CHAPTER 125

Nick Di Paolo: I didn’t even put up a fight. I didn’t. Because I know I had a few incidents, a string of incidents. I didn’t even argue. I said to Noam, ‘You and your dad have been nothing but great to me. This club’s been nothing but great to me.’ I remember saying to Noam, ‘I even remember nights leaving here when I felt bad about what I did.’ I gave no resistance, because I had no argument. He didn’t say, ‘You can’t come back to the club,’ or anything. But that was a demarcation point, because I sort of suspended myself from the club. I really respect the place so much, and Estee and everybody who runs it. I really didn’t want to disrespect it. So I started coming down a little less and little less and it wasn’t because I was mad at them. I just wanted to show them the respect they deserve. But I put up no resistance. I agreed with him one hundred per cent. I really like those people a lot.

Author: And do you remember what the incident was that kind of brought that discussion about?

Nick: No. It was a string of them.

Author: So basically, you’d been getting a bit grumpy on stage with the audience?

Nick: I’m always cantankerous, even when I started. It’s just my nature. One night I do remember a table of, like, NYU students, young girls. Some girl going, ‘You’re just being racist.’ I hadn’t even really said anything yet and I just fucking went off on her and I said, ‘Why don’t you go and jump off the fucking library?’ Because a couple of students had committed suicide, like, three of them within a year had jumped off the library roof. And so I said, ‘Why don’t you go fucking scale the side of that library at NYU?’ You know. I don’t even remember. It’s just a tirade. I just remember them leaving and like some of the girls crying and then … That’s not the first time. I’d look in the doorway and there’d be like seven comics who came downstairs because somebody went up and said, ‘Nick’s on one of his tirades.’ And that’s how many times it would happen. So that’s why I didn’t give Noam any resistance when he brought it up. But yeah, I’d go fucking nuts. Someone just not paying attention or giving me, like, a dirty look, and I remember, like, knocking their hat off. And I remember even the bouncer goes, ‘Nick, what the fuck are you doing?’ I just got way too comfortable there, you know what I mean? And it was ridiculous. And I knew it. I knew it was time to go and find another club.