Photo by Barbara Cole


Joe moved to New York from Jersey 13 years ago, and has had his own company for four of those, acting as “an agent that also produces.” He talks in a fevered Kerouakian stream-of-consciousness style of which he’s aware. “The more I talk, the more things come to me,” he says. And just when you think he’s off topic for good and strolling through left field, he swings back around and makes his point with mastery. This is because he’s a storyteller-salesman really, and he knows a good narrative, especially his own: Of leaving law school for Gotham and sleeping on friends’ couches, near destitute - and of starting his business on $600. It’s the harrowing, timeless Horatio Alger tale, and its familiarity makes it comforting. It implies intelligence, a work ethic, and a drive. (“Passion is the only thing you need to be armed with,” he preaches). But his narrative also implies a possible downfall: Perhaps rags-to-riches means he’s in it only for the riches – a Gatsbian ambition. But Joe knows this, too, and is careful to balance it with a passionate crusade for art over commerce.

“Being a good agent is recognizing the core factor, and creating shit people can’t take their eyes off of,” he says. “You have to make it inspiring and have a reason for doing so. Otherwise, I’m just another nasty sales person.” However, he has a business to run, and that takes income, after all. Speaking to that, he says it’s about “marrying art and commerce, but really talking to the art and letting the commerce follow.” In this way, he is “an agent that acts like an artist.”

He pauses to think it through, then continues, “respecting the fact that everyone needs to eat and have a place to live, we don’t just push for the baseline. But first it has to be about the artists and what they’re inspired by.”

“And I have my middle finger up to anyone who will tell me to do it differently,” he says.