Photo by David Byun

In the movie Thank You for Smoking, Rob Lowe plays, Jeff Megall, a comically-gifted producer with the ability to get almost-impossible things done. In disbelief, the film’s main protagonist Nick Naylor asks “Jeff, when do you sleep?” Megall matter-of-factly replies, “Sunday.” And so it is with Joe Lombardo, owner of Artists and Creatives. A real-life Megall.

On the sidewalk in front of his office during a full, midday swing of Manhattan’s fashion district, Joe drags on a cigarette and continues our conversation. “The degrading stories I could tell are immeasurable,” he says in order to summarize of all the work he’s done to get where he is today. And where he is today is at the head of an agency that represents 12 artists and brings in millions in revenue from a sky’s-the-limit list of clients both stateside and in Europe.