The Taxicab Confessional

One of the great uncles of the reality TV genre, Taxicab Confessions, has its 11th season premiere tomorrow night on HBO. The NY Times had an Arts & Leisure feature about the show last weekend, noting that most New Yorkers ignore cab drivers, which could be partly due to some cabdrivers' chats on the cellphone, but, yeah, New Yorkers will conduct all sorts of strange business anywhere. Most of the other seasons of Taxicab Confessions were filmed in Las Vegas, because HBO couldn't get a permit to film here; HBO Documentaries president apparently made a new pitch to film in NYC by sending Film & TV Commissioner Katharine Oliver the Emmy that Nevins received for the first TC, but not as a threat, sort of as an enticement. The Hollywood Reporter gives a synopsis of the first episode, in a disappointed review:

The nine segments featured here include a skinny white guy and an extremely large black woman sharing the cab on their first date while he addresses his "big black woman" fetish; a guy and his blonde transsexual girlfriend boasting about their steamy sex life; a gentile guy discussing how the Jewish woman whom was once his girlfriend would take phone calls from her mother during sex; a young tattooed rock 'n' roll couple getting physical in the back seat, complete with her performing fellatio; and a couple of party girls and their male companion vividly demonstrating the "If you get naked, you get a free drink" policy of the karaoke bar they just left.

With content like that, who needs reviews?

There was an instruction on how to hail a cab by whistling, but Gothamist refuses to do the two-finger whistle when we're outside, no matter how much Purell there is. And when we think whistle, we think To Have and To Have Not, the Bogart-Bacall movie with the Hayes code line, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow." But in terms of conversations with taxi drivers, we either get cabbies who tell us the world will end or inquire where we are from. Plus Gothamist on taxis.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on February 4, 2005 2:08 PM

Comments [rss]

ashley

Believe it or not, a college student from a semi-rural university in Virginia can share her similar experiences with the elite Pakistani-cab driver services offered in the slow-paced city of Harrisonburg. Isn’t it bazaar how two completely different cities can produce such similar modes of transportation. Has anyone made a connection to why these hyphenated-Americans are so attracted to pursue the cab-driving career?

Big Nasty

MT!

I had the same experience! Getting a cab with two friends, from the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria back to Park Slope, the cab driver starts going on about how he's 'no poofter, but i'll suck a guys dick every now and then'. I called him a fag but he denied that he was. YEAH RIGHT!

jen/arts

we actually interviewed one of the guys in last nights episode, mark o'toole of audio fiction. sets & the city interview with him here.

MT

My favorite taxi story is when my boyfreind and I were taking a cab downtown to go clubbing early one snowy Sunday morning and the cab driver proceeds to launch into a monologue about how he has four girlfriends and it's all he can do to service them all adequately but it's okay to be blown by a guy occassionally. Needless to say, we kept our mouths shut (no pun intended) for fear of having something we said mistaken for an invitation. I still get the heeby jeebies.

S.D.

A good friend of mine told me that when he's in a situation where the other person wants to talk but he doesn't, he's makes up an amusing biography about himself.

Makes Cab rides more amusing when he doesn't want to chat.

Max

I always like talking to cab drivers. Granted, you have to find one who is not on the phone, does not instantly start blaming Jews for the ills of the world, speaks decent english, etc. Tends to be great though (outside the occational diatribe- see above). Obviously, and I am not trying to make sweeping generalizations here- just my experience, most of the guys are from Pakistan or Northwestern India (Shieks, Punjabis, etc) and it is great to get their take on all sorts of things; Mushariff, the Bhuttos ('all crimal elites' seem to be the normal response), Muslims, Hindus, terrorists, all sorts of stuff that todays media seems clueless about (outside of what comes out of the WH). So I encourage everyone to talk and learn a little from these new Americans. And you can learn how to curse in Urdu!