The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Guardian Angles Founder Curtis Sliwa on Why He's the Best Candidate for Mayor of NYC

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by NYC Mayoral Candidate and Founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa.  He addresses why he is the best candidate for the job and and why he will not bow out of the race.

I'm good to go. Okay, go ahead. All right. This is live from the table, the official podcast of the world famous comedy seller, available wherever you get your podcast, and available on YouTube, which is, I think, the way most people do it nowadays. You know, people like audio and video. Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, it's Dan Natterman here, a comedy seller comic, and with Noam Dorman, the owner of the comedy seller. Citizen of the Barrow of Manhattan, a New York City citizen of a modern election. Since the 90s, as I was explaining earlier to our guest. Well, I'll get to that. Periel is here, as usual. Peryel is here, as usual. And, boy, what a guess we have today?

We have a New York institution. This guy, I've heard of him since I was a kid in the 80s. Curtis Lewa, founder of the Guardian Angels, he's running for mayor. I've never been to the comedy, said. I used to have a headquarters for the Guardian Angels in the early 80s at the Judson Memorial Church. That's right here, yeah. Where I had one of my many marriages. Reverend Moody, I remember.

I do, I do. We could patrol the whole area, Washington Square Park at that time. Nickel and dine bag rastafarians who just was selling oregano instead of the real deal and causing fights. But, yeah, I was up and down with Google. I think you got a gun club down the block. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like three-something. Yeah, restaurant and gun club.

So you get your rigatone if you're a crooked politician. and then you go down and you shoot, you shoot targets. So, sir, first of all, yeah, we're very, very happy to have you. You were, as he said, you're a New York institution when I was younger, when Dan was younger, if you had to walk around a sketchy neighborhood in New York, and you saw a guardian angel, you breathed a sigh of relief, you guys were unarmed, you were brave. Did any garden angels die?

Yeah, yeah. In fact, people ask me, why you wear that red beret, especially when you're running for mayor? It's the second time I'm running, 2021, the first time. I warned everybody about Eric Adams being corrupt and we would have chaos. And now everybody goes, oh, you were so right. Well, you didn't vote for me enough of you or we could have avoided that. But people say, well, why do you wear that red beret in honor of six who were killed in the line of duty,

guardian angels, three dozen seriously injured? And when I'm in the subways, because I'm the only candidate that actually rides the subway every day to campaign and I'm out in the streets, people understand that that red beret you can come to, especially when you're in need, especially the emotionally disturbed and the homeless, that unfortunately are everywhere in our city, especially the subways. To ask you question, what motivated young people at that time to risk their lives to fight crime as your guardian angels did? Well, I was a night manager of Mickey D.'s McDonald's in 1979.

It was at the time of that cult movie classic, The Warriors. Uh-huh. Warriors, yeah. So it'll give you a pretty good idea what the main problem was back then, gangs, street gangs. And there were way more street gang members than there were cops. And late at night, they did not have transit police riding the subways in the off-peak hours, seven at night to five in the morning because they had made draconian cuts into the budget. And since I had to close up to Mickey D's in a very tough area, I just brainwashed my closing crew that we might as well start patrolling the trains on the way home.

They called us the burger boys first. then we had involved into the Guardian Angels. And I'll never forget, I thought what I was doing was so good, so heroic. And then Ed Koch, thank God, there was no TikTok then and social networking because he was the master of the soundbite called his vigilantes, stugs, gangbangers. And I said, wow, what a ride this is going to be. And the first 13 years were really bad because I was getting arrested almost every other month. and spending time on Rikers Island.

So I got a chance to firsthand know and see how Rikers Island operates, from the dormitories to the Bing to PC, protective custody, or what the inmates call punk city. So I was able to sort of get the feel of New York being an outlier until we were accepted when Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor

and then we've had no problem since. What, what, Greg, you had no question? Yeah, well, I just wanted to know you were unarmed. And why didn't you, did you have, you didn't have bulletproof vests or some non-lethal weapons that were legal that you could have carried? No, no, no. Look, enough weapons out there. So the whole idea here is we're supposed to be peacemakers.

So we're getting involved in very difficult situations. If our adversaries thought that we were strapped or carrying any kind of weapons, they would immediately reach for their weapons. Right. Now, obviously, you know, you're walking a fine line there when so many people revert to violence. In fact, in June 19th and 1992, I was shot five times with hollow point bullets on the orders of John Gotti Sr. to John Gotti Jr. and the Gambito Crime family. This is in the taxi? And you opened the window and you jumped out of the window or something?

Well, the window was already open. So I had no other choice but to dive out of a speeding cab. It's an amazing story. And I was able to survive that. They just assumed that I would be dead and buried. And then eventually 12 years later, John Gotti Jr., got arrested for the attempted murder, kidnapping, or Curtis Leaver with Michael Leonotti, who got 20 years for shooting me, and four separate

federal trials. So I got a chance to look at the criminal justice system up and close and personal. Last question before I get to the mayor. Yes. Just because, by the way, we have a mutual, we had a mutual friend, I believe, Roy Ennis. Oh, yeah. So my family was very close with Roy

inus. And for a while, his son, Niger, although I haven't seen him in many years. And I saw you from time to time at those core dinners they have or they used to have. I don't know if they still have them. But yeah, he was a dear friend, especially my father. It's very unusual man, very bright man. Oh, yeah, strong. Yeah. Real strong. Now, the last time I saw Roy Innes, I'm visiting my mother, Francesca. She's no longer with us. At the Hebrew home for the age, she was having rehab on her hip. She had, thankfully not broken her head, but seriously bruised it. So I go up to all the wards.

You know, I start visiting, the nurses, the physicians, the patients, families. And who do I see in one of the wards, Roy Innes, in his last days suffering from severe dementia? He did not recognize me. You know, what a hoke of a man, he was now shrunk. This is part of the problems in our society is that when people come down with dementia and Alzheimer's, it's almost like they're tucked away. And you always say, whatever happened to that person? They never adequately tell you because it's sort of like when I was a kid and somebody died of cancer.

Nobody ever said cancer in the 60s. Oh, no, you couldn't say cancer. Oh, he had a problem. He had a heart problem. Did he have cancer? Oh, you can't say cancer around here. And that's the way we're treating dementia Alzheimer's. I mean, Roy, when his Congress of Racial Equality, his chairman, was bright.

Yes. I mean, he was sharp. And in his waning days, he didn't even recognize me. Yeah, and he'd become very frail. Oh, very much so. Anyway, so, okay, you're running for mayor. Before we get into your candidacy, I would like for you to prognosticate for us. What will the city look like under Mayor Mamdani?

What is it that we are trying to avoid? What do you see his administration bringing to New York? So you use a $5 a word on me, prognosticate. What do you think I'm Nostodomacia? I heard Ron Kuby say it to you one time. Exactly, whose mommy was a commie. My former partner. Oh, he probably is all for Tuts.

Loving Zohan Mandami, you know. First off, it's interesting because I don't fear people being communist, socialist. We've had communists and socialists in our city government for the last century. You don't fear that. That's a political ideology I don't share. You let the people make the determinations. Then he gets called an anti-Semite, and he doesn't back away. He just like doubles down.

And then I look to all my Jewish friends, and I say, oh, you influences did a really good job, right? 40% of your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren voted for Zohan Mandami. So it's a generational divide. I'm a baby boomer. I grew up in the 60s. Your parents told you, don't grow your hair long. What'd you do?

Grow your hair long. Don't smoke ragweed. What'd you do? You smoke ragweed. Don't go to a concert. You went to the concert. Don't trust anybody over 30. My first vote was for George McGovern against Richard Nixon,

and I joined a million people protesting the war upon his inauguration because Nixon had lied in 68th at all. I'm going to end the event. now more. He expanded it to Secret War in Laos and in nearby Cambodia. So in that era, we didn't trust authority. We didn't trust. Our parents, we didn't trust those that were our seniors. And so you evolve. And this is what's happening again in 2025. So with Zorhan Mandami, I think of the song Shadei, smooth operator. Oh God, he is so smooth. And I believe, I don't know this to be a fact that he probably has watched the best of Barack Obama over and over and over.

Because he has some of those same traits. And he has a philosophy that's alien to mind, but it's been a growing philosophy within the ranks of the Democratic Party. They have not confronted it. And they are just about generationally soon to take over the party. It started with Bernie the Outta Caca Sanders, who beat Hillary in the primary 2016. and then he lost because of the superdelegates,

but she wanted him in. He's never been a Democrat. I've tried to, what I really want, I want you to scare the shit out of us. What is it that we should vote for you to avoid? What will he bring to the city? What, describe that dark cloud? Well, it's not just him.

That's dystopian future we have. It's Andy Cuomo, smacking fanies and killing grannies. I mean, come on. One at a time. What is, what do you fear Mom Dani will bring to the men? all, he's hopelessly naive. He really is. He's lived a very sheltered life. He's been a trust fund kid, you know, privileged life. You know, he has these ideas that we all had when we were young

that, you know, come see, come sa, live and let live. Capitalism is no good. Incentive is no good. You know, meritocracy is no good. But he's benefited from that. He went to Bronx High School of science, and as much as Eric Adams at that time before he was won and done, oh, he could have taken a seat in Columbia from an African-American student. I say he smock-puds. His father was the chairman of the African-American Studies Division, and he didn't even get legacy. They didn't accept them into Columbia. You had to go up to Bowden, Maine. You'd have to find it on the map. So I just believe that his experiences have not lent itself to understand what average everyday working class people have to go through. I'm

sort of the populist blue-collar working class candidate. He is the candidate of the white-collar millennials, Gen Ziers, who are told if you go four years of college, get a graduate degree like my wife, you'll be able to afford your own house, your American dream, and you'll end up at 35 years old in an apartment as if you're living in a

dormitory with four other roommates. And now I understand why they're pissed, because you've got to pay your student loans at the beginning of the month, and you're barely have enough money for rent. So I completely understand why he's had an appeal. I don't fear Zohan Mandami, but I just know when it comes to crime, public safety, that's his Achilles heel. He has no understanding. For instance, domestic disputes, he wants to send social workers. Yet he is now protected by armed police officers because of threats made against him, and I'm sure he's getting a lot. But it's do as I say, not as I do. And he's not open to

suggestion. He seems to act somewhat omnipotent about public safety when he really knows nothing about the streets or the subways or dealing with day-to-day life matters. And so that's where we differentiate severely. So public safety will be back to where we were in the 70s. What about for businesses? For businesses, the big boys, the billionaires, they've already figured out. No, small businesses like me. No, they get crushed because not only the fees and fines will increase. If you own the building, you operate in or live in, property taxes continue to go up. And by the way, your complexion will not be your protection because he has already said the Caucasus, if you own your property, you're going to pay more property tax.

You can imagine how I'm running, say, you know, Asians are buying a lot of houses now. They seem to be doing very well. I'm going to charge them an Asian tax on their property tax. He can't do that. I mean, I know he said something. He said something like that years ago, but he can't do that. Do you know that when you go into Brooklyn Heights, the slope, you go into Carroll Gardens and you ask a lot of those millennials, many of them who haven't been here, but maybe the last 10 years and you said, you know, Zoran said you should pay more property taxes. They said, he's absolutely right.

He's absolutely right. But we agree it's not legal. I mean, it's not actually something they can do. It's a mentality which seeps down. It'll be challenged in court, but he has allies in the city council. There are 51, and there are many Zoranistas in the city council already. Let me tell you a little inside baseball information. The mother of my two youngest sons is Melinda Katz.

She is the Queens District Attorney Democrat. She was a city councilwoman, assembly woman, Charger Land Use, Borough President, moderate, Jewish, was considered a slam dunk to become the DA. It was a special election. Duckdown, D.A. Brown, had died. That was the name of the D.A. And she was running against somebody named Tiffany Caban,

who was the mini-me of AOC. She wasn't even in elected office. Melinda Katz lost the election to Tiffany Caban only on the absentee ballots that she went. Do you know who the field organizer and operator to get out to vote was for Tiffany Caban? Isra Mondani? Yes.

So he's learned the art of politics, retail politics well. That much he's put in a lot of time. I've seen him in operation. He's good at what he does. the DSA Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party they know good old-fashioned retail politics and the moderate Democrats

they're too busy to go out one day campaigning and they got to drink geritol and take a Bengay bath and then you don't see them for another week. I know how, so that's the Mamdani, you know, vision and how does it differ from the Cuomo administration that you would foresee? Well, at least if you're 22

and Cuomo loves you, you wouldn't be afraid to have women in the same room with Zohan Mandami. That much, I'm sure. That guy's a perv. 13 acts of sexual harassment is government against everybody who worked for him and loved him, including his state trooper. The 15,000 elderly that died under his... Okay, but you're a Trump supporter, correct? No, I'm not. Oh, you're not a Trump supporter?

Trump ain't supporting me, haven't you seen that? But prior, like, you supported him over... And there's the last election, I supported him. over, you know, Biden and Harris did I have. I mean, he's had accusations of sexual... Never like this. Never? 13, including a state football. I didn't do it.

The 15,000 elderly who died because of his executive order. No, it wasn't me. So the guy is incapable of humbling himself and apologizing because he really thinks he's entitled. He ran a primary. He was

40 points ahead in the primary two months before. And he spent all of his time with his billionaire friends in the Hamptons. And then he apologized to say, oh, no, I'll try better this time. I still don't see him in the streets. Okay, but a serious question. Yes. You know, I'm going to accept, for the sake of argument,

all these personal flaws of these people. Nevertheless, as a citizen, as much as I would like to have a man of good character as my mayor, in the end, it's still more important for me to have the better policies because my family eats or not or, you know, throw. or not based on the policies of the mayor. And if Mamdani is a choir boy and Cuomo is letcherous, but Mamdani's policies are going to put me out of business and Cuomo's policies are going to allow me to thrive.

I'm still going to have to vote for Cuomo, right? No, and I'll tell you why, because they share more uncommon that they have in opposition to one another. No cash bail that has turned all these criminals loose. That wasn't Zoraan, Mandami. He supports it. That was Andrew Cuomo. Yes, yes.

Raise the age to 18. that has allowed all these juvenile gang bangers to go out shooting one another, the highest level of juvenile gang activity we've had since the 80s, is the result of Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo was the one who announced he wanted to close Rikers Island, said in 2018, we need to close Rikers Island without having an alternative. He paved the way for all of this. And this was him buckling to the woke at the time, correct?

Well, because he thought if you become liberal and progressive, it'll put you on a path to the presidency. You see, it's never about what's in our best interests. It's always in what is their best interest. It's me, I and me instead of us and we. So when I look at the both of them, I don't see a separation, to be honest with you. It's a two-headed hydrant of me.

And Andrew Cuomo had his chance, and he destroyed the state of New York. So why would you give him a chance to destroy the city, too? Now, he tried to bribe you? Oh, well, not directly, but through his minions, people that I've grown up with. Hey, Curtis, come on, everybody has a prize. Come on, Curtis.

You know you can't win this. You're a public game. What's your price, Curtis? And then they make... Remember the old Monty Hall? Let's make a deal? Yeah, of course. It's the same one that Eric Adams had,

except he was waiting for Bob Barker's the price is right. And his price finally became right this past Sunday at 1 o'clock. I mean, that guy was always getting wine dined in pocketline. But me, you can't buy. You can't lease. So after the seventh call from friends of Corners, who had known me and grown up.

My wife was listening to the last call. She's their lawyer. She said, Curtis, you've got to put them on blast. Just having conversations with them about this makes it seem like you're complicit. Like somehow you're listening, you're interested, but the ante ain't high enough. And I put them all on blast. And I have not been contacted since because I told them I'm wired up like a Christmas tree. You talk to me on the phone.

Alvin Bragg, the DA, is going to be listening to your conversation. That ended it. That ended it. All right. I looked up some polls here, New York Times. This is a month old already. In a three-way race, Andrew Cuomo, Zoro Mandani, and Curtis Slewa, Mondani wins 46% over 24% with Cuomo and 50% for Slewa.

In a two-way race between Zara-Mandani and Andrew Cuomo, Mondani is up, well, it's actually, you know, it's within the margin of error. 48 to 44, but the margin of error is around 4.4. So actually, that could be a Cuomo head as well. This is the question I'm sure everybody wants to know. Given the fact that... There's no numbers for Zohran Sliwa?

What's that? Mamdami Slewa. Well, there's no numbers for that, but it's not good. There's no option of... Wait. How come? How come they couldn't put me one-on-one with Zorn? You think there's a little prejudice there in the New York Times polling? You know, I haven't thought of that.

And fair enough. But still, the question is, from my point of view... Yes. Cuomo is the moderate, and Mamdani is the unknown and kind of scary. It might work out, we don't know. And you could make the difference while, you know, respectfully maybe having no chance to win, right? You understand the question.

What's your answer? No, I don't. Because I would have to say, when was the last poll correct? Do we remember Trump Harris? When it was supposed to be neck and neck? He not only won the seven battleground states, he won the popular vote, right? Oh, it's neck and neck. And then, Cuomo, two months before, 40 points ahead of Zoran Mandami.

He got his ass kick by 13 points. You think maybe the polls are not an accurate indication of the people's feelings? Or maybe it's just Cuomo's name recognition and that people are responding to that. But there's no love for Cuomo. People hate this guy. Look at his unfavorable. Everybody loves Curtis. A lot of people love Zorhan.

So let the people decide. I thought in our country, we have votes. I never heard of people dropping out before. And by the way, the only person ever to drop out before is Andrew Cuomo. He dropped out running for governor against Carmichol. And then when he was going to be impeached, he dropped out of being governor and fled to the Hamptons. So he's the king of dropouts. Why would I drop out?

Well, it's a good t-shirt. Everyone loves Curtis. That's a good campaign. But now they have to. Will you model it, Periel? Yes, I will. I love that. We have important, famous examples

of third-party candidate swinging votes, Ross Perrault, Pat Buchanan, maybe Nader. So, well, let me ask you this then. If you yourself in your heart felt that you were going to, that you couldn't win, that you would swing the vote

from Cuomo to Mamdani. Would you back out then? Let me ask you a question. You think everybody, who backs me is going to vote for Cuomo? Well, the polls, it's interesting because the polls here show almost the entire Slewa vote moving

to Cuomo. It's, it goes, it was 46% and then it, I'm sorry, it was 24% and then it goes to 44%. And Mondani stays exactly the same. You know, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, you keep thinking that, Butch. Keep thinking that. Slewa supporters

are not voting for Cuomo. You know what they'll do? If I were to drop out, well, let's say, get hit by a Mac truck and be in a ICU incapable of completing this campaign with a month ago, they wouldn't show up. They wouldn't show up. They won't vote for Cuomo. They just won't vote.

All right, so fair enough then. So how do you get the word out because I'm sure you're having trouble getting air time, right? No. No. Are you kidding? I've raised more money than Eric Adams, that crook, Cuomo, and in this last quarter, Zoron has locally.

You get an 8-to-1 match. I have more money than all of them. And I've had three TV commercials with three more on the way. Unlike this recent Cuomo commercial, have you seen it? He's up there on a scaffold. He's actually a squeegee man looking into a window, and I'm wondering which girl is he purving on in that window? Did they not realize when they make these commercials?

And they spend millions on these commercials. They're horrible. Now, Zohan, to his credit, you know, his mother, a filmmaker. He was a filmmaker. He's highly produced. I'm more gritty. I'm not sort of like remember the wire. Remember that great program,

The Wire, about the streets of Baltimore. So I'm gritty. I'm real. Zoran is highly produced. And Andrew Cuomel needs to act his age. Because he's just, he's a dollar short and a day late. His time has come.

It's done. He's lost the gas in his tank. Sir, I don't know about the politics. And I'm going to let you guys get answered questions. I want to tell you, you are a treasure. You are a one-of-a-kind personality. I'm very happy to meet you.

I am very impressed by you. How old are you? 71. Your mind is quick as hell. 71 is not... I don't think 71's quite old enough to say your mind is quick. I would say...

It was 81, you might say that. Well, I'm judging by my own slowing down at 63. And in any case, honestly, from my heart, you are terrific. Now, now, you patronized me here. How's that? I didn't get your vote. I live in Westchester. What?

Are you a Democrat? I don't... If you're a Democrat, you can vote many, many, many times. I'm not registered in any party. You can vote from Westchester? No, holy kidding. I should be doing comedy here. I'm an illegal immigrants. I can vote. Exactly. Oh, now you can vote, definitely. Dan, you have some quote. You're a citizen of the...

Well, yeah, I'm a citizen. So, well, let's, I mean, talk about your platform, you know. Crime and law and order seem to be central theme. So what can we expect from the Slewa administration in terms of that? What can you expect? The first ever animal protection independent line created by my wife. No kill shelters. Animal abusers go to jail. So, see, people don't have to vote for me as a Republican. There's an independent line. And I know guys, they like to make fun of that.

But you know how many women are into animal rescue and loving animals? And by the way, you rescued a lot of cats, right? I read that at one point you had a way. Don't tell Cuomo he'll be adopting animals. No, he had a dog, a husky. called Capitan. Nobody has seen Capiton. He has mysteriously disappeared. Sort of like, remember Bill Clinton's Black Lab up in Chapicor, the whitest suburb in America where even the lawn jockey's a white? Remember all of a sudden, buddy, his black lab mysteriously. Like so many

friends of Bill and Hillary. Now, you don't actually think friends of Bill and Hillary are meet nefarious deaths. Do you? No, no. I'm just telling you what I've read online. I don't believe everything I've been online here. No, but actually, I'm serious. Do you believe? Because someone I, someone that I was shocked to hear him say it, actually believed, who actually is connected and knows a lot of things that go on in Washington, actually believe that Bill Clinton was involved in the deaths of people.

No, I don't believe it. Now, I believe that he certainly may have been involved with a man named Epstein. Okay, but wait, I don't want to get sidetracked. Like I said before we got on air, I'm a third generation New Yorker. You've been really iconic. What can we do to help you get elected? I'm terrified of Mom Donnie.

I've been a pretty far left-wing voter. My whole life. They don't get more left-wing than you. And I think I've been on the subway since I'm a kid. I think Mom-Dani is going to destroy this fucking city. Excuse my language. What can we do to? Well, you have to get people to vote.

In the 60s, when I was growing up, I'm a baby boomer. 80% of the registered voters voted for mayor because they felt they had to. We were trained in school taught. You know, people died for your right to vote. Yeah. Remember Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor. I can't get that out of my head. You almost felt guilty if you didn't vote.

80% of the registered voters. You know how many, what percentage of the registered voters voted the last time when I ran against Eric Adams, 24%. That is shameful. Right. For all of the parents out there with teenagers, we know you're already trying to keep a million different things under control. Cash app is here to help make sure your teen's money and their spending

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But it will not approach the voting levels of the 50s, when 90% voted, 80% in the city, And when Rudy ran against Stinkins, 60% of the registered voters participated. And that's interesting. Is that perhaps because we were closer in time to World War II? And so there was this sense that people had just hundreds of thousands of Americans had just died. Part of that, but part of it is I have three sons. And they do relatively well in public school. And I ask him, Hunter is my youngest.

Hunter, you have civics? He goes, what's civics? We used to have that mandatory in public school. You learned about the purpose of government, the reason. you vote, everything that goes into government. Hunter, do you have current events? No, Daddy. Why not? They don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Hunter, are they teaching you about 9-11, the attack of 9-11?

No, no, Daddy. They don't want to hurt people's feelings. Did they teach you, and Hunter's Jewish? Hunter, did they teach you about the Holocaust in school? No, no, daddy. They teach you about anti-Semitism, the dangers? No, no, no, daddy. We're spending $42,000 a student, $41 billion, one-third of our of $118 billion for a Department of Education. And we're not even teaching our children the basics. I know when I was growing up, we learned all of that.

They still do a Pledge of Allegiance? I guess not in high school, but we used to do the Pledge of Allegiance every day in elementary school. I don't know if that's still a thing. And then remember, we looked at the Jehovah Witnesses, who wouldn't stand up and wouldn't do the place. What's wrong with them? And that teach you had it. It's their religious beliefs. I don't think we had any of those in our...

You didn't? No, no. Oh, that's right. You were in Connecticut. Yeah. Well, I assume there's Jehovah's Witnesses in Connecticut, but I don't recall any at school. I remember seeing them in, I went to a game in Shea Stadium, and, you know, it played the National Anthem. It was against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dick Allen was the big star of the Cardinals. I saw this whole group was not standing during the National Anthem. And then Anusha had to tell me, don't make a big deal about it. They're juvenile witnesses as part of their religion. So you're right. When I was a kid, the mayoral elections were very, very, very. very big deal. I remember the name, like Biagi and Bidio and Beam and, you know. Wow, that's a good memory recall. Yeah, you obviously remember those names.

I remember, I won't give me a date, 1977. I'm thinking, Reggie Jackson, three home runs. Yankees win, Yankees win, Dodgers gone, right? Tommy LaSota gone. So I'm focused on baseball. And yet I'm watching Gabe Pressman, NBC. He was the dean of broadcasters. There were four men running. Ed Koch, who was running on a pro-death penalty platform. A mayor has nothing to do with the death penalty. Mario Cuomo was running as a liberal anti-death penalty. A guy named Barry Farber, a word... Oh, I know him from me.

He's a southern guy. Talk show host, by the way. He was running. Yeah, it was a multilingualist and radio show host. He coined the phrase, like, two scorpions in a brandy glass. He was running as a conservative. And then you had the air to the X-Lax fortune. Roy Goodman, who was the old Rockefeller liberal state senator from the Upper East Side running,

do you know they had 12 debates? 12 debates. So you got your belly full of hearing all for them. Ed Koch went on to win. And the defining issue of that campaign was the death penalty, which a mayor has nothing to do with. The defining issue of this campaign, when all is said and done, may be what's going on in Gaza now between Hamas and Israel. and you say, what does a mayor have to do with what's going on in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Gaza between Hamas and Israel? Nothing, but it's great for those running for office to distract the voters so that you don't have to talk about the real issues that a mayor is going to have to tackle and deal with.

But it's interesting you're saying that because, all right, the death penalty is not a city issue, but at least a mayor who supported the death penalty, he was communicating a certain tough view of how he would treat crime. So you interpreted something from that. Israel, Gaza has nothing to do with anything that any citizen could interpret on any policy except as, I guess, a signal that I'm part of the far progressive left, right? It's a good shorthand for all the policies that a progressive left-winger would like to know that his mayor favors are all summed up by complaining about... Or the right wings that support BB and support Israel versus Hamas and Gaza. And for the first time in two years as we approach October 7th, if you believe in polls, most New York City residents are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than the Israeli cause.

How did that happen? Tell us. Because, Zoran Mandami, on October 8th, the day after the attack of October 7th, was leading a protest in Times Square for the DSA. He was the leader attacking Israel. Now, do you believe that a guy like that could ever have been elected mayor of the city of New York in the most Jewish of all cities? I say to my fellow Jewish friends, this is the Day of Atonement,

you better sit your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren down, and explain to them the dangers of a Zoran Mandami because 40% of them voted for Zoran Mandami in a Democratic government. What are the dangers? The dangers are that he has not retreated from that position, Although I hear on the view today, he finally denounced Hamas. This gets like pulling teeth with this guy to get him to do anything as he gets closer to potentially being mayor. But I truly believe that if you happen to have been born and raised Jewish,

you have to look at this guy and say, is he in a threat like individuals in history have been a threat before? Is it the fact that he is such a smooth operator? Whenever I see Zoran Mandami, I think of that song. Jadei, smoothed operandi, because, man, he's smoothed. No, I mean, if you liked his policies, could you bring yourself to vote for him if you were opposed to his stance on Israel-Palestine? You're very passionate about that issue,

but you could overlook that. If I liked his policies, I could, I wouldn't like it, but, you know, when you're presented with some binary or tertiary, what is it, I don't know, the triple is a choice between three. you have to choose, you know, who you think will be best. So, yeah, I could. Could you? No, I don't, I mean, well, I guess it would depend who he's running against. But if I thought he was hostile to Jews, it wouldn't matter how much I liked his policies, I wouldn't vote for.

He still won't condemn globalize the intifada. I just watched the clip yesterday. All right. You have any questions for the next minute? See how much of this conference? is about something that a mayor has absolutely no role. No, being potentially dangerous and hostile toward Jews is very relevant. It's like if you think a candidate's a, you know, a rapist or a sexual predator, that even if it's, you know, you don't feel like his policies, that his character isn't nothing.

Of course, I mean, I wouldn't want to vote for somebody that was hostile against black people or gay people. So it's not that different. I know. But if the very group that's being targeted. it. 40% of them have voted for. What does that say? Well, that they're idiots. Well, I don't know.

I mean, people of a starkly voted against their interests many times, right? But again, it's been on, he hasn't retreated from it. He's been very open about his feelings. And yet in a Democratic primary where Andrew Cuomo went to every synagogue and said

anti-Semitism was the number one issue, which according to the polls, if you believe the polls, it's not. Cost living rent too high to pay crime quality of life 40% and when I speak to Jewish groups they say I don't believe that poll oh but you believe the poll that I don't have a chance to be made okay you selectively believe what parts of the poll you ought to believe it so other than the cats yes what what are we going to get when um actually I when you're our mayor if I'm bringing it into well I think Corinne Fisher is out by can I can I zero it in on that because there's

something that drives me crazy as a business owner in New York. When we were young, you remember the I Love New York commercials? Oh, sure. And how were they selling New York back there? It's open all night. The city that never sleeps. It never closes. This was a tremendous.

New York wore this as a badge of honor. That New York was a raucous 4 a.m. open town where you could go drinking. Well, there is an exemption. Yeah. The Swagger Man with no plan, Eric Adams found. Every club in New York. Eric Shady that was open to four o'clock in the morning. But now, if you want to open the business,

the first thing the community board wants you to do is promise to close by midnight. They have, you know, I understand in Gramercy Park how they might feel, but this is Greenwich Village. Yes. This is the most famous nightlife neighborhood, maybe in the earth, in the world. And they come down now,

and they try to suppress and snuff out any, signs of people out having a good time. And, of course, they do make a little noise when out and they're out having a good time. I think this is killing New York. I agree with you because remember, for a while, the Guardian Angels were housed

in the Judson Memorial Church, the basement there. It's always been a bohemian area. It's always been a round-the-clock area. But it's also had some problems of late of people coming in and creating problems, drug users, drug dealers. Of late, it's always been. I know, but more severe now than I've seen

in a long time. And that's because the quality of life is diminished. So if you're a preservationist of which some people are, they said, well, we've got to cap it. Your business gets hurts. Restaurants get hurt. Bars get hurt, which are an integral part of not

only the business fabric, but a lot of women who are the majority of the workers now, not only own and operate nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, but they manage them, they work in them. That's how they raise their families. And it's hurting everyone. down the line. So if the quality of life improves as public safety improves,

there'll be less resistance to staying open to the break of the door. I agree with you. I've been gone for a long time. I had to go get Advil for my wife on Columbus Avenue. We live on the up west side. I had to walk up and down. The only people selling Advil was a smoke shop and I wasn't going to be seeing walking in with a red beret and it was smoke shop. And it felt like Cleveland. 11 o'clock in night, the place was dead. You're absolutely right. And there's a system with the community boards where these old bitties people have nothing better do in their lives get in charge and they have a tremendous effect on people

and what was very informative because they had basically shut down sidewalk cafes, the community board CB2 in this part of town and every year fewer and fewer and then COVID came we had all those outdoor cafes again and it turned out everybody loved them so what it brought out to me

was that actually this community board did not represent the citizens at all actually the citizens of Greenwich Village like the idea that they could sit in an outdoor cafe and it was just these people on community boards they moved here when they were young because New York was, because Greenwich Village was a hip neighborhood to move to

and they became old and they got their rent control apartments and they don't ever want to leave and they want to change the neighborhood to reflect their age rather than move to a neighborhood that's appropriate for their age. It's how he says old age and he keeps looking at me because I'm the oldest person.

I'm 71 right. Altacocococchio. You know, one day, in 10 years, that's going to be you. But I grew up here, so I saw it happening. No, no, I agree. But I also understand from their perspective, it's a bit of a shock. You had all those things years ago. You had the jazz clubs, the comedy clubs. Bleaker Street was thriving McDougal Street, thriving.

People were pouring in here. Look at Little Italy. Those restaurants are not staying open until the wee hours of the morning like they used to. Now, Chinatown, yes. but not little Italy. So I understand. Even Chinatown, actually. I drove through there recently.

I said, where's all the late-night restaurants? Wo-Hop. I got to hit Woh-Hop 1 in the basement. I wasn't sure if I saw Wohop open. You know, you want to bust somebody's stones? Because the waiters, they are horrific. They treat everybody like their people are no consequence. Some people like that.

I say, hey, buddy, I want a bowl of chop suey. He looks at me. He goes, what the hell is chop suey? Well, wait a. a second. You flick? Yeah, well, see that, I date you. But it used to be, especially Jewish people, Sunday night,

would go to the local chop suey joint. It said chop suey outside. How could they not know a chop suey? Well, I've heard of chop suey. I've never had it. Basically, it's whatever's left over. In the Chinese restaurant, they chop it all together and that's chop suey. I used to love chop suey. Like Hong Kong fuey, the

cartoons? I remember him. I remember I know the word chop suey. I've just never had it. Yeah, but as... I think it's an American invention. They don't eat it in China. A Chinese waiter at WoHop, where they feel that they're entitled to treat you like the soup Nazi. I mean, imagine the soup Nazi. Hey, pal, I want a bowl of chop suey. What the hell is chop suey?

Some people like to be mistreated. Like, you know, it's part of the fun. Like Steve Rubel used to berate people outside of Studio 54. You're absolutely correct. It was part of the fun. You know what? They wouldn't let me in because I was from the BQE, from Brooklyn Queens. We don't allow people like yourself into.

Studio 54. The schools. Yes. My entire life, I've heard that they're going to fix the schools in New York. They tried this, they tried that, more money, this policy, open card, or getting rid of phonics, nothing works. Is there actually a way to fix the schools, or is it simply about parents getting their act together and making their kids do their homework and stuff? Well, look, a lot of families are dysfunctional. Nobody wants to talk about that.

A lot of these children have almost nobody at home to give them guidance. But it can be remedied. First off, when I went to public school in the 60s, you had troubled kids. They didn't call them troubled kids. They put them in a 600 school. Oh, boy. But you had after school center, right? So after school, three to five, you hung around in the center.

The teachers were able to augment their income. They got extra pay. And it wasn't all sports. I was a jock, but I would say 90% of the youngsters were into theater, music, dance, culture. So I had the gay kids there, too, Perry, but go ahead. They used to give you the instruments for a band and orchestra. They don't do that anymore. So then you went home to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

You come back for night center, seven and nine to keep you out of harm's way. A lot of culture. And then they had English classes for immigrants, which we should be having now, because everything on a computer is English. and the schools you would have Saturday Center that was open from 9 to 5 they were closed on Sundays but the school was the epicenter of activity

it stimulated teachers were able to augment their income and then one day they decided that's it 5 o'clock everything gets shut down kids can't even go into the playground any longer because they lock it up and the weekends you have no activities taking place in the public schools we're already paying for them make use of the public schools for the whole community

That's how you get the community more involved in vocational training. A lot of my cousins, if they hadn't gone to East New York High School, would have been doing time upstate making license plates because they were on a bad path. They learned to trade. They became carpenters, electricians, plumbers, ended up with their own small businesses, raised families, had small businesses,

because most kids are not prepared to deal with an academic load, especially when we had regents. discontinued that. There used to be three diplomas in the 60s. You had the general diploma through social promotion, which meant you inhaled and exhaled, okay, just keep promoting. You had regents, you know, you had to be good with academics, and then you had vocational. We have so few vocational high schools. Do you realize the number one demand that we're not satisfying is the number of home health care aids we need to develop? Right. Because we're an aging community, and I know maybe in 10 years, I need somebody who's not just going to change my

bedpan and turn the sheets, but somebody who's going to understand the psychology of an elderly person, like I saw with my mother when she aged, and every day I get a call, Curtis, are you my son? Yes, yes, Mom. You said, you better come over here because she stole my money. It's a nice Haitian woman, spoke Creole mostly, but she imagined she was stealing money. Then I come to the house, and I find where she forgot where she left her money. She'd be so apologetic, and then a few days later, the same thing all over again. There's such a need to develop people who can handle us when we get older and we have our problems. Because certainly, God forbid, Andy Cuomo ever came here.

You wouldn't want to be assigned to a long-term nursing home care unit. If you had COVID, that's it. Lights out. That business is so dominated by Caribbean women. Curtis, they're eating the dogs. And Filipino women. I just wonder why that's interesting to me. Oh, first off, Filipino best nurses.

I've been in the hospital. I've had colitis, ileitis Crohn's disease. And let me tell you something, I'd rather get shot five times again with hollow point bullets than Crohn's disease. It is the worst. I've had prostate cancer. Every time I've been in the hospital

from Bellevue to Columbia Presbyterian, the doctor comes in with the schmach on, you know, and he's got the clipboard. The Filipino nurse comes in, says, Curtis, don't listen to anything he said. What the hell he's talking about? I know what you need. I know what meds you should be.

The nurses know everything. The doctors know you're always saying in Italian, Ugats. In Yiddish, Bubkis. The nurses keep that hospital. Aren't you like Eastern European origin? Polish. My father's side, my mother's side,

Baez. Bades? Bades. Andrea, near the Adriatic Sea, southern Italian. What do you mean? Paris. Do I look? No, Barris. I don't know what you were saying. Oh, Barreys.

Oh, okay. See, a guy in Stanford where Bobby Valentine came from, a real Italian stallion. You're not supposed to say that... Candace Owens is also from Stanford, by the way. I think I intimidate him, if you know. That's not hard. You're not supposed to say anything nice about one ethnicity because it implies another one might not be the same.

But I have to say, I've had the same experience with Filipino nurses. The best. When my father was dying, when I've had some tests. I had an au pair. They are, they are, you cannot find a bad egg among these people, just compassionate and kind and friendly, as if she really cared about me. You know, you only going to see me once for 20 minutes.

Are you okay? It's, it's an amazing quality. Well, my mother's aide, we were at a Rocha Shuna dinner, and my mother's aide was there, who's Filipino, and one of the guests was married to a man? It's a man, married to another man. And so I explained it to her, and she said, you mean he's a gay?

So they're good nurses, but maybe not politically correct. All right. Any other questions for him about the future of New York? What about congestion pricing? Kill it. Kill it. Condescension. Do you know how many empty storefronts are now south of 60th Street?

When I talked to the merchants who used to have the storefronts, they say, Curtis, I had to give up the lease. I don't have enough foot traffic. I can't pay the bills. In addition, the shoplifters keep coming in and out. And taking what little I still have left. so I had to close up. A complete disaster, congestion.

It's another tax. They pick your pockets. It's what government does. They want to tax you from the cradle to the grave. They even want to sell you a garbage can in New York City. This is the ultima in Hutzpah. You can't buy your own garbage can. Hey, I'll go to Home Depot, I'll go to the local mom and pop shop, you know, hardware stuff.

No, you buy your garbage can from us. It's like private carters used to be when Vinnie the Chin controlled Greenwich Village and Bleakest Street. your garbage gets picked up from us or else we bend your leg and stuff it in your pocket. You mean to tell me I can't get my own garbage yet? Nope. You must buy it from the city. How much does it cost?

$50 plus tax? I can get that for $22 at Home Depot. No, you must buy it from us. A provider in North Carolina with a no-bid contract and whenever a government has no-bid contracts, think kickbacks. Who's getting wine dine in the pipeline?

See, you asked me, What can I bring to City Hall? You can't buy me? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I asked you. Hold on a second. She's,

shut up, Peryl. No, no, no. She asked you that. Yeah, I don't know what she's... Did I forget? No, no. You're good. I'm 71.

I'm the oldest guy here. I got a question for you. Yes. My father drove a cab. And from the money he made driving a cab, he managed to put enough money together to open his first coffee shop

on 7th Avenue in 1960. The thought that anybody could earn enough money driving a cab today to open a small business, even a small, small business is so absurd. But this is crucial if we want to... Who owns all these little bodegas? I mean, these aren't rich people. I don't know who owns.

I assume people coming from career and they get their money, not from working menial jobs. I don't know, but you can't, you can't even consider opening a coffee shop for less than close to a million dollars. And you know what you'll do for a good cup of coffee. So what can be done to, and you can go through every sector of our city that way. I used to live in a huge apartment when I was growing up. Two huge bedrooms, huge living room, huge kitchen for what would be equivalent today of like $1,500 a month rent on a, on a 100th Street, right? You couldn't touch apartments like that now for like less than $10,000 a month

rent. So everything has gone in this direction of really only for the very wealthy. Oh, and that's why Zoran Mandami has done well. But what can really be done to take this bull by the horns and bring it back to some sort of reasonable? I think the billionaires have to understand their day is past. Nobody likes them. I don't like them. I'm the Republican, right? I'm the one saying, hey, billionaires, you're not going to pick who the next mayor is. You understand you create jobs, yes. You create wealth. You create equity by investment.

We understand that. But you act so arrogant, so omnipotent. Like only you and you alone guys know. Yeah, you know Wall Street, but you know nothing about the streets and average blue-collar working class people and the problems that they have. Maybe you came from a background where that was,

but you forgot all about it. So I think we have to bring everybody back to the center and understand. If you don't take care of your workers, if you don't take care of the people that have helped make you a wealthy man or wealthy woman who's now family gets to live on a blind trust and never have to work a day in their life, you better make sure. You better start listening to your people howling that they can't make ends meet and stop talking about how this is great that you've collected all this wealth in the world. Now, I'm not Mondami who says take the money from the billionaires, but there's got to be a way where we bring them back. to reality to understand what average everyday people are suffering to because they are suffering and they seem to be oblivious to that. Yeah, I agree. I mean, actually, I don't agree. I don't, I see it,

I think we're relying on the millionaires and the billionaires now for our tax base. I see the problems as more difficult to attack than that. Not enough houses, the regulations, the amount of time we spend as a business now on compliance. Yes. Compared to what I saw my father go. It had to be like 20 times. Oh, and it's bureaucracy to the point where they will call you and some of the merchants on McDougal or Bleaker and say, hey, we're putting together this gathering. We'd like you to participate.

Naturally, you're all for tuts. It's like, oh, this is great. Finally, you know, they have a working relationship for City Hall. So you go all out and then you say, you know, I have some abatement issues. And they give you a number. And every time you call that number, you're being introduced to Mr. click. It's a one-way street. When I set up city hall, it's a two-way street.

Well, that's what it needs. It's got to be a two-way street. Look, you have client relationships. You don't take care of your clients, you're out of business. It's that simple. No matter what quality of your performance is in a comedy club, if you treat your clients like Drek, guess what? They ain't coming back because they have other options. Government feels that they're the only game in town.

and that's why they feel they can treat people like Drek. I relate to people. I know what it's like to be treated like Drek. I want to make sure that the city is comprised of people who understand what their role is. It's supposed to be selfless servants instead of self-serving servants. When you win, I want to have coffee with you. I'm going to tell you some stories about what we've been through. So I know you'll agree with me.

Just like the little headlines, we were closed for like seven or eight months to move. a cosmetic wall because of all the hoops we had. And by the time we reopened again, our business never recovered. I sat on a property we bought around the corner. How long was it before we started? More than a, hundreds of thousands of dollars just to carry the cost of this property, waiting for permits and rules. Sure.

Well, you could defray some of it by advertising Kylie Jenner's clothing line on the walls. Make up. The point is that... I'm just trying to lighten it up. It's nobody but a wealthy person, which I'm veering towards now at this point in my life, my father certainly wasn't at 30 years old after I'm in camp. Nobody but a wealthy person could do it. You have to have all that money as opposed to the city saying, yeah, get it and we'll get you open in 30 days.

Now, you know, we'll have a nice coffee clutch down here. Yeah. We'll invite some of the other owners and operators, the merchants, the residents, and I'll tell, I'll regale you in stories of any of the chins you guys. and the guy who used to be the con sigliary, Benny Eggs Mangano. Benny eggs who would say to me, you see Curtis, they come into the neighborhood, they cause a problem, they get a cast.

I said, what do you mean, Benny? We break their arm, their leg. This way they walk around with a cast on and everybody knows. You don't come into here. We don't kill you. We make sure you have a cast. So everybody knows this is the price you there. Have you ever ordered,

Artufo in a restaurant. Yes, I have. But is that the chocolate covered ice cream? Yes, that you get at the end. I bust the stones of owners and operators. I say, where do you get that toufo from? There's only one place you can get tartufo from. Because Vinnie the Chin made it that way.

If you get outlier tartufo, it's a price to pay. So all of a sudden restaurant owners, especially Italian restaurant owners, go, please. I don't want to go. back to that time, Curtis. One time I brought in a shipment of Tartuufo from Edison, New Jersey, I got to tell you, I paid the price for that. Remember, get your Tartufo from Bleakest Street. I know. No. These stories, when I was a little boy, my father had one of the first, or maybe the first tabletop pong games. You know, the Pong ideology right down here. And he had it, it was a

take the quarter, and some, one of your friends walked in and said, hey, Mani, are you in the video game business or in the restaurant business? That's all he needed to say. Why, he didn't, he didn't demand to put in the joker poker machines in the back room? No, he didn't demand. And so the pong table came right to our house. That was it. So, yeah, they, now I don't long for those good old dillies. Those were, that was a bad time. Oh, but you see, that's how you get everybody to the coffee clots. Yes, but the stories are great. It was worth it for the great stories. Yes, Dan.

Well, you don't live in New York, but... But my whole future's talk to. But are you, would you vote for Curtis Slewa? Yes, I would vote for Curtis Slewa. Thank you. It took us how long for him to say that? About one hour and 22 minutes for you to extract that from him. All right.

And no one doesn't vote anyway, typically. No, I don't vote. Well, yeah. I hope that you win. If you don't win, I hope that Andrew Cuomo wins. And I don't have his negative opinion of him as you do. I think he's a moderate. He has my heart for one reason and one reason only.

During the BLM riots, when de Blasio told the police basically to stand down, Cuomo was out there right away calling him a monster. You know, he said, what the hell is it matter with you? I don't remember exactly what his words were. And that was the only time that a politician had actually stood up for what was my interests, which was we're boarding up our windows, we're checking our fire extinguishers. We're really worried about losing everything. And our governor at least smacked the mayor down.

From Albany, right? From Albany. You know where Curtis was? I'm going to give you that date. June 1st, June 2nd of 2020. I remember it like it was yesterday. Comrade Bill de Blasio, the part-time mayor, the dope from Park Slope, who loved to smoke Maui-Wawi and Hindu Kush

with his grifter wife, Charlene, on the back porch of Gracie Mansion, did order the police to stand back. And then remember, every piece of plywood in Home Depot first went up on Macy's and then every store going south. Through Soho, through every square inch. I stood with the Guardian Angels right across from NYU. We battled Black Lives Matter in Antifa. I had my jaw broken with it.

their claw hammer. At the time that Jerry the Whale Nadler, the congressman was saying, Antifa is just a concept. Joe Biden, it's just a theory. Yeah, what are you talking about this, George? So I remember what you were saying. But he did it from a safe distance.

That's the difference between me and Andy. No, I wasn't comparing him to you. But at least he did it. And, you know, I was saying, he melted my heart on that. Can I promise you this? Mom, Donnie would have never done it. If I don't win.

Yeah. And I intend on winning. I sure hope you do. But let's say Andrew Cromwell somehow wins. I will take a hot poker and impale my right-up. If Zohan Mandami wins, I will take a hot poker. And because he is further left, I will impale my left eye and be like the hunchback of Notre Dame because I ain't leaving. Remember in the great words of John Paul Jones, I have just begun to fight.

Curtis Slewa, everybody. But when you were talking about around the corner, when is that scheduled to open? Hopefully around the first of the year. And maybe we'll invite Mayor Slewa. Well, he could cut the ribbon. Maybe you could cut the ribbon. Yeah, we'd love that. We'd love that.

All right, sir, you know, I, well, you know, let's see what happens. I'm rooting for you. Of course, I've already betrayed that I'm skeptical. I do think the polls are, you know, usually indicate something, but my goodness, I'm completely charmed by you. And I really hope you pull it out. I really do. In honor of Robert Redford, who has passed to the hereafter and Paul Newman,

you keep thinking that, butch. You keep thinking that. Good night, everybody.