When Prince Harvey worked at Apple

0:07 Prince Harvey went to work in an Apple store in SoHo,

0:11 New York City for four months.

0:15 The company didn't pay him a cent, but he didn't mind.

0:20 Why?

0:22 So I'll give it to you again.

0:24 Prince Harvey went to work in an Apple store in SoHo,

0:29 New York City for four months.

0:32 The company didn't pay him a cent, but he didn't mind.

0:37 Why?

0:38 Well, if you're a prince, you don't need a lot of money.

0:40 (laughs) (chuckles) If, on the other hand,

0:43 he recently had the prince title removed.

0:46 Oh yeah.

0:47 (guests laughing) Oh dear.

0:52 So like, hang on.

0:54 Tom, I've learned from our last episode.

0:56 (laughs) Is Prince Harvey a human?

0:58 Prince Harvey, he is a human.

1:01 Okay.

1:02 Is the Apple store a greengrocers?

1:04 Oh, that's good.

1:05 Oh, are we just going to alternate versions of all of this?

1:08 Yes.

1:08 Yes!

1:09 Let's do that.

1:09 Let's roll.

1:10 Is it not New York, but...

1:12 That is a great question.

1:16 But the Apple Store is not a greengrocers.

1:19 It is...

1:19 Fair enough.

1:20 an Apple store with a capital A.

1:23 (cackles) Okay.

1:24 I like how we've gotten to the point now, with all the question setters,

1:28 and one person who's just done so many of these.

1:31 Alright, let's go down the list.

1:33 Let's metagame this.

1:35 Exactly.

1:36 Exactly.

1:36 Let's get this the most efficient way we can.

1:38 (group laughing) They're missing a trick though, in New York,

1:42 not to call it the Big Apple store, I think.

1:45 Oh my word.

1:45 Oh, they are.

1:46 Yeah.

1:47 They are.

1:47 Yeah.

1:48 My first thought is that Prince is a valid American first name.

1:54 This is just someone whose first name is Prince.

1:56 His name is Prince Harvey.

1:57 Yeah, yeah.

1:58 Yeah.

1:58 Because his parents called him Prince.

2:01 Yeah.

2:02 I'm not sure if that would help at all with the question,

2:05 but it might remove the line of inquiry of which

2:07 monarch is sending their son to work in an Apple store.

2:10 (guests laughing) So you don't, yeah,

2:12 you don't think there's a royal that's being sent to go to work then?

2:17 Harvey is also not much of a royal name.

2:20 I feel like there's gonna be a lot of Leos and Georges before there are Harveys.

2:23 But I guess the question then is, why did he not mind not being paid?

2:30 Which is a lot of negatives in a sentence,

2:32 but essentially, why would he be happy not to receive payment?

2:37 Because he's got a lot of money?

2:39 Sure, but that's not a lateral question.

2:42 (chuckles) So...

2:43 it's...

2:43 Did it say he was sent to work there, Jonny?

2:46 No, no.

2:47 He went to work.

2:48 He went there on, you know, of his own accord.

2:51 Is the payment in kind in some way?

2:53 Like he was allowed to stay there.

2:55 He was security for the Apple store,

2:57 and was allowed to live above it, that kind of thing?

2:59 I feel like that's illegal.

3:02 (James and John laugh) Well, it is, but...

3:03 there was an...

3:05 some sort of agreement, let's say, between the two parties.

3:11 Well, who are the parties?

3:12 Prince Harvey and Apple.

3:14 And Apple.

3:14 So what can Apple get?

3:16 Did he have an app that they were buying or some software,

3:20 and he wanted to kind of get in at the ground

3:23 level to do some kind of undercover boss style work?

3:26 Was he some TikTok influencer trying to live in an Apple Store for four months?

3:30 (laughs) Until Apple notice him.

3:34 Yeah.

3:34 (laughs) He was not.

3:35 He was not living there.

3:36 He was going home at the end of the day,

3:39 or the— when he had finished work, he was going home.

3:42 Did he choose to get paid in some sort of in-game currency rather than dollars?

3:48 Oh, yes.

3:49 Wasn't paid a cent.

3:50 Ah!

3:51 But got free mat— Got free Apple things.

3:55 Whatever, Roblox, shall we say, Robux?

3:57 Yeah, or got a laptop, or got a camera, or got a processor.

4:01 Or got shares.

4:03 Oh!

4:03 Was he the graffiti artist Shares?

4:06 who drew on the wall of Apple,

4:08 and rather than being paid money, he got paid shares in the company?

4:13 Is that who that was?

4:15 No, he was not given anything by Apple.

4:19 Huh.

4:20 Okay.

4:21 Not given anything by Apple.

4:23 No, hold on.

4:24 This is carefully phrased.

4:25 He went to work at the Apple store.

4:28 He didn't work for Apple, did he?

4:29 Not necessarily for Apple.

4:31 Okay, you may have landed on something there, Tom.

4:33 Was he the kind of guy that's a statue

4:35 that stands outside or inside the Apple store...

4:37 (others laughing) And is paid by...

4:38 people donating money to him?

4:41 (cackles) He is not a human statue.

4:44 No, he was definitely inside the store, where he was at work.

4:49 Ooh.

4:51 Again, carefully phrased.

4:53 For four months.

4:53 (chuckles) Not for Apple.

4:55 So what— who works in an Apple Store, that doesn't work for Apple?

4:58 'Cause even this is not even like a contractor

5:01 who happens to be a security guard for another company.

5:03 That's not a lateral question.

5:04 There's some trick to this.

5:07 There is, there is.

5:07 There's something more to this.

5:10 So, I mean, I can give you,

5:11 you know— If the answer was just he was the security guard,

5:14 I'd be furious, I'm gonna be honest.

5:15 Right?

5:15 Yeah.

5:15 I'd love that.

5:16 (laughs) It's upside down.

5:17 Didn't technically work for Apple, was subcontracted.

5:20 And that's the end of the show!

5:21 Thanks guys, bye.

5:22 (laughs) Exact— So you're right.

5:23 So, he didn't belong to a royal family, and he was there almost every day,

5:28 and he was in there for hours at a time.

5:31 But he wa— you know, Apple Store, they all wear the sort of the staff T-shirts.

5:35 He wasn't wearing, you know, an Apple-branded T-shirt.

5:38 He wasn't part of Apple, but he was in the store at work.

5:44 Alright, here is my pitch for the New York Post article, or something like that.

5:49 We sent a journalist into an Apple store

5:51 to see how long before they kick him out.

5:54 He gets there at the start of each day.

5:57 He sits down, he works,

5:59 and he's just waiting to see how long you can spend at an Apple

6:04 store doing your job before someone comes along and taps you on the shoulder,

6:07 and goes, "Mate, it's a bit much." (chuckles) I love it.

6:10 It's gotta be it.

6:11 That's gotta be it!

6:12 You're not, you're not right, I'm afraid, but...

6:14 Arrgh!

6:15 So...

6:16 It was so good, so persuasive, Tom.

6:18 You just dismissed it.

6:20 Well, the staff there did acknowledge him, but...

6:26 they let him carry on...

6:30 with his job.

6:32 Right.

6:33 Was he taking selfies on the display models or...

6:39 No.

6:39 So James, you're closer...

6:42 with what you're saying there.

6:43 It's not right.

6:43 But think about what you can do using Apple technology.

6:51 In particular, the laptops.

6:53 What are the programs that you can use, that may be beneficial?

6:57 Oh.

6:57 Was he editing on it?

7:00 He was editing in a way.

7:03 Was he editing himself out of security footage, or into security footage?

7:07 (James and Jonny laugh) Was he making his movie in the Apple store for free,

7:13 and Apple were like, "Yeah, right.

7:15 That seems like a good advert to have around"?

7:17 You are 80% there.

7:20 He was not making a movie...

7:23 but he was making something.

7:25 What was he making?

7:26 An advert for the Apple store.

7:28 Not an advert.

7:29 It was all for him.

7:30 He was making it just for himself.

7:32 What was he making?

7:33 Oh, his album?

7:34 He was making his album.

7:37 Amazing.

7:38 Ohhh.

7:38 Ahhh!

7:39 (laughs) Lovely.

7:40 Prince Harvey sounds like a stage name, doesn't it?

7:43 Exactly.

7:43 So...

7:44 Yes, it does.

7:45 Arrgh!

7:46 The story was, so he's from New York, Prince Harvey, he's a rapper and producer.

7:51 His laptop had died.

7:52 He faced eviction, couldn't afford replacement equipment.

7:57 So instead of giving up,

7:58 he went to the Apple store every day with a little USB stick,

8:02 and used the Macs and Garage Band to record his vocals, the beats,

8:07 the edits, saved onto a little hard drive, and then each day would go in.

8:11 And the employees twigged to what he was doing.

8:16 But it was such a good advert for other people coming

8:18 into the store to see what could be done on the equipment,

8:21 that they were like, "Yeah,

8:23 great." And the album that he released was called PHATASS,

8:29 P-H-A-T-A-S-S, which is "Prince Harvey at the Apple Store, SoHo".

8:35 Awwh.

8:36 Oh, that's lovely stuff.

8:38 Yeah.

8:38 (chuckles) The Lateral book is out now!

8:42 Just click on the link to get your copy.

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