Our Story continues... The Original New York City Free
Advice Man had managed to find employment and accommodations by
the Fall of 1987. And though fame allowed him to meet new and
interesting people, including Woody Allen, Quentin Crisp, Al Lewis,
Sting, Mark Kostabi, Joe Franklin, and countless others (some he had
met even before he became famous), it did not bring him much in terms
of fortune. By the Spring of 1989 he had to leave New York City or
risk being homeless again.
So The Free Advice Man moved to his birthplace of Washington, D.C.,
and shortly after that to Baltimore, Maryland.
In Baltimore he quickly gained renewed fame and was interviewed on
TV, radio and in the print media many times throughout the next three
years.
But fame came without fortune and he began to realize that most
people in America did not really care about promoting the culture of
philosophy and street-corner philosophers. They were interested in
vanity, money and power, not deep thoughts, generosity and wisdom.
Things were not easy, but something started happening that made his
situation really unfair and much more difficult!
Beginning in the Spring of 1992 people who had just visited New York
City began verbally and even sometimes physically attacking The
Original New York City Free Advice Man, accusing him of being a
copycat. They claimed that he was illegitimately trying to benefit from
the fame of "The Three Free Advice Ladies".
The Free Advice Man was so hurt and upset by this egregious
misperception and the fact that The Three Free Advice Ladies had not
given him the credit and recognition he was due, that he went back up
to New York City and paid them a visit in the Spring of 1993.
The Three Free Advice Ladies were like three blind mice, giving
mostly superficial and kitsch advice on such things as make-up tips,
"how to get rid of your jerk", and "much ado about nothing"-type
advice. Even so, they had managed to get the attention of Robert
DeNiro, Oprah Winfrey, CNN, USA Today, and tons of other media
never afforded to The Original Free Advice Man.
The Free Advice Man found them at their famed spot at the corner of
West Broadway and Broome Street in SoHo. He stood in line just
behind several advice-seekers and waited. Finally it was his turn to
talk to them. "Where did you guys get the idea to do this?", he asked,
partly out of curiosity and partly out of suspicion.
"Oh...well...why don't you answer that one Amy", said the one named
Marlowe.
"We ( once ) read this groovy article in The New Yorker and thought
that would be fun. It was about this homeless guy...who must have died
or something..."
"Amy! She just loves to joke... No, really...we always knew that we
were a great team and that we give great advice to our co-workers..."
The Original Free Advice Man felt vindicated for a moment!
"Actually, the reason I asked is because I'm the guy that article in The
New Yorker was about! I am alive, and while I actually encourage
people to do the Free Advice thing I think it would only be fair if you
would tell the media the truth, just as you just told me."
At the time there were only two of the three free advice ladies there,
and both of them appeared shocked and disturbed.
"Look... We really don't want to talk to you anymore...Go away!"
"Shame!", replied the real McCoy.
So he left them, and set up his own Free Advice post, with two folding
tripod chairs he had brought with him, only a few feet away. Surely
enough, people began standing in two separate lines. One for the
advice ladies and the other for the genuine original advice giver.
After a around twenty minutes, during which time his line was getting
longer, one of the three advice ladies got up and came over angrily to
The Original Free Advice Man.
"If you don't go away I'm going to call the police!"
Knowing that these ladies were ruthless egotists and rather selfish
people, not to mention the fact that their national fame would make the
police biased in their favor before he would ever have a chance to
show them a copy of The New Yorker article, he left the scene saying,
"By law I have just as much a right to be here as you, but I can see that
you are dangerous people!"
Later on The Free Advice Man wrote to the media, to Mr. Robert
DeNiro ( who had been planning to make a movie about them ), and
though he got some responses and a brief acknowledgement of his
claim in The L.A. Times, nobody ever took the issue to its max.
Bitter and disappointed with how the American mass media had treated
him, he left the States in 1994 and moved to Budapest, the city of his
father and grandfather, where once more he became famous, but now
more so as a philosopher in writing and less so as a street character.
Eventually he established himself as the Philosopher of The Infinite,
but he still would like his story known, the record set straight and just
maybe the fame and fortune that he was originally entitled to! Today
there are people all over America and even elsewhere in the world who
sit out with a sign that reads "Free Advice", and it all began with this
fellow in New York City! - THE NEW BEGINNING - CLICK HERE!
