The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac Shares His Fulton Mall Memories

By on September 23, 2013 10:34 pm in Downtown Brooklyn

Wyatt Cenac of Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ shares his ‘New York Memories’ with Time Out NY this week. The Texas born comic, who is also hosts a weekly showcase at Littlefield, talks about spending summers with his grandmother in Crown Heights and loving his visits to the Fulton Mall:

TONY: When I was 19, I lived in Brooklyn with my grandmother for a semester of college while I did an internship. On Sundays, when I wanted to get out of the apartment I’d hop the 2 train and head to the Fulton Mall and just watch guys run three-card monte games. I’d head home and try it, thinking one day maybe I could bring that back to Texas as a way to make a little money. I don’t really see those guys now, as the Fulton Mall is starting to look more and more like any mall, which is part of the sad but inevitable tide of change, but with any luck maybe somebody will start running a three-card monte game outside the fitting rooms of H&M.

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  • HenryLoL

    LOL!!!!! “…which is part of the sad but inevitable tide of change…” I know three people that were mugged at Fulton Mall a few years ago. I saw numerous people scammed and harrassed… It used to be dirty with piles of garbage in the corners, there was grafetti everywhere, bums, and a bunch of junk stores selling fake crap that you could find anywhere… If you pine for those days, you are not being honest with yourself. Bring on the chains!

  • wally haskell

    LOL, get out of the closet already.

  • Topham Beauclerk

    When downtown Brooklyn was largely working-class, the Fulton Mall catered to them. Now that downtown Brooklyn is largely bourgeois, Fulton Mall must change. Another instance of the great churning in big cities.

  • HenryLoL

    Ha! That is really hilarious. And very intelligent too. You’re a real genius.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Memories of Fulton Street in the 70’s: Sitting at the lunch counter in Woolworth’s store, eating a hot dog while drenched in the sweet aromas of caramel roasted nuts and gazing at black velvet paintings of Elvis and nubian goddesses…. Or the elaborate displays of A&S at Christmas complete with automatons of santa and his elves working merrily away… The incense peddlers, the wig stores, and of course the three card monty dealers “Pick the red win some bread, Pick the black you don’t get it back”… Then there was Joy Gifts with the mesmerizing windows full of the coolest electronic gadgetry, Charlie’s Angels Posters and wicked looking knives… and trying to convince mom I really needed one of the latter for Boy Scouts…
    Do I miss it? na, I have the memories, if you weren’t there you just won’t get it.
    Change inevitable and the uniqueness of what mede NYC great is slowly being eroded by the sameness of corporate chain stores. Soon it won’t matter where you live, it will all be the same endless mall.

  • wally haskell

    Super Fly is your super-ego.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cmo6MRYf5g

  • KG18

    No – the density and speed of NYC means there will always be something unique – regardless of chain stores. Even just the fact that you ride the subway to the chain store rather than drive makes a difference in experience. Fact is chain stores love NYC because they make so much money here. Plus – department stores used to be king… but those spread out to other places. Macy’s and Saks are in other places. Nathan’s and on and on. Rap music etc. etc. NY exports many things too.

  • wally haskell
  • ellymay878

    I remember Fulton Street in the 50s and 60s and it had great department stores for all incomes and budgets and one felt safe.i was a child who always went there before the holidays or any special occasion for clothes. I still remember looking in awe at the beautiful seasonal decorations as I went up in the escalator at A&S department store and sinking into the rugs at Martin department store.Baker’s shoe store was there then and I think still is there.I’m happy for the greater variety of stores that have opened and for those that are coming.Looks like better days for Fulton Street.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    The loss of uniqueness I am referring to is about shopping/stores and its/their contribution to NYC’s character. I have edited my post to help clarify that point. The loss of small individually owned stores to national chains, is indeed a great loss of the unique character of New York City. Yes it is still here to some degree but only a fraction of what it once was. I will rephrase what i said, if you weren’t here back then, you just won’t get it.

  • KG18

    don’t get me wrong – I don’t personally like those stores. I’ve never even been in an IKEA (I know that’s Red Hook) – but I also understand the ways of the world. The only time I go to Home Depot is if the hardware store near me doesn’t have what I want. Still – the majority of ppl like those types of stores. I miss neighborhood stores – but I don’t miss the lawless days when 3 card monty was readily available.