Colin Quinn on Why Post Lockdown NYC is Not Like NYC in the 80's

What is it like in the lockdown for you? Still living in New York? Yeah, I live in New York. Is it weird? Yeah, I mean, I was telling everybody, it's very... It's not like people like I was like New York in the 70s. Now the 70s was a whole different vibe. But now it's all boarded up stores. The store on my corner, like the corner of Bodega basically, just closed and it was around for a long time. And it's depressing. You're on the subway, there's only a few people on and it still smells. It smells as bad. They've been cleaning it every day and it still stinks. It doesn't even smell better. That's how ingrained it is. And the pigeons are homeless because Antifa took down all the statues so they have no place to live. And yeah, it's a very weird place. You can't say... People that say it's like the 70s, like no, the 70s, it was like, it was the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. It was like, it didn't change much. It was seedy and weird. But it was always like that. This is a drastic change from six months ago. You can't say it's like the 70s because it's not. It's like something's deteriorated. There's a collapse. Right. And then there's all this weirdness that comes along with that. Well, the 70s was kind of a collapse, but it was a different type. So like in the 70s, all the stores at night would be locked up. But they were open during the day. So at night, if anybody was out after night, at night, that was on them. But it was not like now. It's just 20... You're walking down deserted streets. Is nobody out? You know what I mean? Have you always lived in New York? Depressing. Yeah, yeah. So it was sketchy in the 70s. Oh my God. Yeah. I did a whole show about it basically. But it was basically like... One of the jokes from my own New York story was that... And it wasn't a joke. It was if you walked down your block, because there's no cell phone, so if you walked down the block from the train after nine at night, people would lean out the window and be like genuinely surprised, like good for you. You made it home. If you stayed out after nine, like Times Square, people would go to Broadway shows. By 11 o'clock, it was deserted, except for criminals, because people would leave a Broadway show. They wouldn't go out for a drink or dinner. They would get in their car and get out immediately. And Giuliani's the one who cleaned all that shit up. Giuliani cleaned it up, yeah. Isn't that amazing? The guy gets no respect now. No, I know. He went a little crazy, but he really... He did what no politician has ever done in any... in history, which is he said, I'm going to transform this, and he did. He turned it around. Yeah. He really did. He really did. Maybe a little too far. He may have been a little too far. Times Square became like a mall. Yes, Times Square is very uninspiring. It became like a big Applebee's. But that's, yeah, that's exactly what it's like. And even though... Now I look back and I'm like, oh, taxi driver, New York, it was edgy, it was fun. But at the time, it was no joke. I glamorize it through rose-colored glasses, but it was serious. Yeah, that's the thing about crime and crime-ridden areas. People always glamorize it after the fact. But if you're living there while it's going down, it's fucking terrible. Yeah, yeah. I mean, most people love New York once he took over. In the 90s, people forget that. Yeah. That everybody was just like, oh, I can go out at night. Oh, I can work. And I mean, before that, it was crazy. And I used to bartend around Times Square. And I mean, the stuff you saw, you know, was just brutal. You know what I mean? Well, one of the things we're finding out from this lockdown is that it really is important who your mayor is. Yes. It used to be important. He didn't really care. People didn't care who the mayor of LA was. Half the people didn't even know. That's right. And now they're like, who is this motherfucker that's keeping everything closed? Yeah, yeah. And the same thing with New York. Oh, yeah. Well, we took the Blasio from day one. A lot of people are like, ugh. And now everybody hates him. But this is his second term. Yes. He got reelected. Oh, he swept both elections. That's hilarious. You know? And now we're finding out. Yeah. Oh, he's a dipshit. Yeah. It took something where it was a crisis where you realize, like, this is not a leader. And everybody hated Bloomberg for running a third term. They wish they had him for fifth now. Yeah. Remember, he's like, oh, he's forced himself to run for third. Now what he misses, you know, a guy like him. Could he go back? Could he run again? He can't be president. No one's going to vote for him for president. No. But I don't know. He was so terrible in the debate. It's so funny because the thing about Bloomberg that disappointed me was when he was mayor, when he first got elected mayor, I was, Darrell Hammond had to bail on some show he was supposed to do. So at the last minute, they asked me to do a favor, do a guest shot at the show, which I go up, really didn't go that well. But it was, you know, I did when he was asked me to do it. What kind of show? What was? A standup show. A standup show for Bloomberg? Yeah. Bloomberg was trying to get the Olympics here or something. I think it was the Olympics. So he asked me to, you know, the guy was supposed to show and he had something else. So I ran over and I lived in midtown. I ran over, literally ran over, did the show in front of the Olympic committee or whatever the committee was. I think it was in Olympics and, you know, 30 people in this uncomfortable room. And then afterwards Bloomberg shook my hand and I knew he was already a billionaire. And he goes, I owe you one. I go, thanks. Thanks. He goes, no, no, no. I don't just say that. I pay my debts. I owe you one. So I was kind of hoping to be president and then I could call in my shit because I never did the whole time we was mayor. Unless he was busy, I let it slide. But he still owes you though, huh? Yeah. You got it on a ledger somewhere? No, but I just have my oral, I believe in the oral history. Oh yeah. I mean, I thought it came right out, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. So maybe if he becomes mayor, can you become mayor again? How does that work? Can't be president again. Can you be mayor again? I guess you can. No, why not? There's probably no lawyers. Well, Governor of California, that Jerry Brown guy, he became governor again. That's right. Yeah. So if he can be governor, you've got to be mayor. He was governor in like the 90s, like the early 90s, I think. I think in the 80s. Because I think Johnny Causton used to make those jokes. Yeah. You got a copper smoking crack. Didn't he win again in DC for being mayor? Yep. Yeah, he's in Barrie. Yeah, he's in Barrie. Yeah. So there you go. I wonder how many terms he did though. I wonder if there's like a limit on how many terms he could be. You're more politically minded than I am. I don't know that kind of stuff though, no. How many terms can you be a mayor? Because someone like Bloomberg has got to come back in and clean New York City up because you're not going to get there with this social justice warrior attitude that de Blasio has. It's just going to lead to more complete deterioration of that city. Yeah, but it may be too late. You never know. Too late. You never know. I mean, nobody likes to think of New York that way, but it's like a lot of people, so many people moved to that. I was shocked, moved to the suburbs, that I was like, wow, this is serious. I didn't really believe it. Just because I'm so New York, I don't even think in terms of leaving New York, even though it's irrevocably changed to me before any of this happened, but so many people moved out and I was like, this is getting serious. What did you think about that Altucher, Jerry Seinfeld, little feud about New York is dead, fuck you, no it's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, you can argue either side of it and be right. You know what I mean? I don't want it to be dead, but at the same time, I'm not going to pretend it's not in deep trouble. Yeah. I just don't know how it gets out. That's what my worry is. I know. Unless COVID gets cured and then Ari Shafir thinks artists are going to start moving in again, but he's one of those guys. He's got that. Because he needs to be gritty. New York City needs to be gritty. He's one of those guys. Yeah. That's why I never really had the fuck beat out of him. You do need a couple of those in life. You just need to know that it's possible. You just need to be like, what does gritty mean to you? Let me tell you, it's not Midnight Cowboy. That's a movie. Real gritty is you get stabbed and then it gets infected and then you're in the hospital for six months. Yeah, you need to at least ever regret it laughing because you're holding your broken rib at least for six weeks in a row. You're like, is this ever going to get better? Yeah. That gritty shit is like, boy, yeah, I see what you're saying. I know some places are gritty. They're fun. Yeah. No, it's fun. Like I said, when I'm watching Taxi Driver, I'm like, yeah, I miss New York. I remember walking through Times Square. We don't even have to ask what I was doing. At 12 o'clock at night by myself, 1980, 81, and literally they had thieves dens above the porno theaters. They had thieves dens. So they had a little turnstile. I went in once with this kid. He was taking me there. I forget we were trying to do something shady. We went up and it was like 50 thieves, like Oliver, only New York. Like a gang of people with illegal goods trading illegal goods right up on 42nd Street. Wow. It was crazy. So you see gangs running down. If anybody was, they would just swarm somebody, take their stuff, leave them on the ground and just keep going. The thing about it is though, the disrespect to the police right now, it leads it to a very difficult situation of trying to bring it back. It's like that wasn't the case in the 80s and the 90s. People respected the police. When Giuliani brought it back, there wasn't this overall nationwide resentment of the police force like we're having now, which is pretty unprecedented. Well, I mean, there sort of was in New York actually at that time. There's a couple of incidents where, but yes, not like this. This is a different level. This is a luxury that people are able to indulge themselves by putting all lightning rod, sort of. The police, to me, it's like a proxy war. You know what I mean? Everybody knows cops, everybody knows cops are nuts. We all had the friend that you grew up with, you're like, what if it happened to him? He became a cop. He became a cop. But no one denies that part. Even cops know that about themselves. But that being said, it's easy for everybody to just go, okay, like I say, proxy war. So all the bottled up racial resentment in the country, and it's like the people that have to actually go and say, hey, listen, here's what has to happen. They're going to be the fall guy for that. And that's what this is, in my opinion. Episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience are now free on Spotify. That's right. They're free from September 1st to December 1st. They're going to be available everywhere. But after December 1st, they will only be available on Spotify, but they will be free. That includes the video. The video will also be there. It'll also be free. That's all we're asking. Just go download Spotify. Much love. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.