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This morning, I began my training to be a tour guide on the Circle Line. In March, I sent an e-mail to the circle line. It went exactly like this:
To whom it may concern,
I am a Manhattan resident, and a recent graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts,
with a degree in Film Production and Urban Studies. I am a NYC fanatic, a veritable
fun-fact factory of NYC trivia and information. My friends encouraged me to seek
summer or part time employment as a tour guide, be it on a bus, a boat, walking tours,
in a museum, etc. I was wondering if you have any need for a person like me, and/or
availability in that type of position. More information, or a lead on who I should
contact about this, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
That was it. Not a masterpiece of communication. I heard nothing for just about 2 months. And then, suddenly, a guy named Chris Calhoun calls me from Circle Line, telling me that he's having a tour guide audition at the end of May. I tell him I'll totally be there. In late may (I forgot to take photos that day) I went to the Circle Line and I was brought onto an empty boat, was handed the wireless microphone, and was told to read copy.
I ad-libbed as often as I could, to demonstrate that I knew my stuff. And I was pretty sure my voice sounded good over the P.A. But the clincher was what happened when I was done. I was collecting my things, including the book I was reading at the time: The Bridges of New York. I showed him the book and said something like "Have you read this one?" He said no. And then he thought for a moment, and he asked me, "How many bridges connect Manhattan to other places?" And I thought for a moment, and I said, "Well, a lot. Let me count them out. George Washington is one. The Verrazazno Narrows doesn't go to Manhattan. The Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg are 2, 3, and 4. The Queensboro is 5. Willis Avenue, 3rd Avenue, Park Avenue Rail Bridge, High Bridge..." and he said, "Stop, stop. That's enough. You've already impressed me." He went on, "Most of the captains who drive these boats can't name the Bronx-Manhattan bridges."
And so, I had impressed him. He said he would call me within two weeks, and around two weeks later he offered me the job of Part Time Tour Guide. He explained it to me this way: They had 9 guides. If nothing went wrong, and everyone could show up to work, that was all they needed. But when someone couldn't come in, or got sick, Chris Calhoun himself, the pier manager, would have to fill in, and he said he just didn't have the time. So I was being hired as a fill-in guide.
This was the first clue that I wasn't being hired as part of some annual summer-job tour-guide mass-hire. I soon found out that most tour guides on the Circle Line are FOR LIFE. Most of them have been there for at least a decade, a few of them for two or three (one of them for 4!), and that I had been very lucky that they needed someone the very summer that I sent in my e-mail.
And so, here I am, in early June, ready to begin my training. Training would consist of me riding around with as many of the other guides as possible, to hear how they give the tours, to learn the facts, to hear the stories, and begin putting together a tour of my own.
Here is what the Pier looks like at 42nd street on the Hudson. (At West Street.)
The boats are parked along the pier in the morning, waiting for their runs. It was an absolutely beautiful day.
The upstairs of each boat has an enclosed cabin, an open area with an overhang, and a totally open area, exposed to the sun.
From the back of the boat, looking forward.
The P.A. system works remarkably well. It is easy to hear the guide from all parts of the boat, including out back, which get their amplification from speakers like these.
Every boat gets a snack bar, from which the tour guide receives 1% of the gross of concessions sold as commission.
The Circle Line boat in action on the water.
Postcard shot.
However corny it may be for a New Yorker, there was something special about getting that close to the Statue of Liberty. Don't knock it until you've been there. It might catch you by surprise. So, like a tourist, I took pictures. Today, I was on two 3-hour tours around the entire island of Manhattan, learning the full tour.
People on the front of the boat, ogling at the Brooklyn Bridge.
David Parker, who was the tour guide on my second journey of the day, is the self proclaimed "court jester" of the tour guides. His tour is the most theatrical of all of them. The most amazing moment, to me, was when we were about to pass under the Broadway Bridge at the northern tip of Manhattan. It's the lowest bridge we pass under, and the Circle Line boats barely clear it. He gets up on top of a garbage can, makes like the statue of liberty, and holds up his microphone like a torch, trying to tap a blue light that hangs down from the bottom of the bridge.
He JUST missed it today.
I also found it interesting how the tour guides, like David Parker here, talk to the people at the end of the tour, kind of like a teacher after class. Many people thank you. Some stop and ask a last question. Some actually correct things that you might have said that were wrong. And some people, like these in the photo, might realize that they are very good friends with a 4th grade art teacher that you had a huge crush on during your childhood. It all came out in this amazing conversation.
Overall, a great day. It's a little intimidating, and it's definitely something I think I can do, but I need to hear more tours first.