Melanie, His Grifter Roommates, and Dark Comedy

• 14:33Tim couldn't get his business off the ground because of Hurricane Sandy, which hit while he was living on the fifth floor of a building in Hell's Kitchen.
• 15:01When his roommates fought, Tim would walk around Times Square at 2 a.m. talking to hot dog vendors and guys dressed like Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.
• 15:37The neighborhood near the Port Authority Bus Terminal had occasional bricks of coke, human trafficking, smash-and-grabs, and slashings—a little flavor of the old New York.
• 16:14A woman would regularly come to their block and just scream at the sky, which Tim saw as emblematic of living in that era of the city.
• 16:34The apartment had bedbugs twice and a rat that lived permanently in the lobby, but it worked for Tim because he was always out doing comedy.
• 16:54During Hurricane Sandy, Tim didn't leave the apartment for a week except to go downstairs—he stayed in and watched Breaking Bad instead of helping people.
• 17:39Tim's two roommates went to Staten Island to help during the hurricane, though Tim suspects they were probably running people's pockets or stealing copper wiring from buildings.
• 18:26Melanie was a woman comedian friend who did very dark comedy mainly about plane crashes, with a deep voice and specific airline references like Delta Flight 1791.
• 18:52Melanie had a bit about the last thing a pilot said when crashing in San Diego: 'This is it, Bobby, love your mom,' before the plane went down.
• 19:39Melanie loved talking trash, driving into the city for open mics, having dinners they couldn't afford, and driving home in her old Volvo that she worked on herself.

Hell's KitchenMelanieManhattanMartha's VineyardHurricane SandyTimes SquareBrooklyn BridgePort Authority Bus TerminalStaten IslandBreaking BadDelta flight 1791