I Interviewed Michael "The Bull" Lamonsoff from the subway ads!

I've been trying for a year and finally, I had a chance to meet and interview Michael "The Bull" Lamonsoff—the NYC personal injury famous for his subway ads. In person, he just like the cartoon! I learned about the native New Yorker once dated a Playboy model, sued his Bentley dealership and yes, rides the subway just to admire his own ads. His favorite restaurant, of course, is Sparks steakhouse. Some quotes from the interview: "When we went to grade school, I was an athlete, and that was what was important to me. You had different groups of kids, and a lot of kids that were bullied. Even back then I would protect them because I was a big kid, a tough, strong kid, and so I used to beat up the bullies. I used to love smashing their faces against the wall in the schools. They started calling me The Bull back then." "When I take the subways and I see the other attorneys and their ads, I’m like, 'These guys look like a bunch of dried-up old mold.' And what do they say? 'I won $5,000, $5 billion,' whatever it is. There’s no creativity, there’s no thought given to it. We wanted to be different. In this campaign, we wanted to paint myself as who I am. They’re about me. They’re about how I feel." "Where is TopDog from? He’s not from New York. He’s from where? Pennsylvania! Now he lives in Arizona. You know what a carpet bagger is?" "I remember my grandfather and my father—we’re at a football game. I ran the ball. I was a half back, and I did an end run and everybody piled on me. I looked up, I saw my grandfather and my father standing there, right? And this idiot kid put his hand in my face mask and tried to hit my eye or something. And I bit it! I mean, I bit it so hard. I almost bit it off. And my grandfather and my father, they were so proud of me. They said to me, “Mike, you did the right thing. Anything in your face mask, you own! You own that guy’s finger!” You can read the whole interview in the latest issue of my free NYC newsletter, CAFÉ ANNE. submitted by /u/hiegel [link] [comments]