Interview · moment 10 of 19
Getting Shot Outside Club Envy in 2001
from The Pauper Is Just Working · #113
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
8 minGuest
Yannis details the full story of working the door at a drug-dealer-heavy club night, how clubs cycle from white to black promotion before closing, a fatal hit-and-run outside the club, and the night his promoter friend's club scene led to him getting shot in a car.
- 32:53Club Envy was one of the hot spots in 1990s New York, promoted on Hot 97 radio.
- 33:41Tim recounts a shooting at Envy: a drug dealer was shot multiple times in his car, drove away dying, and ran over a promising young director walking home from sushi in Soho.
- 34:19New York clubs start out white and expensive but don't make money because white people won't pay for anything.
- 35:03When clubs are dying, owners bring in black promoters for hip-hop parties to cash in before shutdown, racing against cops and community boards.
- 36:10Hip-hop parties back then were fun but dangerous—things just happened there.
- 36:43Working the front register, Tim saw what drug dealers pulled out of their pockets: wads of cash like a triple cheeseburger, not credit cards.
- 37:19Mid-level drug dealers with full pockets would accidentally overpay—once gave Tim a thousand dollars without caring.
- 37:48Tim got shot outside Club Envy that night after turning down a ride from his promoter buddy.
- 38:52Getting shot in a car felt ominous because you can't run anywhere—assassins use cars for that reason—and he was shot at point-blank range.
- 39:49After the shooting, Tim went from a carefree kid to someone plagued by anxiety and questioning the point of everything, compounded when 9/11 happened months later.
- 40:17Tim developed panic attacks on the subway in summer 2001 he couldn't control or understand, hyperventilating and stiffing up without knowing why.
- 40:45Then 9/11 happened, adding national trauma to his existing PTSD and anxiety.
Michelle WolfEnvyCheetahHot 97