Meet the man who showers Times Square with confetti

Treb Heining

Treb Heining orchestrates the confetti shower for the New Year's Eve celebrations in New York's Times Square. He told CNN the job is not as easy as it looks.

Q: How long does it take to plan the big show?

HEINING: I started planning in October. Then we brought the confetti into New York City on Friday, leaving Saturday open for any emergencies. The 3,500 pounds (1,575 kilograms) of confetti arrived in 50-pound (26-kilogram) boxes on a semi truck. Those boxes were then carried to the tops of seven buildings around the Square.

Q: How is the confetti distributed?

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HEINING: I have a crew of 70 people. And the confetti is hand-tossed off the tops of buildings because it is the safest way to do it. It is a strenuous, physically violent act -- hurling the confetti as fast and as hard as you can to create a blizzard of colored tissue. I call them confetti dispersal engineers, and their arms get very tired after midnight. When you see it on television, it looks like it just happens, but it takes a lot of work.

Q: How did you get started in the confetti business?

HEINING: This is my ninth year doing Times Square confetti. I made my name in balloons in the 1970s -- doing Super Bowls, the Olympics, the last four Republican conventions.

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