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- Blackstone's holiday video has become a must-see on Wall Street.
- This year's video pays tribute to its origins with a 1980s musical number.
- The video is part of the firm's broader push to "humanize" itself as it reaches a wider audience.
Blackstone's annual holiday video — a tongue-in-cheek Wall Street tradition — is out, and this year's edition turns its trademark self-mockery toward the firm's 40th anniversary.
President Jon Gray starts the video off with a Ken Burns-style tribute to the firm's 40th anniversary, before firing the actual Ken Burns, going through a midlife crisis, and ending with a 1980s musical number.
Danny DeVito makes an appearance with a half-hearted Blackstone commercial that's apparently part of his Jersey Mike's contract.
Come for CEO Steve Schwarzman's jokes about picking up DJing as a hobby, a bit that features Goldman Sachs head David Solomon, and stay for a perfect "Dirty Dancing" lift executed by one of the firm's executives.
Gray told analyst Alex Blostein earlier this month at the Goldman Sachs Financial Analyst conference that the video is a way for the world's largest private investor to "make fun of ourselves." The firm's video operations, from Gray's "ridiculous" running videos to its Monday morning BXTV meetings, also serve a broader purpose to "humanize" the firm to its growing list of shareholders and investors: 300,000 by Gray's count.
