Name: NYC Garbage Man | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #467
Uploaded: 2023-10-24T15:00:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'NYC Garbage Man | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #467' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'NYC Garbage Man | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #467' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-24. Transcript available.

NYC Garbage Man | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #467

I want to let you know I will be in Las Vegas this weekend, October 27th and 28th.
That Resorts World will be excited to see you there as well.
Dates in Norfolk, Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia, Huntington, West Virginia, Evansville,
Indiana, Huntsville, Alabama, Atlanta, Georgia.
Those are all on sale now.
TheoVaughn.com slash T-O-U-R.
That's TheoVaughn.com slash tour.
Thank you for the support.
Today's guest is a garbage man out of Staten Island.
Recently voted one of America's top 70 islands.
He is a man who spent 20 years in the gar business and he knows it.
He knows it, baby.
He knows pails and bins, baby, pails and bins.
He's done it all.
He collected garbage in New York City and outside of the city.
We're going to learn everything you want to know about it.
Today's guest is garbage man, Mr. Wayne Owen.
Shine that light on me
I'll sit and tell you my stories
Shine on me
And I will find a song
I've been singing
I'm going to stay
Wayne Owen.
What's up, Theo?
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, thanks for coming in, dude.
So, you are a garbage man.
Correct.
Do you guys have a term that you guys use within the industry?
Well, we used to, you know, we used to go with sanitation engineer.
Okay.
That was our thing.
It made you sound a little more like needed and wanted.
Yeah.
Compared to a garbage man.
Yeah, and I guess we'll find out, I guess, even through the course of this chat
If it's, you know, where does it kind of land, I think, you know
And that's one of the reasons, yeah, I just want to learn all about the
industry
So, you, you, in what area were you in?
I started in Manhattan, grew up in Staten Island.
Okay.
Started in Manhattan, I did almost two years, and then switched over to Staten
Island and
finished my career there.
Okay.
Did 18 years in Staten Island.
Damn, you did 18 years, bro.
Thank you for your service, bro, first of all.
So, how do you get into it?
How does it even start?
Like, is it a family thing?
Like, your father picks you, you know, just, like, picks you up when you're
young
and fucking put you in a recycling bin or something like, you know, how does it,
is
No, it's, it's real with them in New York, like, you know, you take the city
test.
Okay.
College don't work out, you fall back on a city job, you know, sanitation,
police, you
know, firemen.
So, those are different city tests, so those are different options.
Yep, and different tests.
Okay, so a lot of people that don't go to college in New York, they'll fall
back into
that, and those are one of the options.
Correct.
So, you take a different test.
So, you took a sanitation test.
Yes.
Wow.
And that was, it was sad, but it was, it was a joke.
Really?
Like, one of the questions, I'll never forget, never forget, how would you pick
up this pile
of dirt?
And there was, like, a garbage truck, like, you can't use that, and then there
was, like,
a shovel with a broom, which, of course, that's what you would use, and then
just, like,
a rake, like, just craziness.
Oh, yeah.
And it's like, but people get these things wrong, man.
You never.
Oh, yeah.
You see somebody raking dirt all the time, you know, and you usually yell a slur
at
him out the window if you're me.
But, um, so you take the test.
Is it, how many people go take the test?
Do you take it at, like, a center?
Do you, is it, like, it's not, like, where do they do it?
It's not, like, at MSG or something like that.
No, they use, like, public schools.
Okay.
Like, anything that they have available.
Okay.
High schools, grammar schools, whatever they have.
Okay, so you roll up, like, the night before, do you get a lot of sleep?
Do you, like, show up with, like, you know, are you kind of preparing for it?
Or do you think it's going to be so easy?
No, yeah.
They get you the book.
Like, they have a book.
Oh, there's a book.
To take the test.
Okay.
And, like, after the second page, you're like, all right, this is, this is, I
can't read
this book.
Oh, damn.
It's worse than when you went into reading the book.
You're like, wait, what's going on?
You know, so, yeah, they, you know, my test, 100,000, over 100,000 people
signed up, but
they did a lottery.
So, and everybody has to pay the 30, $35, whatever it is.
When you sign up, you have to pay.
Yeah.
You send your, you know, your form in with the money.
But my test, they only, and they only did it this one time, they only let 30,000
people
take the test.
So, those other 70,000 didn't even get to take it.
Damn, but they still paid the money?
They just took their money.
God damn, bro.
It's, it's, you know, it's just like anything else.
Oh, yeah.
They get their money in.
They'll get their money.
Wow, bro.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
So, now you got 70,000 people who are pissed at the city, you know?
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
So, you take the test.
You're in there.
You, you, now, how long does it take to get your score?
It takes a, you know, they give you a few months.
I'd say, yeah, a few months until you get your score.
I mean, Theo, come on.
If I, I wish, I was trying to get a, the test to bring it here.
Yeah.
Really?
It was a joke.
And I was actually in there with high school friends and they were all running
out.
I was the last dude in the test.
Like, I'm like, what's going on here?
And I'm not the smartest, you know, guy in the world, but.
Me neither.
I'm like, what is going on?
So, I rushed through the last two questions.
Yeah.
Guess which ones I got wrong.
That, those two.
That's it.
So, I got a 103 out of 105, almost a perfect score.
Oh, dang.
Okay.
So, now you, are you looked at like, you come in as a pretty high rank then?
Like, are you like.
Yeah.
So, they give like veterans and stuff extra like credit, you know, well-deserved.
And like, I think my list of them, I want to say it was like 348.
Okay.
Out of, you know, the 30,000 or 15, I forget what the number was.
So, you were in the top 400.
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
I was hired within a year.
Okay.
So, you still are waiting a year to get hired?
Yeah.
And what is, why is this?
Is there no job positions?
What is it?
Is it a busy industry?
Yeah.
Well, they just, you got to wait till people retire.
Oh, okay.
You know, they have a set number and that's what they go by.
Okay.
All right.
So, you're ready.
So, if somebody finally retires or something happens to them and then, now you
get called
in, right?
Yeah.
Where were you when you got the call?
I was probably just home doing something stupid.
Yeah?
Yeah.
I've done that.
I was still working in Manhattan doing like, I was a court runner for my cousin.
Okay.
So, you know, I was working.
Yeah.
But, you know, my mother said, listen, you could be retired in 20 years.
You got to take it.
I was 21.
Wow.
I wanted to, you know, you know what 21 year olds do.
Yeah.
Nothing.
Yeah.
It's true.
It's great.
No, but you want to go out and party and like, that's where your life starts.
Right.
You know, like, oh, parties.
And, but I grew up in Staten Island where we were going to bars at 16, 17 years
old.
Right.
So, you've been doing it.
So, I already did all that.
Yeah.
And so, who, yeah.
Did your mother say, look, I think this is something you should do?
Oh, no.
She was like, no, you're doing this.
Oh, wow.
But, thankfully enough, because she saw the end of it.
Right.
She said, do you want to be working until, you know, 60, 70, 80 years old?
You know, is that really what you want?
Yeah.
So, there is the light at the end.
But.
You got to Andy Dufresne through it.
Yeah.
Listen, it's better than any other job.
I'll put it that way.
Wow.
Okay.
Well, I got to know more then, man.
So, all right.
So, you get in, you're hired, you're excited, you get your first day.
Like, how does that really go?
And do you go to, like, a training camp or whatever?
Do you guys.
Yeah.
They send you for the driving training.
Okay.
And they teach you on dump trucks.
Okay.
So, that's like two, three weeks.
You do your road test.
You get your CDL, you know, your license to drive the trucks.
Okay.
Now, then, like, two days, they'll bring out.
And this was in Randall's Island.
Okay.
And they, I think, they did two days.
They bring a garbage truck out there.
Okay.
There's two steering wheels.
There's two steering wheels in the truck?
There's two steering wheels.
And you got to, what, like, pick which one you would use?
No, huh?
Well, no.
It all depended on what street you were on.
Like, if you were picking the right side of the street up, you could drive from
the right
so you're close.
Wow.
You know, so you can know.
Because that's the biggest thing on the job.
You got to put that thing where your partner wants it to make the day go easier.
Okay.
If I got to start dragging garbage around cars and everything else, now we're
not having
a good day.
And then when you get back in the truck, there's beef when you're in the cabin.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
I, there were a few guys that, and they're good friends of mine.
Yeah.
I would let them know.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
Oh, yeah.
We need that.
That's what we need to see is, like, instead of cash cab, we need to see, uh,
you know.
That would be.
Oh, yeah.
The sanitation cab violence, bro.
Yeah.
There were some bad ones.
Yeah.
That's beautiful, bro.
No, well, years ago, when I first got on, they used to have, like, a one bench,
like,
across the truck.
Okay.
They got rid of those.
So, it was just a left side and a right side.
Okay.
You mostly drive from the left in Manhattan.
Okay.
You know, driving from the right that was frowned upon.
It just, because everything is different from driving to on the right side.
You got to, it's a whole different driving situation.
Oh, yeah.
Every now and then you meet some fellow trying to drive from the right.
You know what I'm saying?
I ain't saying nothing, but.
But in Staten Island, it was, like, a law.
Like, you had to drive from the right.
Okay.
So, there's certain places where you got to skid over to the.
So, in that instance, you would just get over to the other side of the car and
for that
length of the.
The truck.
Yeah.
There's, like, a little button you hit.
Okay.
It just switches to.
Now, you drive from that side.
Wow.
Do today's trucks still have that?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Great.
Okay.
Cool.
I didn't know that, man.
It's real interesting.
Because, yeah, dude, one time I had to take a driver's head or whatever, and
they had
the dude over there, you know.
And this, I think the car I was in was, like, a, it was a Toyota Tercel, bro.
And the trunk was missing, I remember, in the dude's car.
So, there was this total wind current, like, constantly, like, just happening
in the vehicle,
you know.
And, yeah, and I remember driving that just out of sheer fear, like, this guy's
out of
his fucking mind, you know.
And he'd pop the brake and kind of smile at me and shit.
I'm like, this dude's fucking flirting with me, bro.
I'm trying to learn, you know, and this dude, he's trying to, you know, touch a
child or
whatever.
All right.
So, you get the first day, man.
How does your first day on the job go?
They literally, so, my garage, they tell you, hey, show up on this time, 6 a.m.,
west side,
30th Avenue.
You know, Manhattan 6 was my first garage.
So, I'm like, all right, over near Javits Center.
Okay.
All right.
So, it's right a block down from there.
Okay.
So, you get down there.
Do you go down there a lot or no?
No.
Okay.
When you work in Manhattan, you want to stay out of Manhattan.
Okay.
You deal with it all week.
You deal with nonsense.
Yeah.
Anytime I worked in Manhattan, I just never wanted a party in Manhattan.
Yeah.
100%.
Couldn't stand it.
All right.
So, you get down there.
Yeah.
So, I get there and, you know, you're meeting all these guys.
Yeah.
I met a few when I signed up, the new guys.
We came in with, I think, like, 11 new guys.
Wow.
So, I knew them by face.
I didn't really get to know anybody.
Oh, yeah.
I just watched Band of Brothers.
Have you seen that?
No.
Oh, it's so good.
No.
And you're meeting, like, you know, there's some old timers on there that don't
like the
new kids coming in.
Really, huh?
Yeah.
The