Chicago Slices, episode 9310

Episode 9310 of the show featuring everyday Chicagoans.

0:13Copy video clip URL Chicago Slices opening. “This week, we’ll meet the biker poets of Berwyn (you call that ordinary people?) and the handyman carpenter from the Northwest side who had breast implants and now works as a strip tease dancer. (Welcome to Chicago Slices! Where do you meet these people?) and we’ll meet the tattoo artist who works in a basement in Gary and lives with a Bengal tiger. (I think I’d rather watch the news!) Oh what? Joan Esposito? That’s ordinary? (Well, she’s not so bad; she has nice hair). (Nate Herman and Marilou Kessler)

1:16Copy video clip URL Tattoos: Tony Fitzpatrick talks about tattoos from Tatu Tattoo on North Avenue and Paulina in Chicago, “The first thing people ask me is, ‘Did it hurt?’ and I tell them straight out: Yeah, it hurt like hell; it’s a needle pushing into your skin. And the second thing they ask me is ‘why I did get it?’ And that I have a little harder time with…We who get them, it’s a part of how we tell our stories…This parallel universe of art has been with us as long as we have been a culture. It’s rumored that George Washington had a tattoo. It’s rumored that George Schultz, a former Reagan cabinet member had a tattoo of a tiger on his ass…I would have liked to have seen that one (laughs)!” From Roy Boy’s Tattoos in Gary, Indiana, Roy Boy Cooper show off the Bengal Tiger they keep in their basement shop. His wife Debra shows off some of the tattoos that cover about 80% of her body.

4:58Copy video clip URL Look Alikes: People on the street are asked who they look like. Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Mayor Sawyer, a new Albert Einstein, one of the Barbarian Brothers, Bruce Lee, Sissy Spacek, Kevin Costner, and Ivana Trump.

Special guest Irv Kupcinet says people mistake him for Cary Grant. “But don’t you look like Kup?” “I used to be Irv Kupcinet,” he replies.

6:07Copy video clip URL Commercial hole.

7:07Copy video clip URL Motorcycle Poets. From a bike shop in Berwyn, Santo talks about the recent motorcycle craze, “The Harley Davidson thing is a big sacred cow, mushroom, hula hoop trend.” A very hungover Chicago wheelman, sick biker poet Mike “Ape Hanger” tells how he arrived to this shoot on time, “I just white-lined through rush hour doin’ about 50 in between a bunch of cars, a state cop put his lights on and was telling me to pull over, but there was no way he was gonna catch me. I just keep goin’, didn’t wanna be late for this thing (laughs)!” And fellow biker Ted Aliotta talks about his philosophy, “Motorcycles are an integral part of artists’ life as all feelings of flying are…man’s mind conquering machine, in a way, and touching the angelic intervention, of being able to carry yourself on two wheels.”

10:48Copy video clip URL Shadow Traffic: Traffic announcer Don Nelson talks about his job and answers this question: What excuse do you use when you show up late at a party? “Oh, you know, the best one is, I got caught in traffic. It works for me every time (laughs)!” The Shadow Traffic helicopter gives Slices a tour of the Loop from the air.

13:06Copy video clip URL What The El w/ Judy Markey: Larry Don Early Lawrence and Kendall Silas guess the age (56,44), marital status (single w/2 kids, married w/o kids), occupation (salesmen, lawyer), preferred pizza (thin,thick crust), name (Bob or John, Henry Johnson) of a fellow El passenger. His name is Mario Lupo. He’s 49, married with 3 kids, is an elevator worker, and likes homemade pizza. Larry and Kendall are also asked if Mario has a tatoo. They both answer no.  He does not.

14:53Copy video clip URL More tattoos: In Gary, Indiana Jim introduces his two nieces, who are tattooed on his chest. In Chicago, Stella shows the Egyptian figures on her arm (she’s an anthropology major) and Edward shows the six tattoos that he has including one over each set of ribs (a very tender part of the body). Molly models the good luck tattoo on her foot that says “Hail the jewel, hail the lotus” in Sanskrit.

17:30Copy video clip URL Commercial hole.

18:31Copy video clip URL “Hi, it’s me Brigid Murphy, resident showgirl for Chicago Slices. Today, I’m in Des Plaines with a little showgirl Melissa Johnson.” The seven year-old dancer / acrobat performs a routine from her backyard under the watchful direction of her mom.

20:01Copy video clip URL Female impersonator:  Carpenter John Simms talks about his second job as Jyneen, as he gets ready for his next gig, a birthday party in Wilmette. “It started out as a joke about five years ago and now I spend more time with a dress on than pants. I do all private parties. I’m not gay, believe it or not. This is business and that’s how I attack it, strictly business and it’s not really a lifestyle. If I’m out working, I’m not really running around with a dress on. Although sometimes it’s easier…I could almost be a real life Tootsie, although I think I carried it a little further with the boob job…I’m a guy. The bottom plumbing works, but I make my living wearing a dress.” Jim Saunders, a friend since high-school talks about “crazy” John, a guy you can count on.

23:13Copy video clip URL Commercial hole.

24:13Copy video clip URL Slices Billboard Painters: Credits w/ Sign painters Bill Prusak and Dave Rubin 130 feet above the ground. They tell what it’s like to do what they do as the install the Chicago Slices/WPRW billboard located just east of the Kennedy Expressway at Webster.