Southsider’s big tales of the city

A SOUTHSIDER who grew up in Ballinteer before moving to New York where he worked as a bar tender has written an entertaining new book about his experiences.

Barry Reeves played football for Broadford Rovers FC before travelling to the Big Apple on a soccer scholarship in the early nineties.

Now an accomplished writer, he has come out with his first book about life in NYC working in the bar business.

‘A Shot in the Dark’ chronicles his bartending experiences in Hell’s Kitchen, a largely Irish area on the West Side of Manhattan.

In the book Barry provides his inside take on NYC and packs an arsenal of witty entertaining stories on his interactions with all walks of life.

Hailed by the New York Daily News as

“a wild memoir of his experiences as an Irishman tending bar in Hell’s Kitchen

? the book has also been praised by the Irish Voice Newspaper as

“an unassumingly and refreshingly honest look back at what has undoubtedly been a colourful bartending career

?.

On a recent trip back home to Ballinteer, Barry told how the stories are all true.

“Though some may have been reworked to tell a better tale,

? he laughed.

“A disclaimer on the first page states that names have been changed in order to protect the guilty.

?

And it doesn’t take long to figure out why as Barry delves straight into stories of trigger-happy cops, transvestites, prostitutes, sexual mishaps and drunken debauchery.

“It started out as a series of letters to my mate Smithy back home about all that I was experiencing when I moved over to New York,

? he revealed.

“I was looking back over these letters and I thought they were kind of funny and light-hearted, so I decided to put them into chronological order and see what I could do with them.

?

There’s his cop buddy,

‘Dutch’, who one night called the bar to ask,

“Have you seen my gun?

?

It turns out that during a hard night’s drinking he’d somehow left it behind in a toilet bowl.

The manager of the Who dropped by, and after a night of good service, gifted Barry with some close up tickets to their Madison Square Garden show.

One night, desperate for an airfare to Ireland, he ran naked on Ninth Avenue to pick up some cigarettes after a buddy promised him the price of ticket if he’d bare all.

And come back with some cigs.

Barry still lives and works in Hell’s Kitchen, where he also continues to write.

A recent graduate of the prestigious New York University’s film school, he has also brought some of his favourite stories to life through short films.

You can see his films on YouTube and on his website www.therollsquad.com.

His book, A Shot in the Dark, is available in paperback at Amazon.com, BN.com and on both Kindle and Nook.