“Jeff, One Lonely Guy” Releases Book; Party at CULTUREfix

When street art goes viral, a book deal is oftentimes waiting in the wings.

To be honest, upon first discovering those “Jeff, One Lonely Guy” flyers around the neighborhood, we admittedly thought it was another lame-ass guerrilla ad campaign. Turns out Jeff (Ragsdale) is real, and indeed lonely. At age 40, the Harlem-based actor/comedian recently experienced a painful breakup and was “near suicidal.” This was his medicine.

The other day, the New York Post shed light on the man behind these signs, and the phone number which circulated the globe in no time. Since the papering began across the city last October, Ragsdale has received north of 60,000 responses from all over the world. Here is a sampling:

Betsy
I once went on a Craigslist date with a total stranger because it was his birthday and he had no one to celebrate with.

Goldman Sachs trader
I’m not doing that well . . . I’m calling strangers who post fliers on the Internet from my trading desk . . . The economy’s in a major downturn, and we have Occupy Wall Street keeping us prisoner. It’s combative. We’re under siege here.

(212) 470-XXXX
And may the force be with you, Luke.

Widow, 60, Westchester
New York died before 9/11. It’s just about greed now, full of arrogant s- -theads . . . One daughter, she’s 29, has a master’s degree in communications. She works as a nanny. The other is unemployed living with her boyfriend.

Ragsdale sifted through this glut of international submissions to fill an accompanying book, Jeff, One Lonely Guy, out today via Amazon Publishing. Based on some of these excerpts, seems like an interesting read.  Anyway, Flavorpill is throwing the launch party tonight at CULTUREfix on Clinton Street. RSVP here for the open bar.