NY1’s Roger Clark Is New York City’s Last Hero

by Matthew J.X. Malady

People are always saying things on the Internet all the time. But they are such teases. We like details.
So we have to ask.

Thanks for the interview @jakedobkin @gothamist — sorry about my sweating a lot — @jenchung @jenist @johndelsignore @nellcasey

— Roger Clark (@RogerClark41) October 22, 2013

So I just got back to NY1 from @Gothamist headquarters and turns out my polo shirt was inside out the whole time. Yikes!

— Roger Clark (@RogerClark41) October 22, 2013

Roger! So what happened here?

I was assigned to do a story on the Banksy phenomenon. I had been to see one of his pieces in the Bronx and was headed to Brooklyn to interview Gothamist’s publisher Jake Dobkin in Dumbo. On the way, I was starving. So I stopped at Burger King in Astoria for lunch. Lunch led to me running a little late with traffic and then parking is a pain in Dumbo, so I was getting nervous and started sweating like a pig. By the time I parked and walked to Gothamist I was drenched, and my pals over there offered me water as if I had just done a triathlon.

Does the sweating thing occur often, and what happened with the shirt?

I do tend to sweat a lot. It’s amazing, I can control it when I anchor, so I don’t have to look like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. But I’m kind of a neurotic dude and that just leads to the sweat floodgates opening.

As for the shirt, I have to blame lack of sleep for putting the grey Champion polo from Target on inside out. It’s one of my three go-to polos. (I don’t love the whole shirt and tie thing all that much.) It’s been a crazy week working on regular stories plus a special project I am developing with some co-workers. Add to that my 2-and-a-half year-old son at home, plus my band has a show Friday night, and I have not gotten a lot of sleep. When I got back to the station, I went straight to the bathroom to “freshen up” and looked in the mirror and noticed the buttons were on the inside not the outside. I just kinda groaned and reversed it, wondering if the folks at Gothamist noticed. They probably did, but were too nice to say anything.

Lesson learned (if any)?

I guess maybe next time I’ll skip Burger King and go straight to the interview. I still was early when I got there, but the worry obviously hit my brain pretty hard. Maybe a change of clothes too?

Just one more thing.

The Gothamist folks, who I consider pals, asked about playing some Ping-Pong. I love Ping-Pong and was already sweaty anyway, but I needed to get back to Chelsea to file my story. So maybe next time some Ping-Pong and a change of clothes and a pitcher of water.

Matthew J.X. Malady is a writer and editor in New York City.