On Wednesday afternoon, I popped out of the Bowery station and saw a homeless guy standing on Delancey Street with a sign that read, “Tell me off for $2.” I asked the man, who had an odd straw-like cylinder pierced through his nose, if people actually take him on his offer. “You really wanna know?” he asked. “Some people get real into it and some don’t be bullshitting neither. They be telling the truth.”
Billy, who said he’s 65-years-old and from Little Rock, went on to describe some of his interactions with the public.
“I’ll give ya a brand new bottle of brandy if you let me kick you in your face,” said one man.
“I don’t like your kind. I hope you get hit by a train tonight,” said another.
But not everyone tells him off. “Then it has a flip side,” joked Billy. “Some people tell me their problems. I said, ‘the sign don’t say tell me your problems,’ but sometimes they do.”
Some things that people have told him are just insane. “One guy paid me off, but he didn’t tell me off,” he said. “I don’t want to tell you off, I want you to kill my wife.”
“I said, do what?” Billy recalled. “He messed me up with that one.”
Play the audio above for the full account.
(Photo: Bucky Turco/ANIMALNewYork)
