Ask a New Yorker: If the stairs don’t kill you, the rat will.
Georgette: Ten flights up. Do you feel closer to God now? I know the rat, I
freaked out.
Ask a New Yorker: Congratulations are in order.
Georgette: Thank you very much. I’m seven months along.
Ask a New Yorker: Pregnant women are everywhere on the streets of New York.
Georgette: You know it was a long cold winter.
Ask a New Yorker: I’m with Georgette Blau, President of On Locations Tours,
a very cool company and idea. Tell us a bit about your company and how it got
started. http://www.screentours.com/
Georgette: I started in 1999. June 12, 1999 was the first tour. It was in 1998
when I moved to New York and I noticed I lived right by George and Weezie’s
place, from the Jefferson’s, on the Upper East Side. I saw that there
were so many great TV locations in New York. I started in a small van in June
of 1999. Then we added movie locations and different tours over the years. In
2001 we started The Sopranos Sites Tour also the Sex in the City Hotspots Tour.
Eight years later The Gossip Girl Sites Tour started. We also have tours in
Boston and DC.
Ask a New Yorker: You’re on fire.
Georgette: Hopefully! But I really could be because it’s hot outside.
Ask a New Yorker: Boston and D.C. What’s the DC tour about?
Georgette: On Ask a New Yorker am I allowed to talk about other cities?
Ask a New Yorker: We’re inclusive. I also own the URL Ask a Washingtonian,
just haven’t started it yet.
Georgette: Our D.C. tour is a three hour bus tour and it includes locations
from famous D.C. movies such as the Exorcist, Forrest Gump, Wedding Crashers,
Independence Day and bunch of TV shows. We just acquired Boston Movie Tours,
literally weeks ago. That tour has locations from Cheers, Good Will Hunting,
Mystic River, The Town and of course The Departed.
Ask a New Yorker: Is Hollywood calling?
Georgette: Ironically we researched to try to start there in 2006. It really
wasn’t feasible because Hollywood is just, the traffic, everything is
so spaced apart. One location to the next was 2 1/2 miles and probably about
two hours in traffic. And its ironic most of the locations are on sets there
versus on the streets.
Ask a New Yorker: What did you do prior to On Location Tours?
Georgette: I was in publishing. I was an English major in college. Every English
major seems to go into publishing, which I didn’t really like. I needed
a job, so I started On location Tours on the weekends.
Ask a New Yorker: I’m an English major too, University of Colorado, Boulder,
emphasis on Later Romantics. My first job in New York was working at Tens World
Class Cabaret, a strip club. I understand you went to Skidmore?
Georgette: Yes, Skidmore in upstate New York, in the great town of Saratoga.
My emphasis was on creative writing. Every time I talked to somebody in Saratoga
and I told them I was studying writing, they would say, “did you bring
your horse?” “No”, I would say, “I brought my pen”.
Ask a New Yorker: Funny people in Saratoga.
Georgette: They’re a big horse town.
Ask a New Yorker: The Statue of Liberty with Larry David’s face is everywhere.
I love Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Georgette: It’s one of my favorite shows. I love how it mixes, it’s
not quite reality television but it’s sort of realty and sitcom mixed
together. I think he’s hysterical and should have been on Seinfeld years
ago. I think New York is such a great match for him especially because he’s
from New York originally.
Ask a New Yorker: You must get invited to Red Carpet events and premieres?
Georgette: That’s a great thing. The last couple of years we’ve
really started to work with studios so they have exchanged tickets for premieres
with us and offered our tickets on sweepstakes for trips coming to New York.
In fact we just worked on a couple of different movies. Right now we’re
working on Smurfs. Last year we worked on Sex and the City 2 with Warner Brothers.
Ask a New Yorker: When was the last time you walked across the Brooklyn Bridge?
Georgette: I’ve walked across the Brooklyn Bridge approximately 1 ½
years ago.
Ask a New Yorker: It’s time to revisit.
Georgette: It’s funny, my big thing is I’ve been in 23 countries
and every time I go to a country I have to walk over a bridge. It’s very
odd but it’s something I do.
Ask a New Yorker: Have you walked across the Chain Bridge in Budapest?
Georgette: I have not and my mother is from Hungary. Oh, oh, on second thought
I did walk across that bridge. The tongue is missing from the lion’s mouth.
Ask a New Yorker: Which side Pest or Buda?
Georgette: It is on the Pest side and I’m not “lion”! Ha!
Ask a New Yorker: What are the names of the two lions in front of New York’s
public library?
Georgette: Patience and Fortitude. You have to read between the lions! That’s
what we would always say on the tours. It’s really awful.
Ask a New Yorker: I’m feeling a keen sense of humor.
Georgette: Well, one of my other hobbies is stand-up comedy. I performed stand-up
comedy primarily on my mother because she is an out-of-her-mind Hungarian woman
who I like calling “commie mommy”. (Georgette does an excellent
Hungarian accent) “But she always talks like this. She says the craziest
things I don’t know where she gets them from.”
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your Favorite comedy club in the city?
Georgette: I’ve performed at Gotham but I have to say I really like Comic
Strip Live.
Ask a New Yorker: As an English major, what are you reading these days?
Georgette: I have a problem because I read seven to eight books at a time, I
constantly need to read a few book at a time. One of the books I’ve finally
gotten around to reading is Ayn Rand’s Fountain Head. I’m also reading
a couple of baby books now. Just so I can figure out how to attach a baby to
my breast. That’s exciting stuff.
Ask a New Yorker: Did you have any mentors growing up?
Georgette: Well, definitely ever since I started the business, my father was
a big mentor to me. He told me to really go after it and go for it. My mother
meanwhile was like “Don’t do this, take off on your own, but no
risk taking.” But my father was like, “Go for it!” He was
very supportive all the way.
Ask a New Yorker: Where does the name Blau originate from?
Georgette: It means blue in German and it’s my maiden name, but I did
take my husband’s name for the personal stuff. Ironically there are more
Hungarians that have the name Blau than Germans even though it’s a German
name.
Ask a New Yorker: Sex and the City trivia: What was the name of the song playing
in the background when Carrie is intimate with a recovering alcoholic, she sings?
“If there’s a cure for this I don’t want it” name the
song?
Georgette: (hums the theme for Jeopardy) I’m sorry I don’t know.
I’m terrible.
Ask a New Yorker: Love Hangover by Diana Ross. Next question: Have you been
to Laura the psychic down stairs above the barber shop next to the rat?
Georgette: Oh no, I should go down stairs. She may be able to tell me when the
elevator is going to start working, or maybe about my future.
Ask a New Yorker: Or the name of your baby. Do you have any ideas for his or
her name?
Georgette: One of the names I love is Zoe. I’m having a little issue with
my husband right now. He wants to find out if it’s a girl or a boy and
I don’t. But I’m kind of actually hoping for a boy.
Ask a New Yorker: Zoe is a fine name. Thank you for your time. It was great
meeting you.
