Levitch’s own tour of New York ended in 2004, when he left town after 33 years for San Francisco. “I view cities as characters, as living things built and inhabitedīy living things,” Levitch explains. Spears in the abolitionist’s rebel army in New York, he chatted up the 52nd Street subway grate where Marilyn In Kansas, he asked John Brown’s Bowie knife (via Skype) how it felt to be supplanted by Self-described “semi-schizophrenic” backs up that notion by striking up conversations with all kinds of While the dweebs sitting in the back of the cafeteria are the ones with interesting things to say.” The Your average walking tour” Levitch calls it “ Sesame Street as orchestrated by the Beastie Boys.”īut more seriously, Up to Speed is a passionate plea by Levitch for modern-day explorers to do more than justĬheck off must-see sites. Of the country’s “monumentally ignored monuments.” Wired magazine praised it as “not Linklater-directed Hulu show Up to Speed, which found him hopping across the United States discussing some This past summer, he returned to the spotlight as host of the Levitch eventually quit the bus company to lead his own one-man tours-first in New York, then San Francisco,Īnd finally Kansas City, where he now lives. Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, who cast him in scene-stealing roles in Waking Life and School Opportunities, from publishing a New York travel book and performing beat poetry with the rock band Weezer to befriending
The Cruise then opened up Levitch, now 42, Interests in the city, history, performance, and wooing women. Levitch, a former dramatic writing major, was originally drawn to tour guiding because it combined his This is ludicrousness, and this cannot last!”Īt that crescendo, he sighs heavily, pauses a beat, and announces: “The new Ann Taylor store on the right.” “Civilization has never looked like this before.
“ is an explosion, an experiment, a system of test tubes gurgling, boiling, out-of-control, radioactive atoms swirling,” he says. The film captures the Bronx native’s frenzied energy in one scene as Levitch expounds on the chaos of New York to his bewildered passengers. Levitch recently hosted a cross-country travel show on the Web. After years of giving quirky bus tours of New York City,
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