One business owner's hilarious, "Laugh-a-mile-a-minute" romp through the Inner City.
How to Beg for Cigarettes is the story of one business owner’s hilarious “laugh-a-mile-a-minute” romp through the bowels of the inner city, where he finds a real and sometimes surreal cast of characters, with a city, a business, and a staff of employees to match. Amidst the daily dangers and confrontations in this harsh environment, he struggles with his own personal battle – whether to stay in business and suffer an inevitable nervous breakdown or return to the calm of retirement.
From petty theft to murder, Ponticello rummages through America’s inner-cities, searching for the humor and “good” in even the worst-case scenarios, taking a romantic pride in the city’s dangers - genuine and predictable - and approaches a six-block walk for coffee every morning as if it’s an epic adventure filled with peril.