Jennifer Blowdryer

Rob Shapiro, twin brother of comedian Rick Shapiro, has been kicked out of so many places he could record an audio walking tour of New York City and its surrounding area. Rick keeps it together much more than Rob, who is chronically homeless but always fun to run into. Rick, whose last job was as an unsavory uncle on the short-lived HBO show Lucky Louie, has a favorite gag about how he manages to maintain: “I don’t have a personality, I have side effects.” Although Rob didn’t feel in top shape, I was able to sit him down at the small bar upstairs in Mo Pitkins, on Avenue A, a place that claims to have been envisioned and created for neighborhood wits such as ourselves, but was probably aiming for a cut above. The Sunday night bartender was pretty nice, though, and I believe most of what Rob says here to be true – albeit slanted towards his own relative blamelessness in many of the incidents and affairs recalled. Who among us doesn’t try for the same retroactive innocence?

Listen Here: Jennifer Blowdryer talks to comedian Rob Shapiro and musician Jeff Dickinson about their experiences being 86ed. • May 25th, 2008

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here’s a link to the interview on fanzine.com

86′ed Stories: Stories about being kicked out of or banned from various establishments.