers with their photographers come the fan, which are a lot of them are like, professionalized in this field of finding celebrities and taking either selfies or autographs. So you see the same photographers, the same fans and the same people asking for autographs. It's usually the same people.

19:34

The people who go there like they're professional fans of celebrities, like they just go to

19:41

Yes. Like the front row is usually the same faces over and over again. And sometime I feel like really sad saying that because they some of them are kind of aggressive, like the photographers. And I see the celebrities giving them attention and it's like Ah, did not give this person attention. But you know, they don't know who this person is.

20:06

Oh, but are they like professional fans in the sense that like, this is what they, yeah, they like to do this or someone is hiring these people to like, go and act like this.

20:18

Oh, no. Well, maybe somebody hires them to go and get autographs because autographs can get you money, I guess. So maybe somebody can have somebody to just go and get autographs. I don't think the people for the selfies getting any money for the day just like it's like a hobby that went wild. That's why I say that, like very focused on getting as many photos with celebrities as possible,

20:47

like a good hobby, or like, Ooh, this is a little bit of an unhealthy session. Hi,

20:53

I feel it's unhealthy. I feel Yeah. In some cases, I'm like, this is across the border of they should have, they have no balance there. No balances, they just go whenever. And that's a big priority in life. So that's not healthy in my mind.

21:15

Oh, celebrity that's hardest to recognize. I mean, that in the sense that like, Oh, I didn't even know that was them.

21:22

Most of the celebrities. I do not recognize the only way I know. Like I look at the other photographers where they point in the camera. And that's where I point. Usually I do not recognize the people. I'm like, Okay, this is a person, okay. And then later, I like Google and find out who it is how big they are. And if it's worth, you know, posting the video or not. But I had this incident with Katie Holmes, like she was coming. I see. I thought she was coming from New York Fashion Week. Week. I saw a few photographers around there. I'm like, oh, maybe she's interested in I'll take a video. I took a video I forgot about it. And then I see the summary from the Tom Ford, neuro fashion week and I see Katie Holmes, and I see what she was wearing. I'm like, Oh, I took a video of her. She was standing next to me. I didn't recognize her. I made a video out of it of like me not recognizing Katie Holmes, because she was right in front of me. She was walking towards me basically,

22:16

do they generally look like what you think they're going to look like?

22:19

Um some of them I guess, like Gigi Hadid was, you know, everybody's screaming GG. And she's the only person walking so you know, it's really headed. But I had, I was filming the Michael Kors and Fashion Week and other models came. And I'm like, Oh, he must have some big models walking the runway. So I'm looking to see if I recognize any of them. I didn't. And then I say Bella Hadid was in his show. And like, How did I miss Bella Hadid? And like, she was there, but I filmed all the models there. How could I miss her? So I'm looking and I'm saying, yeah, she was walking right towards me. And as soon as she smiled into my camera, I shifted to the person behind her because I did not recognize her. Oh, my God. But yeah, that's the way it is. Well, but

23:10

it's tough to realize what people actually look like. Like, I used to be a news reporter. And we wouldn't do with celebrities. But usually like an infamous person this sense, like this person just got arrested. This is what they look like. And it's surprising like, oh, wait, is that? Is that them? I have no like, you wouldn't really be able to tell a lot of times because people don't look in person. Like what they you think that they are going to look like? Best place like if you're going and you're like, I gotta get something today. I gotta get some content today. Like, where are you going to go and be like, I know I'm gonna see somebody Are you a paparazzi

23:49

so as I mentioned at the beginning of this conversation, paparazzi, somebody that makes money of the photos and videos and we already established the fact that I had never sold a signal, single celebrity photos or videos to news media. That's one second one is somebody that's achieved celebrity celebrities on their private life. And you do not see videos of like, I do not do that. I do not go outside their houses. I do not. Occasionally a fan or one of my community members will send me a video of oh, I met this celebrity in the street and they have like a really cute video I will share it. But I'm not. That that's not what I do know. So the answer is no.

24:33

What's your reaction when celebrities get mad at photographers taking their pictures?

24:40

I don't I didn't even i i don't remember seeing a celebrity being mad. Because again, I'm not taking photos of them doing their private life, either on a filming set where they're already on camera or premieres where they expect camera and red carpet. They expect cameras or a PR event when it And they expect cameras. So I don't I don't think I've ever seen a celebrity get upset because they were. I can feel I can think of an incident. Oh, you know what I think Sarah Jessica Parker was really frustrated, because her show when she started filming and just like that, it was so buzzing and everybody wanted to see her in her outfit. It was insane. That was like lots of photographers every time she was filming. Lots of fans. The streets were full of people. I think she was frustrated about it. But she never she never really said anything. You just I kind of read between the lines, or you heard it from people on the crew, but she never said anything directly to the fans or photographers.

25:56

nicest celebrity

25:59

nicest. I think they're like, I think if you are in the industry, you have to be nice. I think all of them are nice, because if they weren't, they weren't be in the industry. And sometimes again, they're in a hurry, so they cannot be nice. But sometimes I go to a premiere. And I did it actually one time, because I went to the power of the Rings premiere, and the actors there, people don't know them because they're all new. So I went and I covered that. And I had to make it interesting because people do not know the actors. So I rank them according to what I saw, as they were coming in, and how they react to their fans. And they were reacting to you know, the people around them. So I was ranking them between, like one they just walked in ignoring everybody to the one that was really nice. talking to the camera just been really sweet. So I did that one time. Yes.

26:54

Is there a meanest one? Do you have a meanest one mean?

26:58

I'm not mean, I had not mean the only thing I can think of that sometimes they're really oblivious to the world of photographers and fans around them. So it's kind of really kind of really painful to see the photographers that are choosing to be around them, which makes me feel not hire any of them. Because if they're choosing this photographer, they clearly I don't know. But not mean, no.

27:31

That's pretty much all the questions I've got. Is there anything else you think that we missed or anything like that? Oh,

27:38

well, this is a very broad territory. There's a lot to cover, but I think you've covered most of the good stuff.

27:46

So for people if they want to find you want to find out more about you like what should where should they look? Where are you at all that kind of stuff?

27:53

Sure. So I'm, I have my social media channels. And basically I share different content for each one of my social media channel. So for my Facebook followers, I share live videos from New York and then I talk about whatever was happening in my life and what celebrity I met what filming said I covered but whatever was going on or in the city I will share in my life. Walk on Facebook. Instagram is like the current things happen in city this is happening now. This is happening tomorrow. This is and Tik Tok is basically interesting moment I captured throughout the day that like anybody even if you're not in New York or interested in coming here, you'll find it interesting.

28:41

Now, is this the full time living? Can it be a full time living?

28:45

It's more than a full time living do it 24/7