Chapter 1: What new merchandise is available?
We've got new merch. The Year of the Rat hoodies just hit the site. We have them in two colors and they're made from my favorite hoodie template. We also have the winter sale that's happening right now. 20% off some of your favorites. You can get them before they're gone at theovonstore.com if you get a chance to go there. And if not, that is totally great as well.
Thank you guys so much for the support. Today's guest is a retired firefighter and a veteran of the FDNY here in New York City, which is where we filmed. He spent 20 years serving with the fire department in the communities of Washington Heights and Queens and bravely served alongside many others during 9-11. I'm very grateful for his time and his service. He is what I would call a legend.
Today's guest is Mr. Tony Bonfiglio.
I'm with you.
Is it too hot in here for you, Tony? No, I feel comfortable. Okay.
Yeah, what kind of temperature do you guys operate at? Well, sometimes it's so hot, you know, in the summer when we're out there in like 90 degree weather and you're putting a fire out, it's hot. You lose so much body water.
Yeah?
Yeah, it's like when you take off your turnout coat and your gear, it's like you fell in a pool. Have you ever started a fire where you had to pee and by the end you didn't? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: Who is today's guest and what is his background?
That's what I'm talking about. You kidding me? Yeah. And then sometimes you're so thirsty. I mean, there were times I was so thirsty from pulling ceilings and the plaster dust that I actually would, I look up and would take water coming off the drain pipe, just straight into my mouth because I can breathe. Yeah. Yeah. It gets pretty crummy in there.
Oh, I bet.
Yeah, it's shitty.
Yeah. 20 years. You were Tony Bonfiglio. Yep. And that's Italian.
That's Italian, man. My whole family's from East Harlem. Yeah. You know, we're Italian. Yeah. It's fun, huh? Yeah. Grew up in New Hyde Park. My father moved us out of the Bronx when I was about six.
Yeah.
And we moved to New Hyde Park. That's like a town on the Queens borderline on the suburb side. Bring it up. New Hyde Park? New Hyde Park. Went to Herrick's High School. What was it like back then? Oh, it was great. It was like all blue collar workers, you know, all the blue collar workers, kids, you know, we had bus drivers, cops, firemen, truck drivers. So there's a nice suburb over there, huh?
Oh, it was great. Right over the city line. I mean, I had such a great childhood. We were, we had so much fun. Running around, doing all kinds of crazy shit back then. Hot rods, motorcycles. Mischief, huh? Yeah, mischief. Rock and roll, rock clubs. Ugh, in Long Island, rock clubs.
Listening to some Def Leppard, some ACDC?
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Chapter 3: What was Tony Bonfiglio's experience on his first fire?
I think we might pick up a new listenership here in this episode.
Oh, man, we would have some good oil fights.
Really?
Because you'd have these big squirt bottles, and then we'd have these 55-gallon drums of oil. What? Yeah. And with seed oil? Yeah, it was vegetable oil. Oh, Lord. We would even do the trucks in the vegetable oil. It looks like they got waxed.
What?
Yeah, they were all shiny.
And what vegetables was it coming out of? I have no idea. Look up vegetable. I never even thought about that. What could even have that much oil? Maybe an eggplant? What is vegetable made of? Vegetables. You'd think, but what? They squish them.
Vegetable oil is made from the oils extracted from various plant parts like seeds, fruits, nuts, and grains, most commonly soybeans, corn, canola, sunflower, and palm. Because that's kind of the oil that everybody's kind of against nowadays, you know. But I guess you guys were just using it to keep stuff shiny. Shiny. Wow. Yeah. I didn't even know people used it like that.
Yeah, we had these black trucks and they would look all waxed after we would done oiling them all down. Yeah. And it stunk too, you know, because it was such a big place and there'd be a lot of like the bones and the fat and you'd had to go in the pit sometimes. It's like you would puke. It was so bad smelling.
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Chapter 4: How did the conversation shift towards Tony's early life and career?
So now after you get all that done, everybody says their half-assed goodbyes. You know, I went back out. Thank God my father's Regal was still there. Yeah. Found it. I got into Regal. I found I had a joint in my workout bag. I lit that sucker up. And now I'm driving home. We had no directions back then, so I'm looking for signs for the LIE, and boom, I get home. My dad was there. How'd you do?
I said, yeah, I think I did all right. So now it's the girls have a lawsuit because 40 girls took the test, the first 40 girls ever, and they didn't pass with 40,000 applicants, you know. None of them passed? None of them passed. Were some of the women in there on that day, you were there with that 100 people? No, I didn't see any women that day.
But we had a couple in my battalion when I got there. So anyway, they had a lawsuit and this lawsuit went on for six years. So from that time I took the test, I didn't get a notice that I was hired for six years. Because it was- Because of the women, because the lawsuit took so long. They usually hire about 2,500 people off the list. Now they had to go deep into the list.
And because of that zero, I was like 4,300 on the list. So the women saved me. Thank God. Thank you, girls. I appreciate it.
Yeah, because rarely does a complaining woman save you. Oh, she saved, they saved me that day. Brenda Berkman right there.
Brenda Berkman. Everybody knows Brenda.
Pioneering female firefighter. She was the sole named class plaintiff. She was a lawyer. In the federal sex discrimination lawsuit that opened the fire department in New York to women firefighters. After she won the lawsuit in 82, she and 40 other women. became FDNY firefighters. Was that a time where like, were people like supportive of the women? Were they against the women?
What did that feel like?
Did it feel like they were totally against the women? They were. It was an all male place, you know?
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Chapter 5: What experiences did Tony Bonfiglio have during his first days as a firefighter?
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And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Bam, that's a lot. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash Theo. That's betterhelp.com slash T-H-E-O. that would be the wildest thing for me would just be like the access you get to do. I remember one time I'm in Kansas city. Right. And I guess somebody started a fire. Right.
And I like, as a comedian, you go to different hotels, you're always in hotels over the years. And I got to the point where every now, like, you know, every seven weeks, somebody would start a fire, pull an alarm. Right. And so in the middle of the night, you got to go downstairs and be outside. So I finally decided for myself, I'm going to wait. Cause there was never, it was never a good fire.
Right, right, right.
So I was like, I'm waiting out there for 45 minutes or whatever while they see if there's a fire or not. So I finally said, I'm staying in the room until I smell smoke or whatever. So one time I'm in there, I just made this big sandwich, dude. It was really good. It was one of the better ones I've probably ever made in my life.
And a guy, I remember this big fireman with an ax comes in or just opens my door and the alarm had been going off for a while. And he's looking, he's looking for me. And I was like, is there a fire? And I missed something. Yeah, he's like, you got to get out of here. I was like, bro, every week they're doing this shit. I'm not going.
Right, I hear this all the time. But that's the cry wolf thing, too, though, you know.
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