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So I've lived in NYC for many years, having emigrated from New England when I was in my 20s. I still have a little place on Long Island, a room in a house owned by some of the first friends I made in New York.
Coming to New York from New England was a huge culture shock. I wasn't used to any of it. But I loved everything. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the subways, all the different cultures of people. I fell in love with New York City and I had a vision.
I don't know where I got this from, probably a tv show or movie. But I figured I'd move to New York, get a nice penthouse apartment Downtown with a great view and a walk in closet. I had no fucking clue! I came there broke as a joke with a few thousand dollars to my name and no prospects. So needless to say I didn't get my penthouse apartment downtown or even in midtown. I did get the walk in closet though. It turns out that in the 90s a walk in closet in Spanish Harlem cost $950 a month. What I called a walk in closet they called a studio. I did get that great view though. I got a great view of the old lady across the alley changing her fucking depends every night.
I got to meet a lot of stars while there. Previously in New England I'd been fortunate enough to have met a few. Well actually it wasn't fortune, it was serious star hunting we did back then. We had an entire process for everything from getting to the front row at a concert to finding where the stars were staying, which hotel, and stalking them. Back then it was called being a groupie. We weren't full fledged fuck-the-roadie types of groupies, more like fair weather groupies. But that's another post for another day.
Once I hit New York it was amazing to see how many people I managed to finagle myself about in order to meet. Out of everyone, the two I thought were quite rude were Geraldo Rivera and Ethan Hawke. Pretty much all the others were cool. Well except for that singer from the Bulletboys but that was New Enland again.
I'm trying to remember who the first famous person I met in New York was. I guess it was someone I didn't realize was famous. He was a cousin of the person I was living with at the time, his name was James De La Vega. I didn't know him as anything except James. He's a street artist type guy in New York whom apparently had made quite a name for himself and is moderately successful. In our terms he was a huge star, but I guess in terms of artists, he's not the biggest name but he's successful and known. I witnessed him getting arrested once for no reason. I lived in Spanish Harlem when I first moved to New York City, and people in the summer, well I guess in every season, would hang out on the block and drink beer or talk to the neighbors or talk shit about the neighbors to the other neighbors, or whatever. Anyway we were all hanging out on the block one night, and James had his own car, which was also a big thing back then. The cop decided that he was gonna flaunt his authority and started messing with James, treating him like shit, pushing him around and telling him he can't be out on the block, where he lives, only a block away from his gallery. James matter-of-factly told the cop that he wasn't breaking any laws and that in fact the cop had no business telling him to stay off the street since it's his right to be on his own block. Of course the cop arrested him and I think the charge was probably dismissed. But James, or De La Vega as he's known, he let the cop arrest him and kept his principles. Anyway James was very cool and super supportive of my fledgling foray into comedy. He came to my very first comedy show, where I did horribly, but kept supporting me despite my flustered first show. I moved not too long after that first show, and had been doing comedy shows regularly for a bit, but we lost touch after I moved. I didn't want him to think I was his friend because he was famous, so I purposefully didn't visit his gallery even though I wanted to get a piece of his art. In fact I do plan on visiting him in his gallery sometime, we'll see.
Anyway, this guy has principles, he's really a very good friend. Truthfully we were really just acquaintances. But seeing how he rose up to become huge with his art made me realize that if I worked at my comedy I could at least make people laugh. And if I became famous because of it, then so be it. I didn't every become a huge start, but did switch to writing and have some published works.
Anyway this has become more of a ride down memory lane than comedic prose so I'll stop now... till tomorrow.
