Jewish author Philip Roth penned “The Human Stain.” But budding Jewish television personality Ryan Danz lays claim to the “The Human Stain-Stick.”
In his everyday life, the Sausalito-raised, 28-year-old Jew is a married law-school graduate waiting on his bar results, but to millions of TV viewers he’s the guy who dressed up as a Tide Stain Stick and rolled through Manhattan on a flatbed.
The antics were all part of a task on NBC’s “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” and donning the colorful — and tight — tights was all part of Danz’s idea on how to best fulfill the mission of manning a “rolling billboard.”
“We turned some heads,” he said with a laugh. Keep in mind that turning heads in Manhattan is about as easy as standing out in Berkeley for one’s outlandish fashion sense.
The judge told them “this could go to market tomorrow, and that’s the nicest thing you can tell someone doing a fly-by-night operation.”
Danz can only laugh at the improbable chain of events that took him out of his San Diego law office and plunked him in Times Square in a traffic cone-orange outfit with the blue undies on the outside.
After he took the bar exam, his wife told him he might as well utilize his newfound free time by heading to an open audition for “The Apprentice” in downtown San Diego. After waiting in line nine hours, he took part in a group audition, then a few more, then a few more, then a “secret weekend” in Los Angeles where he was informed that he had been selected for the show.
Of the 16 competitors, Danz is one of the youngest and possesses the least business experience. Five years ago, he opened a San Diego satellite office of his father’s law firm and has built it into a success.
“I don’t have much business experience, but what I have done has been successful. So that leads me to believe I either have good intuition or good luck, and I’ll go with the former,” said the Brandeis-Hillel alum.
He came into the show well aware of Stewart’s shrewish reputation, but he was relieved that “the claws never came out, her eyes never turned red.”
“She was always very caring, very kind. The business lessons were invaluable. I would have paid to be on this show,” he said.
Yet her reputation isn’t wholly mistaken.
“She is the most particular woman I’ve ever met. She knows exactly what she wants and she’ll get just what she wants when she wants it.”
A nondisclosure agreement — with a $4 million penalty — keeps Danz from revealing how he did on the show until he either wins or is fired. Even his wife and parents don’t know yet.
But he has made the elite eight of the competition, and he’s happy to note that several online viewer polls pit him as the probable winner.
“And that’s pretty cool.”