21 questions

Wyatt Cenac Likes to Pit Buskers Against One Another, Idol-Style

Name: Wyatt Cenac
Age: 33
Neighborhood: Non-gang-related, Manhattan
Occupation: Actor and comedian, correspondent/writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Will be performing at Comix tonight and tomorrow.

Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Mr. Met.

What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
The BBQ at Fette Sau is as good as anything I’ve had in the South.

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Try not to garner the wrath of Campbell Brown.

Would you still live here on a $35,000 salary?
Yes … assuming I would also be the ne’er-do-well, layabout boyfriend of some wealthy socialite’s daughter.

What’s the last thing you saw on Broadway?
I’ve never seen a show on Broadway.

Do you give money to panhandlers?
I like to pit buskers in an American Idol–style competition for my loose change.

What’s your drink?
Poor man’s mint julep (sweet iced mint tea with whiskey).

How often do you prepare your own meals?
Pretty often. I thought about going to cooking school.

What’s your favorite medication?
Sleep.

What’s hanging above your sofa?
A poster for a Run DMC show I pulled off a telephone pole in Los Angeles.

How much is too much to spend on a haircut?
I cut my own hair, so I’m not the best person to answer that.

When’s bedtime?
Tough to say. I generally pass out on the couch watching TV and then am startled awake by those commercials for computer-education software with the bald guy who begs you to “try his DVDs.”

Which do you prefer, the old Times Square or the new Times Square?
I’ve only been to the current Times Square, which makes miss the old Times Square.

What do you think of Donald Trump?
He secretly loves Rosie O’Donnell.

What do you hate most about living in New York?
The walk to the subway in winter.

Who is your mortal enemy?
Byatt Benac.

When’s the last time you drove a car?
When I was in L.A. for a few days last month. Second day of driving, I got pulled over.

How has the Wall Street crash affected you?
My piss-poor credit score has all of a sudden become the average.

Times, Post, or Daily News?
I like to buy all three and mush them together to form a kind of “super paper.”

Where do you go to be alone?
Flavor Country.

What makes someone a New Yorker?
This quiz?

Wyatt Cenac Likes to Pit Buskers Against One Another, Idol-Style