CURTIS SLIWA Talks Violence, Vigilantism, Jewish

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Get 20% off your first purchase at Viore.com slash T-A-F-S and discover the versatility of Viore clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. I was crying. Were you crying? To your mom. Seriously. Oh, man. Okay. I mean that. Come on. I said bad things about your mom. No, no. You were saying, no, no. We were busting balls. I'm not a fan. You're not offended? I believe that God writes shit in the book. I'm not offended. I'm not offended. How am I going to get through the pearly gates? No, come on. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Give me a hug. You want to give me a hug? I can't. I love you. No, no. Please. I love you. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. All right, don't shoot. Remember, there are rules here. If you've got a gat, don't shoot. That's all I ask. My guest this week is Curtis Sliwa. He's a politician, radio host, and the founder of the Guardian Angels, a vigilante justice group started in 1979 to patrol the New York City subways. Curtis has lived quite the life, surviving two separate taxi-related murder attempts, one in the backseat of a yellow cab at the hands of the Gambino crime family, and the other when he ran into traffic and got hit by the. That was pretty funny. Don't laugh. Love him or hate him, he's as New York City as they come. You know, can I do a scene out of the King of Comedy? Where I basically have kidnapped him and I take over the show. What do you think? Was that not one of the greatest movies of all time? De Niro kidnapping Jerry Lewis. Hey, Jerry! I'm a person of no consequence. I am Adam Friedland. Welcome back to The Adam Friedland Show. And by the way. I'm rich now. Nice. Enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for New York City legend, radio host, founder of the Guardian Angels, former candidate for mayor of New York. You want to show them the back of your t-shirt? Or your jacket? The people's mayor of NYC, Curtis Lee Waugh. Thanks for coming. Thanks for joining us. Oh, my pleasure. You were telling me that soccer. I mean, this is a good. This is a good indication of the political divide. Because you're, you know, you're a Republican. You don't like. You like American football. Let's be honest. Zohan Mandami loves soccer, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kickball, kickball, goal. After 90 minutes, it's nil-nil, 0-0. Yeah, yeah. What a boring game. Hockey could be 0-0. Eh, but that's more Canadian than American. Trust me. What about the Rangers? American smash-mouth football. I love the Rangers. I was a Ranger fan before you were birthed. Oh, come on. Absolutely. You know what I remember? You've been a Ranger fan for six months. We all know that. No, no, no. I was in the old garden, right? Yeah. 50th and 8th. Afternoon matinee show. $1.50 for a student government organization with a student government organization card. A buck 50. When is that? In the 60s? Yeah, you can brown bag your own lunch. About 66. It's a brand new guy. Bobby Orr, rookie on the Boston Bruins against the lowly Rangers. Let me see if I can get them. All right, jock them in in goal. All right. Harrison, Nielsen. Harrison, Nielsen, yeah. Defense. And then, of course, you had the line of Joubert, Rotel at center, and Hatfield on the left wing, and still they lost. What? For $1.50. That's not bad. In the old garden. You know what you get now for $1.50? You get who gots. Who gots. You don't even get, you get bupkis. You don't even get cockroach hairs for that. Really? They have hairs on the cockroach? Oh, absolutely. So you've never looked at them closely? I have not. No. Come on. Really? No. A woman usually screams, and then I have to kill it. Very important man to them. Show them how brave I am. The rats and the cockroaches, as they go, so go us. They will out-survive us. Mamdani's against the rats. I like that. He's against, but you never. The rats are disgusting. You never beat the rats. Look, trust me. I know two-legged rats, and I know four-legged rats. They're survivors, those guys. Right. They can hold their breath underwater for like 10 minutes or something. You will never beat the rats or the mice. Uh-huh. You can have detente. Yeah. You can have a ceasefire. All you do is, and I wanted to be the rat saw for Eric Adams at Crook, but he didn't want me. I would have done it no charge, because I'm nocturnal. Yeah. You explain to the rats and the mice, look, you can come out at night, because you're nocturnal, but you've got to stay in during the day. Uh-huh. It's sort of like the peace we have with Iran now. Right. How do you explain that to the rats, though? Well, you've got to feed them a little bit of that Parmesan cheese. When you want a two-legged rat. Like Ratatouille. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like Sammy the Bull Gravano to sing. Uh-huh. You give them some Parmesan cheese. Uh-huh. Likewise, with the four-legged rats and the mice. It's all up here. It's all up here. See? And I was willing to share it with the city for bupkis. That's why I voted for him. I didn't want to vote for a rapper, and I didn't want to vote for the Cuomo, so that's why I voted for you. One thousand. Yeah. You weren't a Cuomo-sexual? Don't lie to me. Me? Yeah, yeah. No, most certainly not. I mean, smacking fannies and killing grannies, you would have even thought of voting for that guy? It was a little bit too much about the Jews, and I was like, stop talking about Jews. Now, wait a second, but you're a Jew, aren't you? I know, but I was like, stop talking about it. I don't know, but this is all they want to talk about. No, we like quiet. We like quiet. Palestinians, Israelis, Palestinians. What does that have to do with New York? Exactly. So it's just like, shut up. Like, just be, we like quiet. We like to, when things, we like the quiet, and we like whispering. This is good. This is good. No, of course. It's stupid. Don't you love this? Yes. They start singing, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. I love that. And I say, what happens to the Jews? Do they all move to Boca Raton? And then, on the other side, I say, and what about Palestine? The Jews say, there is no such thing as Palestine. Well, there are Palestinians, right? So there's Palestine. Yeah, right. So you're right. We should just stop discussing this. Well, just for the mayor, it has nothing to do with it. Mayor. We don't have the army. Congress people, assembly people, state senators, city council people. That's all they want to talk about. Well, in Congress, they fund it, so that they should be, like, talking about, you know, their decisions, whether or not they fund these kind of things. But in New York City, what the fuck does it have to do? It has nothing to do with our life. Nothing to do with picking up the garbage, making sure the schools work, making sure the trains run on time. It's just a bit embarrassing. The basics of what a mayor has to do. It's a bit embarrassing. It was embarrassing for Jews. It was like, it's all about us. And it's like, also, you're not Jewish, bro. He's an Italian guy. Let me ask you a question. Yeah, yeah. Are you the chosen people? No. It's ridiculous. According to the Old Testament, you are. Who cares? Okay, good, good, good. It's just, according to the Old Testament, what? I didn't think I'd be agreeing with this guy, too, out of the box. Wait, because I don't believe in this. God is, like, he's rude. No, no, no. Hashem. Hashem is. Hashem. Okay. Baruch Hashem. Are you waiting for the Mashiach to come? I'm not a fucking, I'm not a, like a, I'm not like a. Come with me to 770 Eastern Parkway, right? I love them. We're coming together. I like them. I like them. I like. Okay. I like. No, but I like it. It's, for me, it's just like, it's, you just do, read the words and you don't know what they mean. It's boring. Now, let me ask you a question. That's kind of nice, though. Do you have separate plates for dairy and meat? No, I'm not, I'm not kosher. Oh, my God. You are BLT Jew. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato. I just, I, no, I, like, my parents are Jewish. My parents are annoying. Sorry. Like, that's just what it is. Well, doesn't that come with being Jewish? We're funny. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, I don't know. I kind of, I, like, I, I hate. Tell me. Tell me. I don't like. Being alive is painful. When did you have your first BLT sandwich in which you crossed the line? It's like crossing the Red Sea. No, we, we, we would have bacon out of the house. Ah. Ah, you see? But we would have shellfish in the house. It didn't make sense. We'd have shrimp in the house, but we couldn't. Oh, you had treif? Of course we had treif. Treif. Of course. Oh. What kind of a Jew are you? I'm just a non-idiot. Yeah. Yeah. Non-denominational Jew. No, I mean, like, I, it's. You're not a Hasidim. You're not Orthodox. I'm cultural. You're not conservative. I'm cultural. Yeah, yeah. A little reformed, right? A little reformed. No, no, reform is stupid. reform is like reform is like a acoustic guitar lesbian like let's talk about god and that's even worse i mean i go to orthodox because it's the least spiritual because it's boring could i ask you a question do you pay for your seat during yom kippur no no no no we went to khabar because it was free oh yeah yeah yeah all right lubavitch that's insane but like we were at lubavitch but like yeah we went because it was free and i did the whole shebang from our bar have you ever danced with the lubavitch the best part of jewish is that one thing the dance kabbalah were you breaking the glasses and i haven't been married yet it's in it's in september and you will be there my friend and you will be at the team will this be an arranged marriage for you are you going to are you going to have a no we're not man it's nothing like that the only thing we do is the sex i mean what women in the world would want to be married to this guy if i had to really hide him it would be schlub next to his name right yeah yeah i do well i do well you and i both we we're both ladies men okay just what i used to be in new york city in new york city you could be this and uh you've seen enough uh seinfeld and woody owl movies that no no no yeah yeah you got to understand you could be this you could be this and you get and and uh and the women the women think this is acceptable they want to see the schedule no no even before i had the schedule really yeah yeah yeah what is it so endearing about you that the women just can't stay away because you know it's if you could be a little bit of a like a little bit of a nebbish and then that's like very never you're very nervous that's the type that's the type dude this is what happens when two alpha bulls get in a room and we just butt heads i want to get into you you want to get into my life yeah because your life is fascinating i've done nothing i've done i've done bupkis with my life you've done a lot more with your life so i've i i'm kind of like i want to i want you to tell your story i think you know you're from canarsie originally canarsie brooklyn right but i spent some time in brownsville in east new york the trifecta the trifecta the trinity okay it's and you're like uh goddy you he'll come back later when i ask you about what happened but john goddy john goddy was from your neighborhood were you like aware of him like growing up as a kid yeah yes he was this big macha right that everybody was afraid of they they would bow to him they would kiss his ring yeah i would never i would never schlep to goddy did the did did the wise guys ever try to like recruit you to like get in like get in with them because remember i'm a mutt i'm part italian on my mother's side bodies so you can never be a big guy exactly but they they didn't trust me would you trust me uh yeah 100 yeah that's why i voted for you you think i would take the i don't i don't believe you voted for me i voted and i offered a full-throated endorsement of you cross your heart and hope to die wait you're wrong yeah it doesn't mean anything hey knock on wood oh you can't do that but this is more of a laminate okay wait but you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right you're right let me explain yeah yeah and my wife nancy's going to be very upset when i use this analogy if i picked up a dead cat in the street and swung it around my head every fifth person in canarsie that i hit was a mobster choking on his lobster yeah yeah but you know how i love cats and you know my wife loves you but yeah yeah i have to use that analogy you know that's a jewish custom the cat swinging a day you remember goodfellas right of course luke see so paulie vario yeah avenue d you got the chop shop there then you got the bamboo lounge that was in canarsie they torched it there and you had gelfkins which was right on flatlands you would go in but sometimes you'd come out in a body bag tell us about the beach oh i got beach all right tell us about the hole do you know about the hole about the what the hole the the neighborhood where it's under the water table that's east new york but east between uh what yeah linden boulevard or fountain but that's where the mob used to dump bodies right yeah but you see i used to take my rocket 88 olds and go yeah you know what that was uh scooter oh racing man a drag racing over there on fountain what kind of car is a rocket a rocket 88 oldsmobile all you had to do was like you get like one and a half miles a gallon and like you fly the cars were long back then oh big and they they weighed like a shit yeah scuzzlers yeah yeah by the way back then and i never had a i never had a driver's license really never did you get one now no i've never driven legally right but i don't drive at all see we're making news here oh my god four times we got a big one four times yeah i had long hair it looked like a hippie so my supreme cuisine said hey look the guy who gives you the test it was always the same guy he hates you because he thinks you're a hippie scum yeah just put twenty dollars there when you go in i don't believe in bribing i'm sorry i couldn't parallel park if you put a gun to my head if this was deer hunter right you put it i couldn't parallel park he failed me four times but he was looking for the moolah schmooler there's no doubt he wanted to pay up why not i never got a license put it put it on the seat no no no remember they tried to bribe me to get out of the mayoral race i will not bribe anybody 10 million tops adams i think accepted for 20 mil wait where's eric wait wait you turned down 10 million dollars to stay in the race hey look adams where's he with the 20 mil that i think he got albania he became a citizen of albania eric adams swagger man with no plan who the hell becomes a citizen of albania except if you got shade on your face right yeah i mean like uh he's it's kind of he was kind of like uh you're jewish right you know he's selling to your people bitcoin a crime coin to fight anti-semitism how many schmucks and putzes who are jews are buying that crime if they lost their money in that they deserve it and i'm happy i'm glad for him i'm glad any idiot that bought stop anti-semitism this is the trifecta the troika the trinity three things i agree with this guy we agree on everything just stop it wait you were on a show romper room when you were a kid oh that's when i became lens lice what is that see like all you had to do is invite me and tell me you had cameras in the room and i was going to show up so here i am right now a little kid on romper room they were doobies and don't bees doobies like weed well that came later doobies and don't be okay don't bees were bad doobies were good i got you and i was a doobie five straight days on romper room and i was on tv channel nine and man i'm telling you i got addicted it's like man did you want to be an actor or a dancer oh i actually was in summer stock up in the summer stock theater with his his uh partner leon and my first role helen keller my oldest sister alita played helen keller oh you didn't me and my youngest no no i i wasn't a transgender although sometimes i identify that way you're an actor you're an actor you could act why can't you be a woman like i don't know it's acting that's true yeah but what were her lines when i was asked what were helen's lines excuse me where were the lines the lies of hell the lines the line i don't know that was my oldest sister all i had to do was cut out paper paper little machete things with it remember the circled scissors so you didn't cut yourself it's kind of insane that helen keller learned how to read and write but didn't know how to hear or see you know where she was based out of russia no she was soviet forest hills a lot of russians now that's right really right there right there 71st and continental she became a communist no uh she flirted with socialism communism why do you have a problem with that no i i'm a com that's what me oh you are i don't know what are you explain this because nobody seems to know what a socialist or a communist is uh if i stopped a hundred people out in the street you think they would know i yeah i i know they're all idiots but i'm i'm pretty smart so what are you tell me i don't know uh you're an independent autonomous free thinker i don't know the way that people identify themselves you're not involved in idolatry say it one more time i believe in democracy i guess and then i i believe in one person one vote yeah but i would take 10 million dollars to drop out of the race for sure but that's 10 million dollars it's like that it's like when you're growing up and your friends are like would you suck a dick for a million dollars no way bro it's like a million dollars you used to joke like that that's what that's the way the teenage boys all joke around about oh no no way i suck a dick for a million dollars no teenage boys yeah they wanted to match size i mean that was the big thing yeah we're of course i mean did you whip it out yeah i was i was packing absolutely why oh my god come on why you you got lured into that man by my friends yeah during covet we were all sending pictures to the boys chat it was funny as a bit yeah we were like it's gay to send your girls a dick pic but it's funny to send your boys a dick pic and i said one and then my friend brian said i was puffed and then he said it to my girlfriend he's like is adam puffed and i was like i was like okay cut all that let me let me yeah yeah yeah that wouldn't have even made it up in the old cat skills at the concours whatever you come from a generation where it's gay to eat right what the hell are you talking about you why you you i could be your grandfather yeah show some respect so in your generation it's it's a it's a thing that it's homosexual to eat to uh do cunnilingus on a woman i'm a liberated uh modern man what the hell is this you're my best friend okay at eight years old you were mugged many more times than just eight years old you see you wanna about that when you're a tough guy let me explain something but you were eight years old yeah every tough guy says that they've given people beatdowns yeah if you're a real tough guy you got beatdowns and you gave beatdowns yeah yeah of course i caught my first year of beatdowns so what what was the situation that was your first brush with violence or something that's what i understand here i was on my way to the candy store the candy store to get a comic book okay and some of the supreme cuisines who were a little older than me surrounded me so it was like teenagers not really so it's not a mugging i'd say a year or two on me oh so you just got in a fight with the older kids it wasn't even a fight man he jumped me why would they call it a mug let me ask you a question that's not a mugging you don't sound to me like a fighter and you don't sound to me like a lover no you're sort of like you're staying on the sidelines and then who's ever winning you jump in that's right get him salvinia i was on your side all the time right right no no no i'm a fence sitter i i go with the i you go with the winner i go with the winner of course yeah no no no i mean i think that i in school the kids get like uh like their voices drop in beards like years before other kids and so i was like i have to survive somehow so i i just started making jokes yeah that's kind of how that's not very good jokes on my dad you weren't there how do you know because i grew up with guys like you canarsie was italians and jews yeah yeah see if you notice i would have run that i would have run canarsie if i was there i would have been the top dog did you ever notice why italians and jews get along so well because we're in love with our mothers and that we think life is uh painful and we hate ourselves they both hate the irish because the irish were the cops and they hated the jews because they thought that the jews were christ killers and they hated the italians because they said oh all they do is they drink wine and they're members of organized crime so jews and italians bonded together yeah murder incorporated do you know yeah lucky luciano toughest of the tough bugsy seagull yeah that's right yeah even before my alaskan doing the books yeah yeah do you know that anastasia who was the mad assassin yeah would subcontract his hits to the jews in brownsville because they were the toughest of the tough what happened to you me yeah it must have been a week i have a question i have a question right like when you heard about that thing in minneapolis right with the with the somalis who are like they're 98 percent legals here like isn't that kind of what what us guys did like uh like when we came over here were we all doing somali boat jumpers no we were doing somali daycare frauds yeah well isn't it kind of the same thing as like what we were doing it's just an immigrant group let me let me give you this it kind of just reminded me of that no italians were involved in import export right olive oil i'm just saying it's like uh you know how much of the olive oil is fake for gaius olive oil i'm not saying it's the same crime 75 percent i know that that pisses me off to know what happened i don't know yeah i know you people growing in the middle east and you fight over with the power it's not not me people not me people my friend not me no i but uh no what i was saying is like uh just like kind of like an immigrant group trying to like we were kind of a bit breaking the laws too a little bit like what were you doing well and i wasn't here i i my parents moved here in the 80s so so but like but uh jewish lightning jewish electricity is that what you're talking about no no no you're missing my point i'm saying when i saw the daycare fraud i'm like yeah we were doing like little little rackets and schemes ourselves like when we after we came over off the boat from ellis island so i'm like a little bit like why why is like yeah it's just a couple of generations ago that we got here and it's kind of like the same kind of you're trying to say that it's like evolutionary you come over here i'm just saying that you don't have two i'm saying it's to rub together and right away you're in a racket i'm just saying that what the way that it sounds the way people are describing somalis is like yeah kind of how they described us let me ask you let me right is that not right you always is that not making of the matzahs by sound was a racket because to make good mats it takes 18 minutes right i don't know it's disgusting it gives it gives you gentile it gives you constipation no jews make masa and we don't know anything about the lightning i i it's boring no it's true jewish electricity electricity yeah right hey look listen i know you say everybody has romantic comedies and we know like that yeah yeah and who's a hundred years old uh oh oh dick van dyke dick van dyke yes yes but he's not a jew uh mel mel mel mel mel mel mel gibson no mel not gibson he hates jews mel brooks mel brooks yes okay mel gibson hey this is good jeffrey okay so so you're eight years old you get mugged by the stupidest criminals a few times a few times by the stupidest dumbass everything because you're if you have one a nickel you have a nickel you have a nickel right and these and these these animals come and they they beat you up and uh then you decided to devote your life to the martial arts to is that correct my dad decided that he was a merchant and your dad was a big buff guy oh man yeah merchant sailor so you are jewish yeah no they were the scourge of the earth what are you talking about what are you talking about merchant not merchants like the chinese and the lebanese and the jews i don't know about them the world as merchants merchant semen what a stool nod okay you are schmendrick of course i'm a schmendrick okay yeah so so wait so you started studying the martial arts karate right no judo first judo okay and where was your dojo and who's your sensei ridgewood ridgewood queen i used to have to take the ll train lousy line to the hamburg uh train the uh uh was made hamburg because they were all germans living there in india and they were living there in india and they were living in ridgewood yeah yeah fresh pond world oh now it's polish but it used to be german now it's all the genes well that's where they have the uh the hall what's it called it's it's too expensive got sheer hall that's like german yeah and then the polonaise was in green point but you see yeah yeah you know they're getting a whole food the rent is too high to pay getting a whole food gentrification where are all my polish brothers and sisters in solidarity no no not so loud come on did you know the polaski day parade in 2000 you were and when i came out did they give you a like a baton oh yes and when i came out of saint patrick's cathedral with my red beret tux and tails on it was a tourist bus from san diego that came up and they said curtis i didn't know polish people have a holiday for roman polanski i said no polaski because and it's not cassiasco because juice juice juice of course of course you have that mustard when you give it to children when you give it to children do you take hebrew national or do you take because juice go mustard neither oh god what kind of jew are you i get like a kind of what about mayonnaise no i get like a french kind of like uh you know with the seeds the mustard uh what's it called like kind of a design okay wait so so you so you did judo then karate you were a popular kid you were good at sports what sports did you play baseball baseball what position center field third base center field and my willie mays no mickey mann mickey mann mickey willie mays was too good for me yeah yeah you couldn't go over the head oh that's right mickey man was right there yeah but my game is stickball i was the commissioner of stickball for 12 years here in new york city really under rudy giuliani and michael bloomberg but bud siegel over here yeah but no no no no no it's manfred wait a second you think i have a bad rug on my head and i'm wearing the polyester waffle weave tarty pants i don't know why i don't know why you're wearing that hat you know when i was on espn did i ever tell you i did no espn the courtesy was super sports spectacular i was railing on bud selig who was the owner of the brewers and the head of major league i thought it was in baltimore and the boys from bristol called up and said fire him and they fired me yeah you can't go out of the country but celique was from milwaukee not baltimore yeah get your city straight yeah yeah there's only one one team i hate the mets were your parents uh uh dodger fans no my dad was from chicago he's a white sox fan and he hated my hero mickey mann yeah so you know why it turned out the way i am man i hated that you but you butt heads with your old man only on the white sox and the yankees he called mickey mann obama degenerate and alcoholic he was right about all that but really he was my hero number seven in the pinstripes mickey mann maybe your dad wanted to be your your hero and he's like why why are you a hero worshiping this guy you know the worst moment of my life no years later i met mickey manuel at his gin mill right there on central park did you cry he was a total degenerate he was a nasty person i met willie mays up in riverdale i thought willie say hey kid he was nasty and joe dimaggio was nasty three of the best ball players of all time and they're rich rich rich pricks yeah weren't even rich they made a hundred thousand dollars each a year yeah you know who's the nicest famous person you've met the nicest the best the best guy the best guy michael right the nice guy guys so nice he would take a bullet for me even though he wasn't a blood relative robert de niro oh get out of here then he will probably hates me i have no idea one time i walked up to him i was introduced he looked at me bob if looks could kill i would have been a cadaver that's his face but he has that face yeah i don't think he's a curtis fit you know i don't know anybody who's really nice you've never met a nice per like famous person a pre-setting trust you understand why yeah nuns nuns were nice although they hit you so hard your mother would feel the vibrations with that three-foot ruler really i was raised by josephite nuns these were irish nuns up in crown heights eastern parkway who told me that saint brendan the navigator discovered the new world and not what i was told by the italian americans in my family and in canarsie that it was christopher columbus does it piss you off when people try to shit on columbus like native americans and stuff christopher columbus yeah yeah he was a degenerate he had his problems yeah he had his eccentricities yeah he was jewish did you know yeah they it's actually fake no no they try to say he's jewish but he's not he had a bris trust me he had to drop his drawers to prove that he had a bris come on people just like that style you know back then people like a hoodless style you know why do you think he had to escape spain in 1492 he was doing it on behalf of queen isabella and king ferdinand inquisition on your people and said yeah we were and he decided to leave with the nina the pinta the santa and the maria yeah well it's three actually the santa maria no no you're wrong no no it sounds like maria was the third one the pinta the santa and the maria the nina the penis and the santa maria that's right four of the ships three of them made it yeah as he went oh so he called one the santa maria after one lot uh he combined the names excuse me nothing you are you trying to instruct me on the hero of my piece christopher columbus i thought you so you're jewish no he is jewish i thought you were newsboy of the year yes i was the daily newspaper boy of the year and president uh nixon gave you an award for being news newsboy of the year in the white house in the white house he gave me a cheap pen and a tie clip they told me his consigliere do not ask any questions of the president who's the consigliere uh chief of staff whoever that was oh yeah and what do you think this weisenheimer did i asked him a question what did you ask him excuse me mr president you campaigned on the fact that you would end the war in vietnam and you campaigned on yet you opened up a secret war against slouch in cambodia and guess what they shine their boots on my backside yeah kick me to the curb wow yeah that was after uh uh a si hirsch yeah question authority let's no idolatry let's fucking go how old were you when you were newsboy of the year how old i was 16 16 i saw a picture of it you're quite a handsome young man good looking young man please don't come on to me you used to pull a lot of chicks grown up not really i was still sleeping in a baseball glove at that point you're fucking a baseball club of course you hug your baseball club you have 50 rubber bands around it yeah one for softball with a clincher the other one with a hardball and i used to sleep with both of them until all of a sudden i started chasing skirts how my marks went down and then my mom said you got to go back to catholic school you were in builder c junior high school i was in sp yeah i thought it meant special people not for me i ended up going to brooklyn prep yeah so you went to brooklyn prep you're president student body president yes you were a star athlete you're popular i wouldn't say a star athlete i was captain of a team that won no games well you're the captain i'm not going to cross my heart you don't mind if i cross my cross my heart and hope to die yeah i was the captain of the baseball team as a sophomore yeah very good oh yeah this guy's a slow learner isn't he i'm not a slow learner it's okay let me ask you a question command the tower did you like ranzoni sonoboni were you a slow learner when you like ranzoni sonoboni were you a slow learner when you said slow learner did you like ranzoni sonoboni did you like ranzoni sonoboni were you a slow learner when you said slow learner when you said slow learner sonoboni were you a spaghetti bender did you like spaghetti no you don't break it you don't break it like these like the metagon do you have to you no you don't break the spaghetti what are you a northern italian what do you got your nose in the air like you don't care no no no they look down on us though oh my god the way they look down on us you're the ones who used to hire my grandfather to dig the ditches like they do the mexicans now no we're pies you know come on okay so you're you're student body president star athlete news boy of the year you saved uh people from a five burning building five five people so the next five nixon five okay save five people from a burning building you are a star you you were a judo uh a judo black belt then i was a street fighter okay throw all the rules out have you attained a black belt in in uh any martial arts let me tell you something you give me a chance i japped you from the back that's the only way you could win like a jewish american princess well i knew many of those yeah oh god do i need to go blah blah blah blah okay wait go through them go through them now i know why jewish men die earlier yeah that's true it's true it's true it's like please cancer please take me away please cancer please okay turn the boys into mama luke's so always do italian mothers oh we love them we love the mother we love that and your mother was uh francesca your mother was the press secretary okay but let's let's go into this i just want to finish your upbringing all of those facts like this is a perfect college applicant right like like how do you find yourself at mcdonald's on fordham road in the bronx after high school it was quite a short trip you're a student body president yeah yeah like but i announced that we were going to have an initiative in referendum not to wear jackets and ties you want to wear berets no no no just wanted to wear series regularly when did you find out that looked good no there was no berets back then there was no beret i had more hair on my head uh-huh so the students actually voted not to wear jackets and ties i let him out in protest and then the headmaster father alexander and the prefect of discipline who hated my guts right down to the marrow of his bone said you're going to be on the outside looking in it kicked me out of high school and i never looked back i could have had but you were the president scholarship to brown university because i was the recycling guy before there was even recycling that's the other thing i forgot that's the other thing i forgot i thought you were smart you're jewish you're never supposed to leave things out okay here's my question okay you garbage all over his neighborhood to clean up the streets. Tons. Which is a theme of his life. And you brought it home and your neighbors complained because there was too much. Wouldn't you? Why didn't your parents let you turn the house into a dump? Wait, wait. Why did your mom and dad let you do that though? Because my mom and dad were very much like Unitarians. As long as you did the work, they would support you. They said, look, if you believe in this and you do the work, we're going to be there. And my dad had to come back from the ship and meet with the neighbors who felt their property values were going down. Because there was a junkyard on the corner which was my house. My mother would have killed me if I did junk. Oh my God, your mother would have said. They liked cleanliness. Had nothing to do with that junk man on the corner. They thought you were God's gift to the planet Earth. Your parents. But did I ever tell you how the Jewish guy would come around with the truck and he would weigh the aluminum, the copper, he'd put his thumb on the scale, you know, not for me but for the other day. I'm not saying anything about the guys from Dean Street. The Italians were worse with waste paper. I'm telling you, they wouldn't take my waste paper. I was trying to save the world. Recycle the trees. Clean air. Mother Earth. Global warming. Climate change. I'm the only Republican who talks like that. You're the star boy and then you're at McDonald's, Fordham Road, Bronx. Well, before I got there, I was popping gas at Rocky Shell Station overnight and then packing groceries at an A&P as the key man and then I found my calling. The Golden Arches in the Bronx. And I took the number two train, the Beast, from Rockaway Avenue. I was living in Brownsville then on Osborne and Hageman. The only mighty party. Is that like an hour? That's like an hour. Yeah, but I had married, first marriage, you know. She met Jacoby. I met Myers. It only lasted about an hour. She was from the Virgin Islands. We lived in Brownsville. I took the train from one tough neighborhood to an even worse neighborhood where the Bronx was burning. And I loved every second of it. So you were trying to get away from your wife so you went to, like, basically the most dangerous place in New York City to get away. Yes. Like, I'm going to go to the Bronx while it's burning during the summer of Sam. Yeah. That's how much of a battle act she was. I had such nachas. Such joy. Let me tell you. I had no service. No service. I found my calling. Yeah. Okay, wait. So, one last thing about Mickey D's. Mickey D's would not allow me to go to McDonald's University in Oak Brook. Why? They said that I was special ed. Because you got kicked out of school? Nah. They said you were special ed? Yeah. Because they thought I was more of a bouncer than I was a manager. Which, in the Bronx, you really needed a bouncer, not a manager. They judged a book by its cover. Because you seem like a tough guy, but you're also an incredibly intelligent person. Says who? Not McDonald's, apparently. Nope. But this is a man. I find you to be incredibly intelligent. This is a man who voted for me. You see? That proves that he voted for me. I did. Because he thought I was intelligent. Well, I did. I was proud of it. Thank you. And I'm proud of it. Okay. Wait. So, you're at McDonald's. You're in Fordham Road. Let's go. 1977. There's a serial killer in the Bronx, right? Yes. They're rolling blackouts. Like, it's a real shit like fucking. It's bad. Terrifying place. The Bronx is burning. And then you meet a man who's still, I assume, your best friend. You want to tell me about him? The mad Chinaman. Don Chin. Yeah. I would. 320 pounds. He had been a member of the Savage Skulls, and he said, Curtis, you can manage this McDonald's the Roy Kroc way, or you can manage it. Ray Kroc. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to do that. Excuse me. You insult me. In the Bronx, they didn't want Ronald McDonald to come to that McDonald's. They wanted the Hamburg one. The kids asked for the Hamburg one. Not for Ronald McDonald. I would ask for Grimace. How come you didn't laugh at that joke, huh? Because it wasn't funny. It was not funny at all. But anyway, the point is, Don Chin told me, you could do it the Roy Kroc way. Yeah. Or as you say, Ray Kroc. Or. And I'll carry you out. There'll be six guys carrying you out. you out i'll give you your eulogy or you can do it to don chin way and survive to open up the restaurant another day i chose the don chin way so he so he said you got in order to manage this this this mcdonald's in the middle of just a really dangerous rough area right um you got to learn how to be tough and you got to learn how to like command the mcdonald's you had you had people coming in that was a birthday you had people coming in b-boys mcs djs uh uh uh graffitis knowledge black spades savage nomads savage skulls they called themselves yeah just go down oh so it was like warriors boy that's right yeah yeah we started the same time the movie the warriors came out yeah yeah and quite frankly if you need to know what i was starting in my baptism was in fire it was just like what you saw in the warriors with no cops around but one thing my law and order in the restaurant you came in you gave my closes a hard hand three snaps up yeah i'd go over the counter and give you a therapeutic back massage no homophobic language now yeah in a rough neighborhood that's pretty tough well there was a there was a gay co-worker that you were friends with and you did his uh you administered his wedding i married him in ninth i personally did not marry him i had enough you got married you didn't get married to him exactly but i he married him as the so-called clergy the pastor 1977 77. that's right 77 sunset strip 1977 in the community room of a project in soundville i married ralphie my closer to his long-term boyfriend vincennes and do you know italian guy no he was puerto rican the place was packed outside the gangs were looking inside like what the hell is this yeah it's tough being gay in in that in that environment yeah yeah but 1977 you know what the democrat and republican attitude towards gays getting married was you should be happy to be domestic partners did your friends uh survive the 80s that your gay friends i know a lot of gay and lesbians and transgender no no but like gay men a lot of them died like uh oh my god that was a horror age yeah yeah and uh the nation turned our backs on them we didn't do all we could have done did you did you know people that said that was the evil dr fauci yeah appointed by ronald reagan then to deal with aids hey what did he do fauci you did all that no he went to bath houses to study uh gay i only wish he did he did no no he said he did that he said he said he did that you believe fauci i mean if you believe that covet 19 came out of a wet shop in wuhan and not out of the laboratory that he funded with the red chinese we now have cia documents criminals in action who verify that ass rand paul the ophthalmologist you know who ran paul he's an i yeah yeah yeah kentucky kentucky yeah very good i yeah what i'm just saying that that that's another like layer of what was going on in new york which is like pretty i mean it's there's a lot of it was a crazy place this guy likes to drop the f-bomb a lot is that when he gets nervous and then you notice he gets a little nervous he sort of loses his track boom the yeah i don't know i'm just trying i was thinking we were getting do i need to get the roque laundry soap and wash your mouth out you know your mom should have done that a month of sundays ago my mother but my mother thought oh can we do a little therapy for you now you want to just tell us what i'm very well adjusted personally well tell me how was it you were living with your mom you know did you get into your head no no no she wasn't like that she was like awesome she was so sweet yeah my other friends jewish mothers were like with psych joseph the best not like the rest mine was the best yeah yeah we were like we were really close she let you put mayonnaise she passed away she passed away a couple years ago yeah yeah i'm sorry oh no it's fine yeah it doesn't matter it doesn't matter why is he acting like it's not a big he's making fun of me for my having a dead mom is he making you never make fun of somebody's mothers who's dying you were already making fun of my mom i need to impale myself right now don't impale yourself don jen rides a motorcycle into mcdonald's right he gets off the motorcycle what does he have with him what does he have with him a machete of course machete machete i was crying were you crying to your mom seriously oh man okay i mean i said bad things about no no you were saying no we were busting balls you know i'm not offended i believe that god writes i'm not offended i'm not gonna get through the pearly no come on disparaged his mother no no no no no no you're a good guy come on no no no i was we were busting balls we were just being guys you didn't know that come on bro come on did you know that john gotty jr and victoria jr are jewish by birth that the mother that's right john gotty senior was a ukrainian jew from brown so they don't like hearing that now you know why they shot me five times because they were jewish because they were jewish no because they didn't like that kind of okay do you know the toughest man alive right what was the greatest movie of all time raging bull right okay jake lamada right yeah you know and he never and he never lost he never never went down oh he did he never went down did you my wife please don't interfere with my story he was born of a jewish mother the bronx bull which means he's a jew yeah to jews they say no not jake lamont i said you should be proud the pound for pound the toughest man ever to walk around was jake lamont let's give a nice round of wait wait wait wait later on he was a pedophile no can i take that back he was in epstein by the way how come we're not talking about all the guys who were involved with epstein because i want to i want you to tell your story i want you to i i don't know what so so so your best friend who tells you to be tough who tells you to run this big dollars with respect you're a black neighborhood you're a white guy you're like sorry for saying that for it like you you need to command respect you're it's a crucible it's a trial by fire he comes in with a machete he jumps over the counter what what happens next uh he comes into the prep area they call it a prep the mad chinaman yeah the mad china man okay he's a little out of his mind he's a little more sugar oh he was drinking okay and now he starts swinging the machete at me this is your friend though well this is this is the bronx what is right today for tomorrow he would have given me a big a great eulogy yeah yeah he tried to chop my head off i had a block it he's pushing me down he almost pushed me on the grill and as i was here he let me up uh-huh he starts a mad banshee leg ha ha ha ha don chin he gets on his holly his holly is parked right there in the inside inside who's gonna stop him right yeah yeah yeah okay and then he goes out next day he comes like that never happened before he blacked out it was crazy he was bugging out no but you think that that was like he's like this is your final test yeah yeah it was you know this was sort of like so you're so as a manager your crew at mcdonald's was a crew actually it wasn't so much like you have an old lady that's like doing the fries you you had to fuck the fries you had to fuck the fries you had to fuck the fries fucking tough crew if you just got out of rikers island yeah and number one i was hiring you on the crew because you had to cover my back every time i had to go over the counter and i had to go over a lot really there were all kinds of problems how many times how many fights have you been in in you think the span of your lifetime well you see the beauty of it is i was hit so many times with so many objects that moved the collagen around naturally yeah yeah i don't have to worry about that you look great you're a handsome guy well you know i used to also be a whirling dervish in the you know before your time i know you were a fixture at studio 54. that's right no no they wouldn't let me in i was a bqe guy you know no no no no you're bqe you're a little bit of a saturday night fever kind of guy from brooklyn get out of here but anyway you go to a club like pastels in bay ridge i'm from canarsie my cousin's friends in canarsie bath avenue boys bay ridge boys they didn't like us yeah so i'd be dancing with all the gals because the guys they didn't want to dance they didn't think that was very manly and then all of a sudden bam i catch you right in the schnaz while you're like doing like this you guys please don't insult me i don't know you want to show me that again that move of yours i don't know oh god look at this man what are you a disco duck my god from that era man please what show us how it's done there oh okay so it busts your schnaz right because that's the other thing that italians and jews have big beaks and then you hit them in the beak nose well my nose and you know where they dragged me into where the ladies bathroom told all the girls hey get out of here vicky get out of here angela we got some work to do on curtis and they were all got a quarter hey sal you got a quarter and you know what the quarter was for no that tampon machine what do you think stopped the bleeding in my schnazzola i'm bleeding on my polyester waffle weave flame retardant shirt my bell bottom pants i got the my my marshmallow shoes on oh my god the only thing tampons up there and then they take them out put new tampons in that's what they do when they operate on you nasal that's kind of nice of them to stop the bleeding the the mean guys god my god it was the only thing that worked so that's right remember in the previous election they called who that tampon tim you know the governor of minnesota yeah could have called me tampon curtis no i would never of course you wouldn't because because you're my best friend you're my best friend we're best friends stop it stop it stop it stop stop stop stop stop give me a hug you want to give me a hug how do i know you don't have ebola Yo, I saw you at Pride yesterday. You were at Pride yesterday dancing. Did you see me dancing on that float? Yeah, all the Mets of Phanooks liked you. What did you call my friends, Phanooks? Is that rude or nice? That's rude. Okay, I would never. You are a rude boy, man. You blood clod. You a yankee, man. Yeah, Rastavari. Here's a split. Pop, pop, pass. I don't smoke weed anymore. I try. Oh, yeah, right. Okay, no, I really don't. This guy, I'm telling you. Okay. If I gave you Maui, Waui, and Hindu Kush, are you telling me you wouldn't do pop, pop, pass? No, it makes me paranoid. It makes me feel terrible. I did it on the show once with 2 Chainz, and everyone said, you're a pathetic loser. I was freaking out. Well, I agree with them on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, but normally when I'm not on weed, everyone thinks I'm the coolest guy. Okay, wait. So, wait. So, from that crew at McDonald's, that crew develops into the Magnificent 13. Well, first the Burger Boys. The Burger Boys. The Burger Boys. That was the Burger Boys. That was your name. And then you're like, let's assemble a crew, and let's, like, all this violence, all this turmoil around us, let's do something about it. Is that correct? Let's patrol the number 4 chain, the Muggers Express, the worst subway line of a very horrible subway system in New York City. And that was, like, a time where, like, public services had abandoned, like, people in that area. There were no cops at night. Yeah. We were on the visc of a, on the verge of a fiscal collapse. We were going to go Chapter 11, and the incoming mayor, Ed Koch, had it cut. Firefighters, cops, social workers. It was Mishigash. It was a mess. So, wait. So, from the time, I think it was, like, what, 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.? There was no patrolmen. By the way, are you keeping track of all the Yiddish words that I'm using and the Italian words, please? No, no. Do not keep track of anything Jewish, okay? Keep track of the Italian thing. We need to put in the document. Okay. No. All right. There were no patrolmen at night, basically. Right? So, the subways were just, like, open, like. It was the Wild West. You could come on with a gang or a lot of people. A lot of them guys, they had the reverse, you know, they had the reverse sheepskin coats. They had their name buckles. Yeah. And they come diddy-bopping through. Manhattan makes it, and Brooklyn takes it! Yeah, yeah. Give it up! Give it up right now! Yeah, yeah. But you're Brooklyn. Now, you would have been target number one. No. Because you look like Bernard Goetz, the subway gummer. Did anybody ever tell you that? Well, that's your friend. No, no. I know, but hey, I'm just saying. That's the guy you stood up for. I would not stand up for him. You're the Vic. You're a perfect Vic. No, I would be in an Uber, personally. If I was going to thug somebody up with four guys, you would be the guy on the subway they come and pick on. You know that. No, I'd be driving my Rolls Royce around town with a fur coat. Oh, Rolls Royce. Oh. Going to Studio 54. Oh, picked out, right? The most beautiful women just begging to be with me. What a fantasy, man. Every woman wanting to be with me. This guy does smoke powder while we're in Hindu culture. And then I'd be at CBGB's with the punks. CBGB's? Yeah, yeah. What do you know about CBGB's? What do I know about CBGB's? Do you know the greatest counterculture of all time was who? The Clash. The Clash. And they wrote a song about you. That's right. Red Angel Dragnet. Let's go. Look at that. What a Hazarai. What a Hazarai. Just a little bit. Hazarai. Okay, whatever. Can't take this. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait. So, do you meet Joe Strummer? You met Joe Strummer, the lead singer of The Clash? No, I never met them. Dude, they're the best. That was like my favorite, one of my favorite bands. They were in the LES. Yeah, yeah. And they were watching what we were doing. Really? And they created this song. I had no idea. Yeah. I didn't follow counterculture music. You know, I was more Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Oh! Jim Morrison, The Doors, The Greatest of All Time. Nah, I don't know. What is it? Come on. No, he's not. He's kind of a little bit of an idiot. Morrison and The Doors? No, The Doors are good. When you read the lyrics, it's a little bit stupid sometimes. Oh, except now all of a sudden you are a musical job. I like Crystal Ship. I like that song. Oh, you do? Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'm glad you have another kiss. Are you a frustrated performer? Be honest, man. Yes. You're calling you thought it was going to be the Great White Way Broadway, and it just ended up with doing a podcast. I wanted to be in Oklahoma growing up. Do you know who else does a podcast? My freaking dentist and plumber. You got to listen to my podcast. Why do I have to listen to your podcast? Oh, I got the greatest podcast in the world. Curtis, I could not agree more with what you're saying right now. Yeah. When I see NBA players starting podcasts, I'm like, I have to do this because I'm not in the NBA. Why are you doing this right now? It's demeaning to be doing this. But I must, point of clarification, this is a talk show, this is not a podcast, and that's why I'm giving you such a brilliant interview right now. Oh, excuse me. You know what? This is the equivalent of, in the 80s, every other block had a competition. Comedy Club, remember? Yeah, that was during the boom. That was during the boom. Now, try to find the Comedy Club. Ain't easy to do. No, it's more easy to do. This is what's going to happen to podcasts. Eventually, it's going to go away. I completely agree again. Honestly, I 1,000% agree with you again. They need to go. They need to be over. I mean that. Excuse me. Why, as a Jew, do you wear Galloway golf? Galloway. Galloway. Isn't that like- But Galloway, because it's a Napolitano- Isn't that very weird? Isn't that very waspy? Like Gallimard? No, I'm a golf, one of the best golfers. Oh, you're a good caddy? Are you a good caddy? Did you start caddying? No, I'm a 39-year-old. Did you ever wash the balls there for the guy who had the big bertha there? Yeah, of course. Okay, wait. Wait, so how does your crew become, how do you become the angels, right? How does, like, when do you put the beret on? When do you take the apron, turn it backwards, and make it into a cape? Right. Well, after we- After we were the burger boys to test it out, I then had to start to sort of create a look. And what was the opposite of the Hells Angels, which was the image for all street urban youth to follow? Could you believe this? They were like the KKK, the one percenters. They hated black people. Yeah, Altamont is terrible, yeah. Oh, you followed Altamont, huh? Yeah, I'm a big Stones fan. Oh, God. I'm a big Stones fan. Let me notice, West Coast was violent, East Coast, oh, Woodstock, half a million strong, up in Bethel, New York. Yeah. Peace, love, happiness, and fornication. Were you at Woodstock? Hell no. 1969. How old do you think I was? I was born in 54. You're 15. Yes, very good. You are Jewish. You're very good at math. I researched. I researched you. Oh, researched. Okay, all right. You're sure that's not AI? You're sure that's not Google? No, I just said 15. All right. Okay, very good. Okay, wait. So, wait. Keep going. Like, you form the angels, and then you- Like, when do the angels become known? Like, how did you become a fixture? Because you very- Very quickly, from being, like, the star kid to being a manager at McDonald's, you became a New York City kind of character and fixture, and, like, you became part of, like, the tapestry of the times, the 80s. The 80s, like, you're, like, a character in the story of New York. It came about from a negative connotation. I was called a vigilante. Yeah. I was called a gang leader because it was a group of predominantly blacks and Hispanics, and there was a lot of stereotyping going on, so it was difficult. I was called a vigilante because it was a group of predominantly blacks and Hispanics, and there was a lot of stereotyping going on. just robbed people indiscriminately. Our presence prevented that. And at times we had to get low physical. Yeah, I know cops around but a lot of people remember We were the only thing that prevented them from being robbed and and in terms of the leadership structure Did people try to challenge your authority at any points like within the within the range? Yeah, I'd be lying to you if I said it didn't happen Yeah, always have people who assume that what you're doing they could do better Yeah, and and were there people that like like tried to like infiltrate like did you never like I'm sure like because the the the feds Didn't like you. I'm sure they try to get guys to like get in wasn't the feds. They didn't really say And the transit police what they called his His consigliere his advisor on legal issues. Yeah, they hated us. So they had what was covert Operators who were members of the police department young graduating from the police department So they were of the same age as the guardian angels and you could tell who they were because they wanted a They're over eager I could take you here I could get this printed and all that and I immediately my street smarts would kick in and say these guys are being too awful So we'd isolate them because we realized why they were there They were not there for the right reason and did every Did anyone ever like try to like put on the uniform like on a train that was like a criminal like try to like? Go in disguise. Well, the reason that didn't happen. Yeah wasn't because of anything we did Yeah But the criminals so hated us despised this low like I would never we had the six guardian angels who were shot and killed in A line of duty Yeah That a thug didn't want to be seen as a guardian angel Because for whatever reason whether glory or maybe using it for a bad reason now in the neighborhood It would be stigmatized as a guardian angel and they had to deal with thugs and thugettes This episode is brought to you by eBay live. Here's how it goes first. You're just watching eBay live seeing some rare finds not even bidding just lurking and then you see a rare rookie card go for an absolute steal a 90s handbag comes up and you have to jump in maybe put that Put that rookie card in the handbag Maybe you lose your first auction you bid again and win and that winning feeling It's such a rush because you know, everyone else wanted it too Meanwhile on eBay live you don't just watch the action you're in it download the eBay app to stream and shop live eBay live things people love. Oh He's my bad my golf bag. Oh God, no, okay. Never mind. Okay. Do you have attention deficit disorder seriously? No, because I'm waiting on this golf bag because I got this did you ever take Ritalin, you know to sort of like focus you No, you could admit it. It's I did back Back in my looking at I got my rock-bottom I use right but I used to be going to bad side of town But he has your shrink reach people have a tree. No, I'm over. I don't go to shrinks I'm over it Psychiatrists know sometimes shit happens like college. No, no, I went for a long time now. I'm an adult man I'm like shit happens. Sometimes that's just no therapy, right? No, because then you think about yourself too much you freestyle now No, now I could just fucking deal with shit when it happens Okay, wait, wait, wait, so let's talk about Lisa Let's talk about Lisa. Okay. Oh your wife. So you meet this fashion second wife second wife second wife So you meet this fashion model and she takes your breath away. Excuse me. She takes your breath away Yes, she was a curator of an art gallery And she's she's from the other side in karate goes you she's from the other side of the tracks She's like, uh, she's like a well, she's well well-bred kind of yeah Yeah, she grew up in the suburbs in the bird Ridgewood, New Jersey Lake Forest. Yeah, her father was like a vice president of American canterbury Great family. Yeah. Yeah, and so then so you meet her and then she she in 81 She kind of joins the ranks of the of the right away right away They like the first six months and you guys were trying to cover up your love affair It was kind of like longing looks across the across the headquarters You mean like we had the urge to merge? Is that what you yeah, you guys were like you it was like tense It was a kind of sexy. Think about it. Oh, you're getting psyched. I understand my understand My my understanding is that you didn't want to make like that with the with the You know, uh in the context of you running the organization So you had to keep it under wraps and so there was like as there was like a tension with you and Lisa Do you she's a model? I mean, I'm just when I read this I'm like damn that you a freak I mean, what is wrong with you? I just think it's quite romantic. It was a professional relationship So then when did you guys I came from a different world? I came from a different world We just happened to collaborate yeah, something that we agreed on and from that a partnership a Perspective what do you seem to make it so dirty and so she and you were seriously injured in a karate fight with her She seriously injured you she broke your legs that I would say it was a good punching bag for her because she was She was an accomplished black belt in goju. Yes, and she fucking she broke your leg Fractured it. She fractured it. Yeah, was that when you were married or before? No, that was when we were married really? Yeah, well, you know sometime and it wasn't a marital dispute, but it was like in the context of a karate karate Demonstration really damn were you getting some in on her at least excuse me. What did you get a couple in on her at least? So why so it's not fair. Why are you fighting a woman? Obviously, she's gonna break your leg. She's a black girl. So you're like, what were you doing like this? No, I would never fight a woman to begin with especially my wife, especially in front of the age. I'm sorry. No, you stop it No, no, you do not put that on me. I would just absorb whatever blows came from that woman I would not hit a woman. No and me too and that and and I don't believe that and the cops Would laugh the cops wouldn't take it seriously and they'd be saying why why were you wearing that to me? If I the cops would laugh at you They would laugh at me if I'm like if I'm like I'm getting I got I'm getting hit by my I would suggest you I know you have this psychosis if you're getting beat therapy I'm over therapy. No, no, come on. I'll pay for it. How about if I flip the script for you? Huh 1990 you had a job as a radio is 1992 In April you're attacked by the Gaudis and Gambino's with bats. Yeah, that's the first attack in July You know, I asked the second attack during the election during the Election for mayor. I remember it went viral you talking about the the attack in the in the in the cab Well, let's start though first with the baseball bat attack. Yeah Yeah So I'm doing angels in the morning with Lisa at that time and I have a special edition of mob talk Remember like when OJ was on trial everybody wanted to talk about what? Happened in the case the day before yeah, of course Yeah When John got he seen you was on trial the last time before they sent him away triple life without parole to Marion Nobody wanted to talk about the case the next day because they were scared not stern not I miss not anybody because it was scared Yeah, they said to me Curtis do yourself a solid don't talk about this That is a guarantee that I'm gonna talk about it because I grew up with these goblins. These are the rules Yeah, you think that was there like a neighborhood rivalry? Did they see another guy from? Canarsie that was like more popular than them that bothered them? No I think what they objected to is I was destroying this myth that you're safer in an organized crime neighborhood They don't let their community organization and I'd say oh, yeah And they brought in the heroin and now all of a sudden they wanted black people using the heroin and now their own sons and Daughters and grandchildren are using the heroin and they say you need to take the call of omerta Yeah, you need to not discuss our business on the radio. It's kind of I continue to discuss it Oh How come you bring it right back to issue because it's like they get mad at you if you talk over Oh, I see. It's a little bit of a little bit of a conspiracy of silence Whenever I talk about it people Going back to the stern gang, right? Yeah, Baba booey already Robin, okay All right, let's go wait. So okay. So April you you're attacked with a bunch of a bunch of bunch of bad guys I got a junior yeah, that's the orders from headquarters his father He's incarcerated his dad is in jail at the time. Yeah, he's in jail Yeah, and by the way, he's listening on the radio to me each morning and dropping more f-bombs said you oh They didn't know that there was a radio I'm tall no, he thought he was away in the jail. You wouldn't get in trouble. So he tells his son He says I need you to shut this guy up you and your crew Take care of it. So they attacked me with baseball bats not Scotty jr. He was observing So you had the UN you had Brian McLaughlin the Irishman you had Stephen Kaplan a Jewish guy who should have been in Baruch Studying math right instead of trying to knock my block off and Rogerio It was in his DNA like father like son. They hit me about 38 times for baseball bats I could see the Joe DiMaggio autograph on the Hiller can Brad's be Louisville slugger. Yeah, and I was Able to survive they broke they got it. Did they get in trouble for that? No, because this was before Rudy Giuliani. Michael body cheats became the mayor. Nobody got arrested back then So I get taken to Beth Israel. They tell me we'll release you in about a week You got a serious concussion and you got the broken elbow. I said I'm signing myself out. Was there can't do that I said, yes, I can did they give you protection when you're in the hospital? So, how do you know that they wouldn't go back in the hospital with the bats you've been watching too many movies and TV shows So the next day I'm back on the air Yeah, and now I tell the story of the murder that John Gotti jr. Come on admitted at the Silver Fox disco and gin mill in South Zone Park against Danny Silver. He found Danny Silver in there, who apparently had gotten a consignment of cocaine and didn't pay the big. Oh. So he surrounds him with his homies. He said, hey, Danny, why are you avoiding me? And Danny's dancing, you know, with his gumata there or whatever. And he said, get the fuck out of my face. To you. He says this to Gotti Jr. Oh, to Gotti Jr., okay. And Ruggiero gives him a shiv. Boom, boom, boom, boom. 48 times he guts him out. Right there on the floor. And everybody, you didn't see nothing, right? No, we didn't see nothing. So they go back to the Bergen Hunt Fish and Shoot Human Beings Club, where John Gotti Sr. is holding court. And they tell him. But there's a thing called Shoot Human Beings Club? Yeah, yeah. It was right there on 101st Avenue in Old Zone Park. This was their club. Like it would be on Google Maps if it was around today. Yeah, try it out. Bergen Hunt. Bergen Hunt Fish and Shoot Human Beings Club. Really? Because that's what they did there was shoot human beings. I think the cops should have, they were obviously, they should have paid attention to that place. The cops were on the payroll, as was the D.A. John Santucci, who would have 12-hour luncheons at the old Alta Donna restaurant right there on Peking Avenue in Cross Bay. With who? John Gotti Sr. and the Gambino crime family. That's a long lunch. Oh, yeah. And they would order treif. They would order lobsters and lots of shrimp. So like, you were like, I'm not going to shut up, okay? But like. Obviously, you knew there was a target on you, right? Do you ever shut up at all? No, I'm saying like you kept going on the radio talking about them. Exactly. So like, but like you had to have it in the back of your mind that you were going to, that they were going to maybe come back and try to do. What do you think? I'm naive. Yeah, okay. So then. What do you think? I went to some elite college and I was sort of just hopelessly not realizing as a street guy that I am. You went to the school of hard knocks. Of course. I realized that they may put a target on my back. So, so like, um, uh, what? I mean, like, uh, I guess a couple of months later, they, they did literally. June 19th in 1992. You were going to work at the WABC? By the way, not the federal holiday Juneteenth and nobody can tell you what Juneteenth is. All right. Mark it on your calendar. June 19th, 1992. I'm going to WABC. I'm in a cab. Bang, bang, bang. Five times with hollow point bullets. And they hit you every, every one of those five times? Well, they fired six shots. This is Michael Iannotti. He was the hit man. They hit me. They told him. Little Nick Carrazzo, JoJo Carrazzo and Canarsie, the Gambino crime family. They got the contract on me because the father was disappointed the junior didn't do the job with the baseball bats. And they told Michael Iannotti, do not shoot Sliwa in the head. Why? Shoot him throughout the body. Bleed him out. Put the last bullet right there between his eyes. Oh, because they want you to be in pain before they kill you. No, because they know you can't move then. It's going to be an easy head shot. Iannotti tells him, I'm the hit. I'm the hit man. Don't you tell me what to do. First shot was right at the head. I didn't do any Bruce Lee move. You dodged it? No, it just missed. From what? Right through the back window. From one foot? He missed. But he's one foot away. Yeah. It happens. They got this idiot. It happens. And then he starts firing away. I got hit five times and I jumped out of a moving cab. And you're. Aerated me. He was aiming. But he's trying for your dick? Yeah, my three-piece set. And that's not the knife, the spoon and the fork. So he's trying to go head, dick. Exactly. All right. You see, now you're learning. So question. Like, when I've heard, read about you telling the story, there was a guy under the glove box with the gun? That's Michael Iannotti. How small was he? Under the dashboard. Yeah, how small was he? Not that small. He's a big dude. How much room was there under a dashboard? What do you think? I measured it. What do you think? I was like trying to build a closet under that. But that's a really small place. It's just like. Would you like to simulate that? We can hot wire a yellow. Cab, and we can actually drive it in front of your studio here. And I can showcase to you how you can fit underneath the dashboard. Well, what I thought was that in Ocean's Eleven, the Chinese guy, when they put him in the box. Yeah, yeah. That was. This guy is making a joke out of something. It's not a joke. It's not a joke. But I was just like. Is this comedy or what? It's just that I'm not making a joke of it. I'm just like. The first thought I had was like, that guy's just sitting there like cramped for like hours. And he's like, let me know what Slee was in here so I could go out and boom, boom. You know? Like, it's just, I don't know. That was just the image I had in my mind. But you really think that this Jadrul, this guy. Absolutely. Who couldn't chew gum and think at the same time. Michael Iannotti. Yeah, yeah. You really think he thought this out? Or he was just. No, no. It's just that those guys just seem to be like complete. Like, like, like they hit. They bonked their head a little bit. Still not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like guys like this in the neighborhood. I would always ask the old timers. Yeah. I'd say, why is, why is he called Crazy Vinny, Crazy Sal? Crazy Joey. Because he's a little retarded. Because he fell on his head at birth and they had to put a plate in his head. And I said, could everybody in this, this Canarsie of mine have been born and then had a plate put in their head? Yeah. And became a geriatric expresso sipping psychotic killer of organized crime? Yeah. I ask you that. No, no. I mean, their mothers probably drank a lot when they were in there. You seem a little frightened. You seem, you're schvitzing a little bit on your shoulders. No, I'm not. Because I have the angels with me right now. Okay, all right. I'm not scared at all. Oh, no, no, that's okay. If he wanted to try something, I'd be good. Yeah, is he wearing? I'd go ahead and try. Is he wearing his depends? Because I don't want him to have an X-Lax attack. I, I. Very embarrassing. I'm not wearing a diaper right now at all. But, okay, wait. So, so you, you get out of the car because. I jump out of the car. Because the, the backseat is, is. They have stolen that cab. Yeah. And took it to the biggest chop shop in the Northeast. Carmine Agnello, son-in-law of John Gotti, Sr. Yeah. Married to Victor. Victoria the Poutin, right? The bit, the, the prostitute. Victoria the prostitute. Poutin. You remember she had that A&E special? No, I don't remember. Victoria Gotti and the three little chandeliers. Oh, the wife. Oh, yeah, I remember the show. Where they had to have subtitles. Growing up Gotti. I remember the show, yeah. It was tougher to understand Ozzy Osbourne. You had to have subtitles. Her three sons, she claimed one of them was going to Harvard. Had to have subtitles. You couldn't even understand what these knuckle draggers were saying. It's in their DNA. Uh-huh. So, anyway, Carmine Agnello. Agnello took the yellow cab and customized it. As you said, they cut the handles off inside, put them back on with crazy glue. So, you couldn't get out. Because little Nick Nick Carrazzo, who grew up with me and hated me and I hated him. We were like two scorpions in a brandy glass. Said, Curtis will try to fight his way out. He will reach for the handle. Yeah. And when he reaches for the handle, he's going to get the handle. And then you pop more lead into him. Yeah. Well, I think anyone would try to get out. And that's exactly what they did. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, these were guys from the old neighborhood. Like, you had. You had history with a lot of these guys. They were mostly from Canarsie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wait. So, then. So, then, in order to get out. Because it's just an incredible story. In order to get out, you leapt forward, crossed the driver, and then got out the window. Is that correct? Right over the gunman. The gunman was sitting right there. Yeah. Right. And I went right over his shoulder, halfway out. So, D'Angelo, who is the driver, smashes me into the parked car. They figure that's it. He pulls away. And then, Iannotti puts the last bullet in my back and pushes me out. And they figure I'm dead on arrival. Did you feel like you were dead? Like, you were going to die? I was bleeding out bad. You were terrified. So, I'm right on the corner of East 6th Street and Avenue B. Okay. This is when it was the alphabet junkie. So, you're in Alphabet City. So, it's also a dangerous place. This is when it was bad. The junkies. Yeah. Exactly. It's not like it is now, where you'd have to take a reverse mortgage and a payday loan just to rent a closet. No, it's just NYU's throwing up on the street. Exactly. Yeah, that's all. So, I'm on the ground. And who happened to be on a pay phone? No cell phones back then. But a member of the Hells Angels, that was their gin mill right there, B and 6th Street. So, he turns me over because he sees I'm bleeding out. Says, Curtis, don't die on us. And all the Hells Angels run out and they're looking at me. And then all of a sudden, one of them yells, the cab, it's coming back. The cab is coming back. Oh, fuck. So, what do you think all these roided up monsters of Mayenne do? Yeah. They run back into the bar. They ran away? They ran into the bar. I'm sitting there, right, laying out. And I'm watching this cab come to me. And it happens not to have been the same. It wasn't the same cab, but it was some guy speaking Farsi, you know, in a CB radio. Oh, a different guy. Yeah. He just missed me. The next thing you know, the meat wagon shows up. 5-0, the police show up. They scrape me up off of the asphalt. They put me in a body bag. They pump it up with air the way you would pump up a bicycle. Wait, they thought you were dead? I was bleeding out real quick. Okay. When I was in that bag, you know, where they were trying to suppress the bleeding, you could hear my blood sloshing. Oh, my word. Then they took me to Bellevue. Hit every pothole imaginable. I felt like it was Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre driving, you know, hydraulics. A rough ride, yeah. And then the moment they get me into the ER, I remember the scalpel. They were cutting me open. Two days later, I wake up in the ICU. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. They got tubes in every orifice of my body. Who's the first person I woke up to? Sorry. Who do you think was the first person I woke up to? Your wife. My enemy of all enemies. No, no. She was there. She was not the first. Oh, God forbid. Your enemy of all enemies? Ed Koch. Yes! No! Ed Koch was right there! Yeah! And did you guys, you guys made peace, you and Koch? So, I'm looking at Ed Koch. Do you want water? And remember, I'm still, no, please. Okay, you don't drink water? I don't know what you put in that water. It's sea water. Is that from the River Jordan? Is that holy water? Why are you making this about you, Ed? Is that how Jesus was baptized? No, it's essential. Like John the Baptist? It comes from Jordan. - Did you ever see the River Jordan? You see it's a little trickle now, it's all bleeding. The next war there is going to be not over oil or olive oil. It's going to be over water. But anyway, I divert to the Middle East. Yeah, no, it's true. Yeah, but you know they have desalinated. We don't have to talk about it. Why are you digressing? No, I'm not digressing. You brought up fucking Israel again. You're obsessed with Israel. You're just like Cuomo. Okay, wait, wait. I am not a Cuomo sexual. You are the Cuomo sexual. You were on the Cuomo sexual float of pride yesterday. By the way, let me get back to you. I wake up, and it's the image of Ed Koch, and I thought I died and went to hell without an asbestos suit. I look over Cardinal O'Connor. He's got the extra munchin' vest on. This is the death right vestments. Just in case I kicked it. And then in the middle was my wife, Lisa, and I recognized, wow, I survived for another day. Holy shit. It wasn't until 12 years later that they indicted John Gotti Jr., Iannotti, and D'Angelo for the kidnap and attempted killing. And that was in the racketeering case in 2005, correct? And you testified. I testified three times. There were four trials. Four trials. Wait a second. I didn't put four. So I testified three times. He skated on technicalities. Iannotti, the gunman, got 20 years. He's out. And D'Angelo became a cooperating witness, told his story the way I did. And I think he owns a pizza parlor now somewhere on Staten, Italy. All right. So after this happens, like, how did you, like, how did you, were you ever afraid that they would try? To get you again? Oh, they were trying to. There was no doubt. Did you, like, do you have anyone, like, in your family, wise guys or something like that? That could have, like, been, like, leave the boy alone? There were some extended relatives. How do I? Did they try to be, like, just don't kill Curtis? He's a good guy? No. No. There were some extended relatives I had who lived in Howard Beach. You know, old Howard Beach, not new Howard Beach. Yeah, yeah. And after I had recovered, was sitting around, you know, Sunday. They're not wearing any guinea T-shirts on. You know, they're just bare chested. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hey, you know, Curtis, you deserve that. I said, oh, tell me. Tell me. Your family? Yeah, I said, why did I deserve it? Because you're a rat. You're eating the Parmesan cheese. Oh, Merita. And you know what I told them? I'm the biggest rat going, I love to eat Parmesan cheese. Yeah. And they looked at me and said, that's why they tried to kill you. Yeah. And did you stop talking to those people? Or are they still a family? Oh, they're family. Family's not perfect. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. I feel the same way about some of my guys. They drive me. They drive me. Too much sugar. You've got to keep all together. You know, it's very tribal. Very tribal. So from 92 to 2015, I see kind of this period of like between the shooting and then 2015, you kind of like try to get the band back together, so to speak. Oh, I like that. Right. Yeah. So there's like this period where there's like a, there was a series of slashings on the subways. Yes. And like, I have this image of you in my mind where you're like, you're like going like, there's a guy like, you know, doing welding with sparks. And he takes his. He takes his mask up and he's like, I need you to do one last job. Did you hit up, what was your first call? Don. What a great comic that would be. Would Don, Don was your first call? You think you could create this like Marvel Comics, you know, about. I don't know. I see everything as a movie. All of this would. All of this would be a movie. Who created Marvel Comics? Stan Lee. That's right. What was his first? Jewish. Yeah, Jewish. You could do the Curtis Sliwa Guardian Angel comic book. You want me to? I wanted, we could do the movie. Oh, absolutely. We could do the movie because they tried to do a movie in the early 80s. And then they tried to do a Law and Order SVU episode. And we got to get it right for the first time. Yeah, that was horrible. They're fucking rubbish. In fact, after that Law and Order episode, you actually felt empathy and sympathy for John Gotti Jr. and not for me. Yes, it's absolute rubbish. That was horrible. But we got to start this way. We got to start. We can't go the whole nine yards. Let's go. Matchbook. Okay. Magazine cover. Comic book. Full novel. Yeah, yeah. What do you think? I think, what about kind of like maybe a mold of your manhood for the ladies? What is it? What about that? Excuse me. But come on, you're a sex symbol a little bit. Are you a freak or what? I'm not saying, not for me, but for the ladies, for your adoring, your. You must have mentioned phallic symbols about four times. You mentioned phallic symbols. What are you, Sigmund Freud? This guy's a freak. Okay, so you come back 2015. There's a series of slashings. New York City's changed a lot. Yes. Okay, if you want to go from 1977 to the Bronx, to like 2015, you've seen the city change. You've become part, you were part of its tapestry, as I said earlier, which is kind of an embarrassing kind of. Well, it changed from clearly all gangs, all the time, to now, unfortunately, a lot of emotionally disturbed persons who act up at a moment's notice. Yeah, and do you feel like, I've heard you speak about the homeless. Like, do you feel like it's, I've said this before, but like, in the future, it will seem like kind of ridiculous to people that we just walked past people suffering. Yeah, well, my father would take me to where you first discovered CBGBs. It was the Bowery and the 60s. Yeah, yeah, it's a John Varvado story. That's right. That was where all the flop houses were. Yeah. Where you had to say a prayer at the Salvation of Army. Yeah. And sing a song to Jesus in order to get your soup and bread. Yeah. And my father would tell me, there by the grace of God, Curtis, go you. Never make fun of these people. Always help them. He'd have conversations with them. And I thought my dad was, had all the furniture upstairs and rearranged in the wrong room. Yeah. But I could see every time. But there were veterans, a lot of them, too. Excuse me? He served, he was in the service, and they were veterans a lot of these days. That's right, merchant seamen. And we kind of abandoned them when they came back home. Yeah, they weren't merchants. Yeah, yeah. Like Jews and Chinese and Lebanese. I know, I know, I was making it up. They were merchant seamen. I don't know about Lebanese, but yeah. They were considered the scourge of the earth. Yeah. You know what they used to say? Oh, the seamen are coming. Hide your daughters and wives. Really? They all have scurvy and they all have syphilis. Well, they were saying, oh, yeah, that's not nice. You know the history of that? You know, per capita, per person, more merchant seamen were killed in World War II than the other members of the uniformed service. More than the Marines or the Army. Is that right? Merchant Marines, yes. Really? Where? In the Pacific there? Pacific and the Atlantic. The Pacific was hell. Remember, once the ship got hit with a torpedo, down to Davy Jones' locker. Oh, that's right, because they had a. They couldn't stop. The U-boats. Oh, it's very good. Yeah, we're. Nazis. No, no, yeah. Nazis. Wow, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, by the way, didn't one of your people do springtime for Hitler? Who is that again? Mel Brooks. That's right. Okay, wait. You know what he said about that when he got criticized? He said, I fought in the Battle of the Bulge against Nazis. What were you doing? Great response, Mel Brooks. We're fucking allowed to make jokes about Nazis, and if you want to stop us, you can't, because that's the thing we're allowed to make jokes about. It's like, I love it. Okay, anyway, but, like, I want to know about, like, what is the bridge there to get you to, like, are the angels? Are the angels active in that period? Like, do the, like, what inspires you to get, like, to get a team back together, assemble a team? I'm assuming Don is your first call. No. The Mad China Man. Don was well off. He was at McDonald's corporate. Corporate. He was selling French fries, you know. I saw that. He was out in Idaho. I saw that, yeah. I looked him up. Yeah, yeah. But I stayed in touch with him, you know, as a friend. But really, this was more a pivoting shift. We had guardian angels all over the world now. Yeah. And you have to try. They say, what is the problem? What can we get our volunteers to do that is not being done? And increasingly, helping the homeless, helping the emotionally disturbed. Yeah, yeah. And if you notice, all the candidates, they pay lip service. They don't do anything. Yeah. de Blasio, he was too busy doing puff, puff, pass, pass on the back. He was blazing. Oh, my God, was he blazing. The whole time he was the mayor? Every night on the back porch of Gracie Mansion, he was doing puff, puff, pass. Maybe he had a sleeping issue. No? The problem is, he slept too much. Yeah, yeah, that's true. He didn't wake up. Especially during COVID, yeah. And then you had Eric Adams, swagger man with no plan, who would party to the break of dawn in every nightclub. The only way you could get him to your neighborhood. And now we have Zora and the Magnificent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They all talk about the homeless and the emotionally disturbed. Yeah, yeah. You know what they do? They do bupkis. Yeah. And the people, as you said, they put window shades on their eyes, cotton balls in their ears. They don't want to deal with it. Yeah. What should we do? You know, living in a city, you kind of have to, like, have a cognitive dissonance when you see, like, if it really fully, when I first moved here, I moved here in 2014, like, the first time you see a truly suffering human being, it's jarring. And you have to kind of, like, have horse blinders in order to just get to work on the train or, like, you know, like, what do we as a society, like, in your mind, what should we do? Well, you can't become immune to that feeling, that initial feeling you had was the correct humanitarian feeling. It's an empathetic feeling. Yeah, yeah. By yourself, it's difficult to do much. But if you mobilize and organize, which is how I was taught by my father, rules for radicals. Yeah. You know, you never read rules for radicals, did you? Angela Davis? No. Well, that's close. Angela Davis, Soledad Brothers, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That whole era. Who was it? Who was it? Except this was Saul Alinsky. Saul Alinsky. Organized. Oh, that's Obama's boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's how you learn how to organize. So you like Obama? Obama? Look. Smooth operator. Community organizer. But again, it's idolatry. Trump, idolatry. Obama, idolatry. Zoran, idolatry. Question authority. Yeah, yeah. Never accept what they say. I don't trust any politicians. What did you, like, when the, we're getting a little bit ahead, but like, actually, fuck it. I want to talk about it. Like, when the, when the, when the microphones got cut at the end. How many F-bombs is that? Are you keeping count there, young woman? I got a dirty mouth. I got a dirty mouth. I got a dirty mouth. I'm a blue comedian. Okay. Wait. but like when the microphones were cut, like what were they like as guys like quote, cuomo and and zoron like just as guys like interacting with them andrew evilized cuomo was exactly as he appeared he was a jerk dystopian he was a jerk to you uh he felt he was entitled yeah yeah he wanted a coronation yeah uh i felt he was evil okay i could feel the evilness now i knew his father mario and his father actually i i think perhaps you could correct me if i'm wrong perhaps the rivalry with Koch inspired this but he uh actually praised you as lieutenant governor he's the first elected official to support us and praise us and yeah part of that was his rivalry with Koch a little bit mean to what he said he was genuine no no but the slogan against Koch vote for Cuomo oh yeah well that is yeah see andrew always came up with that for his dad yes not that he was the campaign manager at 23. oh wow for his dad and so his dad was losing to ed Koch they had a runoff in the democratic primary in 1977. and they said and then all of a sudden they came up with this idea andrew cuomo they said dad you got to go for this so you're going to lose to ed Koch because he's a vote gay man not the homo they had them all printed up his dad it was like the hamlet of the hudson who always should i should not took 38 seconds to agree yeah yeah the next day the polls showed that ed koch was plummeting and then david garth who was his campaign manager said ed i got this don't worry called up best myerson the most beautiful jewish woman who ever existed the first miss america every boobie and zayda said i hope my son or grandson will be with best myers best myerson best myerson and then david garth convinced her i want you to attach yourself to ed koch because he was gay uh-huh but pretend that if ed gets elected mayor as you swap spit everywhere you go yeah that you're going to have a marriage in gracie mansion and all the boobies and zaydas all the jewish old ladies who are playing march on you know so best was a beard for him yes yeah okay and a very good beard on my dad so why didn't she want to find a husband like a nice like a guy that wasn't gay no i think she was doing it more as a favor to david garth she was david garth he he was the campaign manager who got john lindsey elected oh yeah coach elected and michael butter cheech rudy giuliani elected oh best i'm looking at a picture right now he was wild oh he was out of control but he knew politics oh this is a this is wow she's quite a looker this you see i'm teaching you something this is a teaching moment for you the gentile well so he got he got this boy well i wasn't around in the old town did you study no one knows what's in the talmud unless you're one of those guys in south now come on you must have studied come on no it's the most boring they teach you there to question authority right you question the rabbi this is what i believe it's like it's the most boring debates about like oh and if you do this if you keep the shabbos if you don't do that the rabbi's talking about the most boring but you do question the rabbi you see in real life we are told don't question our leaders it's a story about like i i've been i've sat there in jerusalem and watched that it's a fake it was an enlightening experience i mean it's a thing it almost made me want to get a bris did you so you're you got you added as an adult man it might hurt i wasn't look i am an amp catholic ashes on wednesday palms on sunday then you don't see me for a month on sundays so yeah if i'm dissatisfied with one religion you think i'm going to convert to another religion but religions they're all ridiculous it's like the one that you if you're born onto one it's the right one it's like stupid wow because what about another guy he's born into another one he thinks it's the right one and by the way look at all the evangelicals right they love the israelis but then on the day of rapture when it's all over yeah yeah the mashiach comes down you think that's the answer either the jews convert or they die right they think there has to be a cow that's red let me ask you a question why do you put up with this nonsense what do you mean put up with the nonsense what do you what do you mean what do i put up with he's asking questions no i'm asking you like i'm asking you i'm asking you what like what do you want what am i going to fight them like right no i i speak question question authority question i've spoken very publicly about my opinions on uh on what's happened over there this is good and that it is why are we talking about israel and the palestinians again why do you always keep you just brought it up subject you just brought it up yeah but you have a tick you have like a knee-jerk reaction every time you're doing a honeypot where you're setting the trap and i respond to you and then you say that i brought it up did you ever have the honey pot it's a you know honey you and it's a classic you and don chan doing a honeypot did you ever have honey buns yeah in jail that's like currency honey buns i know i said i was in newport mentors you gotta have the box not the soft yeah yeah yeah you think you could survive in jail i would be top dog now you'd be a maytag i would they'd have you alive they would eat me alive city protective custody no i joined muslim brotherhood i think why not why i joined the brothers you like that he likes it that's good wait wait okay so i want to talk like what was it you said pomo was a a jerk what was uh zoron like when they cut the mics so i was interesting he's a nice guy or a regular uh what it was is obviously he's got that he's talented that smile 24 7 365. but i had seen him in action in the streets you know they say he's the manchurian kennedy campaigning he was organizing do you know the dsa only has 15 000 members in all of new york city what's dsa democratic socialists of america the ones who is that good over there is that a good one like 15 000. are they good or bad well it depends what the issue is yeah like any group republicans democrats uh maga conservatives independent whatever the issue but the point is they work hard and that's why they're winning elections yeah yeah out of the pavement how do they do this because they're out there they're working hard by day and then they party to the break of dawn at night what does every young person want to do after a hard day's work party yeah and hook up right and that's just like just like eric adams right now people who supported me and the homosexuals who supported cuomo they'd come out and they'd work hard for one day and then they had to get epson salts for their dogs they were barking oh yeah they had to take ben gave you didn't see him for another three days but i think i got to tell you i think you you for those zoron guys you're like last halloween you were like the biggest cause you're on easter's day yeah yeah you're were like the biggest costume in new york city you like that everyone became quite fond of you in the election whether or not besides the cuomo well remember the family they all became quite fond of you became like uh like uh we know how that happened a hit yeah bait number two errol lewis new york one asked the question yeah if there was ranked choice voting in a general election yeah andrew cuomo who would you vote for nobody and then he turned to zoron mandami if there were ranked choice voting in a general election who would you vote for zoron mandami oh i'd vote for courtesy and that's when i popped that line that went all over the world what did you say stop blazing me so long yeah wait you had that you had the you talked about the cab and then the other one was when you talked about that you love edm music i think that way electronic dance move uh music the chain smokers i listened at night after everybody told me to drop out drop out drop out don't let me down my diet don't let me down don't let me and then in the morning four hours later i put on bunt today is the greatest day of my life that great berlin edm guy wow do you like uh uh uh uh fox's uh what's the song that we like what is this uh what is it clarity do you like clarity by zen featuring foxes okay do you like it do you like uh chain smokers uh cold plate i would like to see it do you like chain smokers uh cold plate i would like to see it do you like uh chain smokers uh cold plate i would do you like uh chain smokers uh cold plate i would want something just like it is an insult why why why i've got people associate me with everything except for uh wait okay so i just like you went through this experience like as a republican candidate in new york city which is like at this point republican has changed i mean we had mayor lindsay we had we had lindsay we had lindsay we had rudy right and then we have you know like uh rudy right and then we have you know like uh rudy right and then we have you know like uh bloomberg was kind of a bisexual or bloomberg was kind of a bisexual or bloomberg was kind of a bisexual or whatever you want to call it who is that whatever you want to call it who is that whatever you want to call it who is that my mayor bloomberg i i said whatever he my mayor bloomberg i i said whatever he my mayor bloomberg i i said whatever he was some sometimes whoever he could buy was some sometimes whoever he could buy was some sometimes whoever he could buy he was anything mayor bloomberg thought he was anything mayor bloomberg thought he was anything mayor bloomberg thought everybody had a price yeah yeah yeah everybody had a price yeah yeah yeah everybody had a price yeah yeah yeah everybody had a price but nowadays in everybody had a price but nowadays in everybody had a price but nowadays in new york city it's about like what it's new york city it's about like what it's new york city it's about like what it's like 25 like 25 like 25 republicans no much less 10 10 okay republicans no much less 10 10 okay republicans no much less 10 10 okay so like what in your mind is being a so like what in your mind is being a so like what in your mind is being a republican and living in new york city republican and living in new york city republican and living in new york city at this at this point unfortunately you at this at this point unfortunately you at this at this point unfortunately you live in the cloud of donald trump and live in the cloud of donald trump and live in the cloud of donald trump and maga and you think it's in color is what maga and you think it's in color is what maga and you think it's in color is what a republican is well yeah it does but a republican is well yeah it does but a republican is well yeah it does but to give you an example yeah i'm in gay to give you an example yeah i'm in gay to give you an example yeah i'm in gay pride yesterday pride yesterday pride yesterday i got nothing but cheers yeah the schmuck i got nothing but cheers yeah the schmuck i got nothing but cheers yeah the schmuck the punch chucky cheese schumer got booed the punch chucky cheese schumer got booed the punch chucky cheese schumer got booed does that tell you it's not about your does that tell you it's not about your does that tell you it's not about your political party but how people relate to political party but how people relate to political party but how people relate to you you you when they see me they don't when they see me they don't when they see me they don't necessarily see trump but they could it necessarily see trump but they could it necessarily see trump but they could it could have been the beret hates me no they could have been the beret hates me no they could have been the beret hates me no they could could could the beret they like what are you trying to the beret they like what are you trying to the beret they like what are you trying to say it's like jay guevara i'm not say it's like jay guevara i'm not say it's like jay guevara i'm not beret no no i'm trying to say you guys beret no no i i think they might think it's like fierce explain yourself like i think they might think it's like fierce explain yourself like you're an icon would say to lucy you're an icon would say to lucy you're an icon would say to lucy explain yourself young man yeah yeah yeah explain yourself young man yeah yeah yeah explain yourself young man yeah yeah yeah one young she would be really annoying one young she would be really annoying one young she would be really annoying to ricky you know who is that uh lucy to ricky you know who is that uh lucy to ricky you know who is that uh lucy you know the accused of being a communist really yeah you didn't know that lucille ball and humphrey bogart yeah and laurel mccall when joe mccarthy machine gun joe said did you ever meet roy code oh my god gay is the day is long i know he went after gays and tried to expose him yes i did what was that guy like uh he was in a cadillac deville no top yeah you know convertible with a guy who had to be like 22. yeah he had the man tan you know the tan you get out of the can all over him and they were driving out to the hamptons meantime he would go out of his way to accuse people of being communists and gays this was a self-hating game he said the rosenbergs to the to be executed yeah he was a jewish guy too and running around with j edgar hoover who by the way cross-dresser uh yes you see the ones who hated them the most unfortunately self-hating gays how many times have you interacted with the president over the donald trump yeah yeah oh citizen trump i had a love-hate relationship with him for at least 30 years 30 years uh since he was president zero what do you what do you make of him as a person like what like what what's going on there is psychological we listen independent of politics like what what's the where's the pain like what what made trump trump it's an i am he's an i am me guy it's all about donald trump it's not about mago or republicans or what is in the best interests of donald trump but that has to come from somewhere you know uh i would say a lot of insecurity probably when he was young yeah you know fred was the dad fred was the brother died he constantly clashed do you know his father fred couldn't even handle him you know where he sent donald trump for high school military school that's right u.s military academy upstate you know who also went there at a different time john goddy jr because he couldn't handle his son so where do you send sons who rebel against their fathers u.s military academy look at la salle in long island that used to have the cousin austria how did you avoid going because you you when you were a young man there was the draft yes yeah how did you get out i was part of the anti-war movement i wanted to demonstrate no i didn't burn my car luckily the number didn't get called phasing it out then gerald who replaced that crook just expanded it well kissinger just kept the war going oh my god kissinger was who discussed that guy goes to hell by the way first ballot hall of fame let me bring it back to israel no so israel is being attacked right by all the arab armies do you know that henry kissinger the jew who went to george washington high school in washington heights but had that accent he advised richard nixon don't help israel it'll anger the soviet union richard nixon the anti-semite no no no no i'm helping israel let's see that the anti-semite helped i got to think about that elected socialist leader i know and he launched a coup and he put pinochet and they killed all the socialists in the congo i know there are some out there oh socialists do you know how many things is we benefit from in america how many 40-day work week yeah social security 40-hour work yeah yes i'm sorry very good thank you for correcting social security medicare medicaid very good go through the what else what else what else public schools libraries go through the whole place and also like you saw firsthand as an angel the failure of the government to give services to to its uh citizens now now we're getting to the the issue right to the marrow of the bone i believe if you're going to trust government you're going to be disappointed no matter who the leader is that you back to what party they will always promise everything and they can barely let me cut you off you were running for mayor though so yes do you think people should have trusted you then to a degree because i believe more in self-help i would have encouraged people stop depending on government when you see garbage in the street is that because the government or is that because people are not cleaning up after themselves it's because the trash is they're not picking the government isn't because people are throwing garbage on the streets people are not cleaning up after themselves it's because the trash is they're not picking the government is because people are throwing the garbage all over the place and they want the government to clean it up for them so what do they do if you don't have the the sanitation pick up the trash my grandfather fidel bianchi you know who died make your parents house into a dump that's right would sweep the whole block sure but you see back then that's yeah people had that philosophy they'd get down on their hands and knees they would scrub the sidewalks and they would scrub the stoops and not just their own property other people's property we've lost that The attitude now is government should do everything for us. But what I'm saying is the government didn't, there weren't patrolmen on the streets, right? You mean police, right? Yeah, yeah. Every night, right, they just went away, and then crime. Like, obviously, the government should have patrolmen on the streets. Oh, there are basic things they have to do, but when the government fails to deliver, which oftentimes they do, then people must mobilize and organize and make up the difference. They have to. You need to scrape the barnacles off your backside, get your rear in gear, get out into the streets and make a difference. Do not wait for government to solve all the problems because they'll be a dollar short and a day late, and they'll be picking your pocket along the way. Yeah. I guess you spent a lot of time in poor places with poor people, right? And, like, you've helped poor people and underserved people throughout, I mean, since the late 70s. I mean, like, you've devoted your life to it. Do you think poverty creates crime? Absolutely. Yeah. So then wouldn't it be more effective to fight poverty, then, I guess? Well, you can do both simultaneously. Yeah. But I think also the other problem is most of the crime is committed by young males. Yeah. Having been in jail myself for periods of time and locked up with these young men, not able to read, not able to write, not able to communicate, no male figure. No male figure of authority who is a positive influence in their lives. That's going to put you on a one-way street to Palookaville. Right. We've got to straighten that out. Yeah. So the public services need to be improved, I suppose, right? No, no. You see, if you're always going to depend on government, there are things you can do voluntarily to improve that. In every neighborhood, that can occur. And men have to step up and take responsibility. They are the ones who are the predators. Men are predators, not women. Yeah. They are the ones who are abandoned. Abandoning families and leaving them to their own means. And they are the ones who are basically teaching a lot of the young men the wrong things to do in life. We've got to straighten them out. The predators, yeah. Yeah. Now, see, if you say that in the inner city, and I say that in the inner city all the time, my complexion is not my protection. I'm called a racist. No, no. I'm dealing with reality. This is the reality. You want to deal with this situation or you want me not to offend you? I'm here to tell you. The truth, whether it offends you or not. Yeah. You've arrested a ton of people, citizens' arrests, of course. Like, probably thousands of people in your lifetime, right? I'd say hundreds. Hundreds, okay. How do you feel when you're in that situation? How does it make, like, you, like, what, like, emotional process are you going through on your end? I would say when you decide that you have no other choice but to restrain somebody or block their path of exit, that technically is a citizen arrest. It's like, why do I even have to do this? Right. And then you recognize because there is nothing to fall back on. You are there right there. Sometimes I've done it on my own. Sometimes in the company of guardian angels. And if you don't restrain this person and then follow it through the criminal justice system, shame on you. Now, the checks and balances. And also, you're protecting someone that's in peril, too. Correct. So there's an immediate need for you to intervene, right? But the checks and balances are if you use excessive force. Yeah. If you detain the wrong person. Guess what? There is an army out there who practices their martial art every day. Lawyers. I sue. Yeah. And they're going to be suing you for every nickel, dime, and penny you have. Yeah. When you were on Fox TV a couple years ago, there was some of your crew were detaining a migrant. Oh, me and the crew in Times Square. This is when the Venezuelans were running wild in Times Square. But it turned out that he was from the Bronx, right? We grabbed somebody that we thought was a migrant that turned out not to be a migrant was a Puerto Rican. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We had a difference of opinion with him. We didn't handle it well. And so we had to restructure our training after that. Do you worry that there could be like a. I remember after the Boston bombing, people on Reddit were accusing the wrong people and doing citizen policing and then kind of destroyed those people's lives that weren't associated with the bombing or whatever. Do you worry about that as a tension for someone that's doing. Because obviously, if you think about it, you're not going to be able to do that. You're not going to be able to do that. If you think about the picture you painted of 1977, the Bronx, you feel the need that the government had failed, where the government had failed. I think that like, you know, I'll put it in a different way. I'll put it in a different way. This is the difference. When you see someone go in a squad car that you've detained, does it feel bad still? I'd rather it not have happened. Yeah, you'd rather it not have happened. And I don't know yet who that person really is. I don't know. Do you consider that like they're, yeah, I guess like it's just obviously if you're protecting. someone's life like that's the primary concern well it's because you're on the spot this is what you have to do you wish you didn't have to do that yeah it has to be morally like quite complicated for you as a human being because like this other person's freedom is being going to be taken away you know like and it's just like it doesn't feel great maybe well nowadays with no cash bail nobody's freedom is taken away because you might go in to get processed you're out before the paperwork is finished yeah it is a turnstile justice you know who created no cash bail andrew evil eyes cuomo yeah so so how does it feel i guess like if you you know if you just paint a picture like there's a drug dealer on the corner he gets arrested there's another drug dealer on that corner right like does it often feel at times feel demoralizing like you're treating a symptom of something that's like a sickness that's like the you're trimming a leaf of a trunk that's like uh that has a disease right no that's a good analogy yeah but i would say if you're in a neighborhood it does not want that drug dealing sure and you remove that drug deal yeah and he's got to deal with the criminal justice system then you got to be there to make sure another drug dealer doesn't take his spot people don't want crime in their neighborhoods essentially right like no one does right like poor people don't either it's predominantly in poor neighborhoods so we don't give the same attention to a poor neighborhood like park avenue in the bronx and park avenue in brooklyn are poor neighborhoods yeah park avenue and manhattan is treated completely different right so so if you're like seeing that that process where like just like someone's replacing someone else right and there's just this cycle like does it uh does it inspire you to like go after the bigger fish you know well i did yeah that's why i went after the goddies and gambitos but they're not like in the government they're not like oh they're not they they're they're feeding drugs for sure right but they also control the judges yeah the prosecutors yeah the cops yeah so even though they weren't the the government yeah they controlled many aspects of the government yeah of course and so sure i was used to busting well they controlled corruption also they were yeah yeah but i went after the biggest of the big and that was because you felt frustrated by like no because i didn't like the myth telling of italian organized crime they were bringing heroin in to the minority communities yeah they wanted blacks to be addicted okay then all of a sudden when their own children and grandchildren were being addicted they said oh we had no control well you're the guys who brought it in to begin with yeah i don't want to hear this my neighborhood is safer with organized crime than it's not and i would bust that bubble and they hated me telling that story sure because i had credibility because there's omerta too it's like you we don't talk about our people right not in front of them except that not in front of them except that mutt curtis leeway he's got no respect yeah yeah no respect polack exactly exactly that met some polack well the funny thing when i was growing up the gavones in my neighborhood would say you're polish yeah polish what is that i'd say poland i said what is that it's a country in europe yeah yeah the only thing they recognized was italy they didn't know anything else because there'd be a big picture of italy in the pizzeria you know the boot and all that that's all they knew did you ever see what the greatest movie that spike lee ever made do the right thing of course yeah danny aiello and his sons yeah yeah running the pizzeria you think they did the right thing at the end of that movie you mean with radio raheem yeah man wasn't that a great movie it's an amazing film god that's so good that was when spike lee was at his best i mean he was mookie right yeah yeah he was the little rio you had radio raheem who was the dodgers hey i want more parmesan cheese on my slice yeah yeah how come you don't got no black people on the world when you got your own pizzeria you'll come port malcolm max martin luther king as long as i own this pizzeria it's joe damaggio and frank academy award oh danny aiello he's no longer with us i miss you dearly what so what yeah you you come from uh like uh an italian neighborhood but your first wife was from the virgin islands virgin islands brownsville you ran an organization of mostly blacks and hispanics and hispanic men i mean how did you get the risk like how did you get the hood passed like how did you get the respect of like i was known as the caucasian persuasion the snowboard yeah yeah i could rock your world because they would challenge me break like dancing or no fighting obviously i could dance i was a whirling dervish and i could do the robot can we see you ever see just do it holy you get this keep going wow see pretty good give it up for that pretty cool come on give it up i got it give it up this is dance fever you can be one of those you can be one of those guys that's all painted silver on the street that's like exactly oh very good you're good too yeah yeah all right yeah wow this guy can't beat you wish you actually have some rhythm thank you thank you that's the nicest thing anyone said to me ever all right i don't know about that i think i think i will close up this one last question i think like that's it i thought this was going to be the last question this was just the start of uh no we're going to be this is part one we're going to be doing a lot of these we're doing a sequel i gotta have a sequel um when you reach the end of your life like what what do you hope people say about you like how do you want to be remembered man you know every day i could reach the end of my life with all the animals that i have i know so you have to think about what would i want to be remembered as he died he tried he died and he tried nobody should ever think that they're the bn or end all you know this world has been around a lot longer before and will be around a lot longer afterwards yeah but did you try to make this world a better place than what you were birthed into and i think that's the litmus test for all of us whether we are men and women of means whether we have the pedigree to inherit something where we could make a difference i detest these masters of the universities billionaires and millionaires who think that they are the beginning the end all the be all artificial intelligence bitcoin that is nothing more than crime coin they are destroying things destroying things and they don't care about the effect that it has on people no and artificial intelligence right i don't yeah i mean aren't you worried as a person i've tried to use charge gpt at never know but you like to cheat you like to use it no it doesn't work when i'm researching i like asking a question and it's always wrong how about you go to the freaking library at fifth avenue and forty seconds that's what i do you get the encyclopedia that's what i do this is what your children people used to do that's what i do after school what did they do they taught me this like the chosen people they went to the library the blue head matron and then once she credit credited you she took us into the back room and do you know what was the end internet of my generation the baby boomers black in the back white print microfilm microfilm microfish i discovered the world that the jewish kids knew that's why they did better at extra credit reports that's why they graded out better that's why they were arista and i said who am i going to hang with my supreme cujeans you're going to end up in attica or damariah up the river follow the chosen people to the blue-haired matron where i'm i discovered microfilm and then when i would take a book out i had a pedal immediately on my big swing cheap cheap bicycle to get that book back into the night depository because the next day the old blue head matron would come to your house without a warrant want to kick in the door i want that book back now yeah oh god that was so great thank you thank you jewish people thank you for allowing me to have a part of your life i've actually been lying i'm not jewish i'm a wahhabist by the way we didn't talk enough about israel and the palestinians can we stop with the jewish he died why do you guys let me ask you a question if you're at each other's throats you both eat hummus right i hate hummus i hate those garbanzo beans when they're simmering the stink and yet you palestinians and jews you love the hummus and you're constantly battling over olive trees that help make the hummus we got the hummus from them they made the hummus and then we called it israeli food i hate hummus i hate hummus it's pretty good with baby carrots have you had it no no come on he died makes me want to projectile vomit yeah he died he tried he died he tried courtesy and by the way yeah will this be my lasting legacy this interview right now we put it in a time capsule do you think this is the best interview you've ever given i have to say it is the most amazing interview you've ever given i have to say it is the most dysfunctional uh i think it's really good interview that is the real curtis sliwa i think we got we i think it was amazing i think we have one man this is my favorite interview ever attention deficit disorder add yeah with curtis sliwa who actually had a match when it came from flipping the script from one subject to another sub i give you cred man you're my man you kept up listen this is i feel like uh it's a real bless it's a real honor you've been saying to fight it's been it's been a real uh now you can wait for the arrival of the machine - Menachem Schneerson and Rebbe Menachem Schneerson. - Yes, my mom at 770 East in Berkeley, I know them. I've seen them all over the world in the Habats. - We want Mashiach now. - Yes, yes. - Come to sleep, everyone. - Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach, Mashiach. - This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT a call. ChatGPT work, access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro plans. - Hank joined BJ's Wholesale Club the day he became a father of 30. - I coach football. - Now Coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices, 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. - And that's just pregame. - He knows teamwork. And BJ's knows savings. 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