Jersey Mike

A few months back, I recounted an incident which occurred to me as a talent buyer and promoter involving Captain Janks from the Howard Stern Show which broadcasts on Sirius Satellite Radio.

In a nutshell, Janks- a member of Howard’s “Whack Pack” (and, um, gas station attendant near Philly)- calls smallish music venues and bars, offers to make an appearance coupled with ten plugs on the Howard Stern Show, giveaway a Sirius Satellite Radio and, subsuquently, pack the bar with fans.

After convincing the buyers that he needs payment in full prior to the appearance (fees have ranged from $500-$1,000), he takes the check to the bank, cashes it and then fails to show up at his appearance. He’ll make an excuse like getting into a car accident on the way to the show.

About a week after my post went live, Janks called me back- absolutely livid- that I’d call the other venue that he was booked at to warn them of this scam. My favorite quote from the conversation? “Jersey Mike! I’m gonna make sure everyone knows your name!”

Oh yeah, Janks? Bring it, bro.

Since my first post on this, I’ve gotten several emails and phone calls from venue owners and promoters in this region who, too, have fallen victim to Captain Janks Appearance Scam.

A buyer for a venue in Delaware recounted his experience – Janks actually drove to Delaware, met with the venue and told them that he’d book two appearances. The first would be a “dry run” and the second, several weeks later, would bring Janks and a camera crew documenting his “20 year anniversary” with the Howard Stern Show.

Janks never showed.

Just last night, a woman from Mt Joy, PA left a comment on the original post- stating “This creep has taken us for $500.00…we have a bar&grill in Mt Joy Pa. He apparently made his rounds one day around Lancaster County and took quite a few of the bars money!! What a SHIT!! We know of atleast 6 so far that were scammed!”

Initially, I intended to post my story and, more or less, forget about it. But the overwhelming response from other promoters has sparked the consumer advocate in me and I’ve decided to do some follow up on this.

Attempts to reach someone at the Howard Stern Show have been unsuccessful, so I decided to take this issue directly to Sirius.

I called and spoke with Erika Kirschner in the Advertising department on Wednesday, February 4 to alert her that Janks was using, not only Howard Stern’s name, but Sirius Satellite Radio’s as well. She was receptive and informed me that she will forward the info on to someone in her office.

The purpose of this post, now, is to ensure that Sirius Satellite Radio does, in fact, acknowledge that someone who is directly associated with their company is fraudulently using their name to bilk venues and promoters out of their money.

Today, I’m emailing Sal Reséndez and the generic Investor Relations address to inform as much of the staff at Sirius as possible to what’s happening.

It’s simply incorregeable that this continues to happen. And if Howard is going to ignore it and allow it to continue, then I’ll make this a new cross to bear and see to it that Janks gets the justice that’s due to him.

Do you listen to the Howard Stern Show?

There’s a guy on there- he’s part of the “Whack Pack” – and makes prank calls to radio and TV call-in shows.

“Captain Janks” is his name and he’s a gas station attendant near Philly.

Some of the bits are pretty funny, if you appreciate that kind of humor- but he’s just one more of the seemingly endless slew of characters to appear on the HSS.

So ANYWAY- I get a call from a “215″ number early last week and let it go to voicemail. About an hour later, I listened to the message- “Hey, this is Scott- I’m ‘Captain Janks’ on the Howard Stern Show. Listen, I’m launching a new DVD and am looking for a few places to do some promotional events in the Harrisburg area. I heard that your place [ABC] is a cool room. Gimme a call back and I’ll tell you more about it.”

Initially, I thought “Oh, cool. Howard Stern Show, plugs on the program, well known name. Might be kind of cool.”

So I played phone tag with Janks, finally connecting with him a few days later. He told me that he’s visited a few places in the Harrisburg area, but hadn’t really found an appropriate spot. One of the places he told me he met with was Aroogas- formerly the Ko-Ko-Mo’s on 22.

I described The Abbey Bar to him and directed him to the Website to view pictures and layout. About two hours later, he called me back.

“Hey, it’s Janks. Man, I tell ya. I checked out the Website and that looks like the perfect place to do this. I need a place that’s big enough because all of the places I do appearances at get PACKED. So yeah. Let’s do it. Basically, I come out for two hours- give out raffle tickets to everyone who comes in, we do some trivia, give away a few copies of the DVD and then at midnight, give away a Sirius Satellite Radio.”

“Cool, man. Sounds good. What timeframe are you looking for?”

“January 13, 14 or 15″

I was working a gig in Hershey, so I told Janks that I’d get back to him in the morning and let him know if that would work.

But first, I asked him what his fee was for the performance.

“My fee is only six hundred and fifty dollars. You get ten plugs on Howard’s show and we give away the radio.”

So right there, a few flags went up in my head. Six fifty for ten plugs on the Howard Stern show is virtually impossible. Second, if this guy had any kind of industry clout, he’d be represented by some kind of booking agency.

But the biggest, brightest flag-on-the-play was this “My fee is $650- but I’d need payment in full before I could plug it on the show. I can come out tomorrow and pick up a check.”

So after hanging up with him, I texted my friend George who listens to the show all the time. “Dude, r u a fan of capt. janks from stern?” I texted.

“Yeah, he’s funny. Are u thinking about booking him? I heard that he booked two shows in Philly and no-showed for both after getting paid in advance.” He replied.

I called him back, told him the story of the phone calls and thanked him for the info.

After doing some mild Googling, I found that, Captain Janks does, in fact, book “appearances”, get paid in advance, and not show up quite frequently.

So the next morning, Janks called me bright and early- right around the crack of nine- and asked when a good time for him to come pick up his check would be.

And I explained “Dude, I’d love to book you. You’ve got the date if you want it. And if you’d like, I’d happily pay you a hundred dollar deposit on the show…but I’ve heard and read in numerous places that you’ve gotten paid in advance numerous times before and have no-showed for the gig. Nothing personal, man. But I have to look out for the best interests of my club. We have national acts in here regularly and rarely pay a deposit – let alone payment in full nearly three months before the date. I hope you understand.”

Janks: “Er..uh…that…that only happened one time and I wound up going to the wrong place. It…where did you hear that stuff?”

“Doesn’t matter man. Like I said- you can have the date and will get paid in full when you appear. But don’t try to hustle me here, bro. Take it somewhere else.”

“Er, uh…okay. I’m gonna have to think about this and get back to you. Click.”

And since then, I haven’t heard a word.

I did, however, call Arooga’s on 22 and spoke with the manager who told me that Janks did pay their bar a visit and they did give him a check for his appearance far in advance of the date.

So- promoters/venue managers who may read this site: be wary of calls from Howard Stern’s Prank Caller guy.

And never, ever, EVER pay an artists fee in full before the event.

[Read a follow up on this post here]