New York: Where Dreams are Made of #19

From June, 2015

Wandering the streets of Manhattan at 4am, I stumbled upon a group of incredibly excited people. One woman, in particular, was behaving in an overexcited, exaggerated manner, so I asked her what on earth was going on. She pulled me to the side and – reluctantly coming out of character – explained that they were ‘background artists’ currently filming and I had just walked into a scene. I told her: ‘let’s all be honest here, love, don't beat around the bush, you’re extras’. As was I, now. However, I felt that I gave the scene a bit more, so I could definitely call myself an ‘artist’ in that moment. Check out my wandering cameo in How To Be Single in cinemas coming near you soon!

We drank with two Italians – one pleasant, one annoying – and a charming Spaniard at our hostel before the five of us lads took to the bars of New York. In an expensive and swanky bar, I spoke to a lovely Chilean American university professor. After an hour of progressive conversation, she asked my age and my regrettable honesty meant interest had instantly diminished. Nonetheless, we walked her and her friend to the subway and crossed a busy street during our green light. Rodney then got hit by a limousine. It was hilarious. Don't worry, (not that you had), he was fine. The guy said: ‘sorry man, are you ok?’ Smiling and confused, Rodney looked beside him and noticed the Chilean’s friend had fallen over, despite not having been touched. The impact of him being hit had somehow beaten the laws of physics and travelled more significantly to her. We comforted her, left them both and laughed our way back to the Hispanic town of New Jersey's Union City.

As Rodney and his cousin visited the memorable apartment building made famous as home to many of the Friends cast, I took to Wall Street. One of the most iconic streets in the world was full of businessmen and women and tourists on a day which had news teams reporting on a minor crash in the stock market. A statue of a regal George Washington was located by The New York Stock Exchange building. I walked by arguably the most famous sports arena in the world – Madison Square Garden – before I was in the world-famous Grand Central station.

We walked along the barely one-year-old High Line – a 1.45-mile-long linear public park built on an elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side. There were some impressive public-made Lego constructions of NYC – including an extraordinary model of the Empire State Building – and Rodney delightedly created his own little Transformer. Some nice vegetation, a few sculptures and a pleasant view completed a satisfactory visit. We soon found ourselves off the trail and on our way to an evening of music. Or so we thought…

You're never a few feet away from show-business in NYC and whilst walking we were asked if we wanted to be on a game show and – after much hesitation from Rodney – we both agreed. It was apparently a successful several-series ‘award-winning’ show by the production company of Will Ferrell – so we already had our sceptical suspicions.

After an hour of waiting, I was taken around the corner where 15 crew-members were waiting and the host introduced himself to me in a very calm fashion. We started filming and suddenly he broke into a camp, extremely exaggerated and unfunny voice, speaking with speed and little meaningful conviction. He repeatedly blasted fast and borderline prejudice questions at me before I played a pointless game about whether certain movies were flops or not. He then pointed to a nine-year-old girl and said that I had somehow offended her and she – very realistically – burst into tears. I played along and awkwardly tried to comfort her, but all hope was lost as she screamed Bloody Mary at me so the host eventually closed the segment and I was finally allowed to leave the godforsaken place. Excited to see how Rodney would deal with awkwardness at its peak on camera, we waited for his name to be called up, only for them to apologise and tell us that they had decided to change the game show and we were no longer needed. They gave us each a hat and sent us on our way. I guess Will said farewell to that one...

An emotional and disorganised last day saw me leave behind – hopefully without regret – a 12-hour movie romance in the most enchanting city in the world. An evening described as ‘the most romantic day of my life’ by the lucky individual saw us spend an unforgettable night and morning seeing the enchanting sights of NYC for one last time. Oh, and then Rodney and I missed our flight to Colombia. Poor checking of flight times meant we were too late to leave from Newark International Airport by minutes and we had to pay for an alternative flight leaving that evening from JFK Airport. Although the price to pay could've been considerably worse, Rodney has certainly learnt from his irresponsibility and will be more prepared next time. Oh mon dieu, Rodney…