"Uh, dad?" "Ben?" "Top o' the morning." "Oh, man." "Man, I'm all stiff this morning." " Are you?" " Yeah." "I got a..." "I got back pain, my shoulders are tight." "You fall... did you sleep in a weird position?" "On the floor." "Fell off the bed." "Again?" "I got problems." "You know, I had a weird thing happen to me last night." "On the floor?" "No, no, no." "Before that." "On the bed?" "No, before the bed, when I was out." "Remember I came back from the Food Village?" "Right." "You were... you had already fell asleep." " Right." " I tucked you in." "Oh, and I appreciate that." "Yeah." "Next time, don't cover my feet." "Because I love to have my feet out," "I don't know why." " Why is that?" " I don't know why." "Don't they get cold?" "They don't get cold." "What happens is, if my feet get tucked in, I feel confined." "The Katzes have always had good circulation, you know." "I think since..." "I think you can trace that all the way back to..." "Circulation has always been in our blood." "Oh, my god, and I'm fast asleep." "I am so you now, dad." "It's amazing." "I'm uncomfortable enough with me being me." "No, anyway, last night..." "Yeah?" "I was walking home from the Food Village." "Mm-hmm." "I had two packs of groceries in my hand." "Nothing wrong with that." "And... this is going to sound." "A little out of the ordinary, but I took the long way home." "And, uh..." "Which is not a great idea, by the way." "Not for me, not at my age." "Anyway, I took the long..." "And I was..." "I had a strange encounter." "Mm-hmm." "I was approached by a woman." "Yeah?" "By a woman who..." "Oh, no, wait, say it ain't so." "I'm afraid so, yeah." "You know, it was a woman who was not..." "Was she plying her trade, a woman of the night?" "Plying trade, a prostitute." "Right." "And, uh, you know, to be honest," "I didn't know how to handle it." "Well, you know you walk into that neighborhood, that's exactly the kind of thing that's going to happen." " Yeah." " So what did you say?" "Well, I did not accept her offer." "Mm-hmm." "But, you know, I'll tell you something," "I did actually get into a conversation with her, and she happened to be very nice." "Well, just a word of caution, Ben, because we are living in a very dangerous time, you know..." "But I'll tell you something, you know what it introduced me, dad, to a whole other world out there, you know, that..." "Yeah." "The seedy underside of our society, which I don't see too much, you know, except when I go to the Food Village." "There are a lot of very unhappy people out there." "Yeah, dad, you know, and those people out there, they just need help, you know." "Yeah." "And I'll tell you something, last night, it dawned on me," "I could do that." "I could help them, you know?" "How could you help them, Ben?" "You have to provide time and effort and..." "You know, I am proud of you." "I'm proud of these instincts in you, and I... that you are..." "But, dad, you know, after what I saw last night," "I really, I had to take a stand." "I want to put you in touch with an old friend of mine." "Who actually works for social services..." "No, no, no, dad." "Downtown." "Dad, I'm going to do this on my..." "They have a whole training program." "Dad, that's where you went wrong, okay?" "I'm not going to take that road, all right?" "I'm going to do it myself, and I'm going to do it right." "And how are you going to provide..." "How are you going to maintain..." "My agenda is a little different, okay?" "I'm going to go out there." "I'm going to deal with the people." "One-on-one, face-to-face, you know..." "How many people in a week do you think you can help like that?" "Realistically?" "You can't put a number on help, you know." "But let's pretend that you become very good at this, and you can help a different person every day." "I'm going to do more." "That's 365 people in a year if you work every day of the year." "No, I'll slip in more." "Okay, let's say 500 people in a year." "Is that fair?" "That's..." "Yeah, that's closer." "I would say 500 to 1,000 people a year." "Okay, let's say 1,000 people a year." "Let's say 15,000 people in a year..." "Fifteen?" "I could help 15,000 people a year for the next 20 years." "Okay." "Then I retire." "That's how many people, dad?" "That's over 300,000 people." "Dr. Katz?" "Yes, Todd." "I got invited to a party recently." "Oh, that's great." "I think it's going to be a crazy, crazy party." "Uh-huh." "Because the hours are listed on the invitation as "9:00 till question mark."" "Right." "Ooh, when is it going to end?" "Mommy, I don't know when to tell you to pick me up." "Anytime you see "9:00 till question mark,"." "Generally the answer to the question is 9:15." "Mmm." "This is usually a bad party." "Right." "Went out on a first date the other night." "You want to talk..." "You want to talk about it?" "I learned a valuable lesson." "Which is?" "If you're out on a first date." "And you're at the movies..." "Uh-huh." "And a love scene comes on..." "Right." "Don't turn to your date and go," ""Baby, that's us in two hours."" "So you're... originally, you are from Florida, is that... that's correct?" "Yeah, I did grow up there." "A friend of mine just went down there." "He took his first trip to Disney World." "Mm-hmm." "He came back complaining that it was too touristy." "I was like, "Oh, man, don't tell me that."" "The tourists found out about Disney World?" "Damn, that used to be my secret little hideaway."" "There are agencies, there are social service agencies." "Why aren't those agencies working?" "Why aren't they helping the people who really need it?" "They're up against a bureaucracy." "That's large and unfeeling." "You know the major problem?" "You know the major problem?" "Me?" "I think so, yeah." "That's what I was afraid you were going to say." "Oh, you have a part in it." "I mean, you know what it is?" "You don't help the people who are outside your realm, your world, your little sheltered world." "I'm just saying, dad, that maybe I can..." "You know, there was a..." "Maybe I can fill in where you failed..." "I didn't fail, I mo..." "Which is helping the people who need it..." "I didn't fail, Ben." "As opposed to just helping people and making a profit." "For your own..." "I don't consider myself a failure at all." "Well." "I'm a phony..." "Okay." "But I'm not a failure." "Everything's difficult." "Life is difficult." "Every time you get out of bed." "And you have to head out into the world, it's potentially difficult, but I don't want to get into that, you know, that trip..." "To me, it's negativity." "You feed on your own negativity, and I don't want that." "Do you understand?" "I really want to change." "Well, I think that it's not a..." "I want some substance." "I don't want this kind of, you know, rhetoric." "It's just, you know, because it doesn't really change the world." "It doesn't change the consciousness." "It doesn't elevate us." "It's just this..." "We're in the mire and the muck and the nonsense." "Yes, but..." "But that's not even the point here." "That's not even the point." "I want something deeper." "I want something that, that elevates me, that takes me out of this." "Day-to-day self-indulgence, you know." "Thinking about my past, thinking about my family, what they did to me, how they twisted me." "You know, I want to let go of it already." "It's enough." "I'm an adult." "I'm a woman." "I mean, I've got to be able to move forward in my life to have relationships, to have happiness." "Why shouldn't I be able to have that?" "There's just no reason for it." "I'm blocking it." "I think sometimes, when I talk about the obvious, when I talk about the superficial..." "I'm going to be back in about three minutes." "Aspects of my life..." "You keep going." "And what causes all these problems," "I just sink deeper into it, you know." "When I leave here, I don't feel better." "I went to the University of Florida." "Yeah." "Did very well there." "Right." "Graduated with a 2.11 GPA." "Well, that's..." "That is excellent." "Is it?" "That is less than two points away from a perfect 4.0." "That is a phenomenal GPA." "That's true." "That's a bad GPA." "I was lying." "Well, that's what I thought." "I was on academic warning, then I was on academic probation, then they had to create something new for me." "I was put under academic house arrest." "I got bad grades in college." "'Cause I didn't study, as simple as that." "Yeah." "That's my recipe for bad grades." "Don't study..." "Voilà, bad grades." "Right." "Dr. Katz's office." "Hey, Laura, it's Ben." "Hi." "How are you doing?" "Fine." "Listen, Laura, I'm calling from the street." "Mm-hmm." "Oh, man I love the street, Laura." "I love the smells." "I love the..." "Is there something I can do for you?" "I'm at a pay phone right now, Laura." "You know, I'm kind of moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, mapping out a strategy for..." "For what I'm doing right now." "Do you want to know what I'm doing right now?" "No." "I'm helping people, Laura." "Most people don't even take the time to look around, to open their eyes to what's really happening in the world, to what's going on in the streets." "I'm talking about the other side of the tracks, Laura." "I'm talking about the..." "I'm talking about the bad neighborhoods." "I'm talking about the seedy side of town." "Ben, it's 11:00 in the morning." "It's a quest that I'm..." "That I'm going to go on that you could..." "It's a journey." "It's a journey for the betterment of people." "That's what I call it." "So you want to hop on the good..." "Do you want to hop on the good side?" "You want to get on the righteous train?" "So after college then, you move to New York City, and you start working." "I used to be a foot messenger." "Mm-hmm." "Had a really condescending boss." "Mmm." "First day on the job, he was like," ""Todd, I have a delivery for you." "This package goes to 350 fifth Avenue." "That's in the Empire State Building."" "Right." ""Are you going to be able to find that?"" ""Oh, gosh, not without a landmark or something." "Is there maybe a Burger King around there?"" "You're cut out for it, Laura." "I mean, right now, you're on the wrong side of the fence, and what I'm going to do is" "I'm going to pick you up, and I'm going to lift you over, and I'm going to put you back down." "On the right side of the fence." "But you know what?" "What?" "It starts with you." "You got to take that first step, then I can help you, or we could just have lunch today." "I don't think so." "I'll bring a sandwich." "We'll eat in." "What do you like, turkey?" "Smoked turkey?" "But I got roaches in my apartment, so I got these combat roach traps, you know?" "Laid them out all over the place." "Right." "So I had a woman over my apartment, not too long ago, a couple of years ago." "Mm-hmm." "Anyway, she's checking the place out, she's like," ""Todd, you don't have a roach problem, do you?" "Those aren't roach traps, are they?"" "I'm like, "Roach traps?"" ""Those are speakers, baby." "Haven't you ever heard of floor tweeters?"" "So I had sex with this woman, I did." "Mm-hmm." "I took out the box of condoms, right?" "Yeah." "She takes the box from my hand, looks at it, and goes, "Hey, Todd, good choice." "Good choice."" "Now I didn't expect her to be a virgin, but this is no time to show brand loyalty, you know what I mean?" "Mmm." "I know what you do is what you do, but you're part of the problem, you know?" "You're not part of the solution, like I am, okay?" "You live the same sheltered life as my dad does." "You work for my dad." "You're in there in your air-conditioned office, thinking everything is great and fine." "It's the same selfish crap" "I've had to deal with my whole life, and I'm sick of it." "Hello?" "Hello?" "I don't want to have any kids, man." "I don't want to have kids." "'Cause I like kids too much to have them." "I see these couples, they go away without their kids." "They go away for vacation without their kids." "How do you tell your kid you're going away?" "It's like, "Hey, we need a break from you."" "Mmm." ""No, I understand, mom and dad, you want some time alone." "Oh, we're not going to be alone." "We're actually going with another couple." "It's really just about getting away from you."" "Yeah, I mean, well, my sister's fine, you know." "Is she supportive, I mean..." "She's extremely supportive." "I mean, she doesn't have this, you know, the constant dissemination of fear and loneliness." "How do you think she escaped it?" "How do you think she escaped then?" "Oh, she's much younger than I am, and I had left home already, and I think that my family was in a different place, and I think there's a lot more freedom, and..." "Yeah." "I just think she absorbed a lot less of the chaos." "I should see her." "She sounds a little more upbeat." "Well." "No, hey." "I know you're kidding." "I'm kidding around with you because..." "Yeah, I know, I know, that's the best part of coming here." "At least you, you know, least you stick it to me a little bit." "At least you kind of shock me out of the, you know." "I..." "At the end of the day, I want to tell you," "I just..." "I think that you really..." "You've tapped into something special, you know." "You're not, uh..." "You're not detached, you're not caught up in the whole..." "Really, like, stardom of being a therapist, you know." "The truth is, I don't really have that much training." "So, now, you don't smoke, do you?" "No, I don't smoke at all." "I'm very anti-smoke." "I'm actually a militant anti-smoker." "Yeah." "I don't even let people smoke in my apartment." "Mm-hmm." "I should rephrase that." "I don't let men smoke in my apartment." "Aha." "If I have a woman over, she can smoke crack, light a hibachi, have a book burning," "I don't really care." "God bless her for showing up." "I had 19 cups of coffee today." "Whew." "Take-out coffee in one of these take-out places?" "Yeah." "I went there and said, "Cup of coffee, please."" "Guy goes, "Would you like some sugar in that?"" "I said, "Yeah, go ahead."" "Mm-hmm." "He's like, "All right."" "Fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump, fump." ""Is that enough?"" "Uh, to make an angel food cake?" "Yeah, I'll be fine." "I was going to whip up a big batch of cotton candy later on." "Now I've got all the sugar I need." "It was one sweet, little cup of coffee." "Mmm." "But I hate when you eat out, and you go to a restaurant, you order something simple, something basic." "Yeah." "You find out they serve it their own crazy way, and they don't even warn you about it?" "Yeah." "I was in this restaurant." "I ordered a hamburger." "The waitress brings it out." "It's got this huge pile of green lava on top of it." "Mmm." "I said, "Excuse me, what's that?"" "She goes, "Oh, that is delicious." ""That is our very own special lime crab apple mayonnaise."" ""Really?" "Could you rinse it off?" "'Cause that sounds disgusting."" "Just got a wok." "Yeah." "That is a great thing to have." "Mm-hmm." "With a wok, in the privacy of your own home, you can create your own mediocre Chinese food." "For 50 cents less than ordering take-out." "I'm standing over this thing, going," ""Yeah, I'm glad, I'm making this stuff myself." ""'Cause those restaurants in Chinatown just don't make hot dog fried rice the way I like it."" "Do they have a name for you on the street yet?" "I know they assign names to people... street people." "Do they really?" "They used to call me "The Professor."" "You used to be like me, dad." "So how's it going, your, uh..." "I haven't been able to help anybody yet, really." " Mm-hmm." " One-on-one?" "Not so simple, is it?" "Yeah, but I haven't really got the courage." "To approach someone yet, but I'm working on it." "Mm-hmm." "Always open with a joke." "Do you think that'll work?" "Sure, you break the barriers." "You know, I'm not good like that, though." " Yeah." " Give me one." "A sight gag." "Pratfall?" "You know the thing you used to do with your thumb?" "You know this..." "Oh, right, the separate the thumb." "Yeah, tell 'em you have their nose..." "Yeah." "As an opener." "So, you know, these two guys are going golfing, and one guy says, "I'm going to stop for some golf balls." "You need any?"" "And the guy says, "No, I got one."" ""You got one?" "What if you lose it?"" "He says, "You can't lose it." "It's a special ball."" ""What if you hit in the water?"" "He says, "No, it floats." "You can't lose it." "It's a special ball."" ""What if you hot it into a bush, and you can't find?"" "He said, "No, it's got a beeper, a homing device, you can't lose it."" ""What if it gets dark and you hit it into a trap?"" ""It glows in the dark, it pulsates." "It's a special ball, you can't lose it."" "He said, "Amazing!" "Where did you get that ball?"" "He said, "I found it."" "Stanley, did you ever pay for sex?" "Never." "You know, with a prostitute?" "Um... uh..." "Hmph!" "Uh, well... um..." "I'm going to take that as a no." "No." "Uh... no." "Hey, Ben, I got kind of a disturbing call tonight from Liz, who is a good friend of mine, and she told me that she, uh..." "She told me she bumped into you last night, and she was concerned about." "Your reaction to her, you know." "Well, how so?" "Well, she said that you were acting very weird, that you said she should quit this way of life that she leads." "She doesn't have to live like this." "I didn't know..." "She should think more of herself." "Yeah, yeah." "You know, she was on her way home with two bags of groceries to feed her three kids and her husband." "I remember that one, yeah." "Yeah, yeah." "But why did you respond to her that way?" "Well, because, dad, you know what I'm doing." "Now I'm talking to some of the people who walk the streets and, um..." "Yeah, but Liz..." "You know the odds are with me." "Liz was at your birthday party from the time you were one to the time you were seven." "Well, dad, it was night, and, you know, the light was dim and..." "I don't know, Ben." "It's just that it disturbs me to think that that's your first reaction to a woman carrying groceries" "She was carrying groceries, but she was doing it so provocatively." "I'm thinking curfew." "You know, I got to be honest with you, dad." "There is only so much I can give of myself." "I mean, I know I've got a lot." "Yeah." "But I can't give..." "I can't give no more." "Well, you can't go on like this for three days in a row." "This is ridiculous." "I mean, I'm running myself ragged." "The schedule is crazy." "Burn yourself out." "You know, there are no specific hours for help." "It's all the time." "Right." "You know, I know burn-out is..." "Part of the job, but..." "That's the biggest problem in your field." "But, you know, I've gone beyond that point." "I need to get upstate and just take a break." "Breathe the clean air, you know, get off the streets, get into the country." "Mm-hmm." "Will you do me a big favor?" "What?" "Would you give Liz a call and apologize, and just explain to her that you didn't recognize her..." "If I did that to Liz, I certainly would apologize, but there's a good chance she should change her lifestyle anyway, no matter what she's doing." "So music is a big part of your life." "Yeah, but these bands are getting greedy these days, man." "Really?" "I went to buy tickets for a concert recently." "At Madison Square Garden." "Guy said, "We only have a few tickets left."" "They're $35, and the seats are behind the stage."" "Mmm." "I said, "Behind the stage?" "That's all right." "I'll stay home."" "Guy said, "Stay home?" "Ten bucks."" "That's crazy." "But I like music a lot, you know." "I did... there's a sure way you can tell." "If a band is good without even listening to them." "How's that?" "If the drummer has a gong, they're not a good band." "You know what that means." "I'm done then, huh?" "I'm sorry, Todd." "God, I had a lot more to tell you about." "Our time is up, I'm sorry." "Stop the music." "If I could, I would."