We Rode in the ‘Cash Cab’ & Here’s What We Learned From Ben Bailey
It’s a typical evening rush hour in New York City: crowded sidewalks, horns blaring, sirens wailing. But in the cocoon of my taxi, the outside distractions fade away. I am, after all, playing Cash Cab, the long-running game show where passengers answer trivia questions from affable host-slash-driver Ben Bailey (above).
As soon as I’m buckled in, he hits a button, setting off the car’s flashing polka dot ceiling lights and burst of music, which signals the start.
After I answer my first question correctly (an easy one about Cheers that would have been worth $50 if I were a real contestant), I grill the 6-foot-6 stand-up comic and licensed cab driver.
Does he take the car home at night? (“No. Every chance I get, I get out of this vehicle,” he says, laughing.) Has he ever been in an accident? (Nope.) Has he been pulled over by the police? (Yes, but mostly because they want to take pictures.) How much money does he keep in the car to award winners? And where is it?
That, he won’t answer. “We had a woman who kept asking me if I’d ever been robbed at gunpoint,” says the Emmy winner. “I pulled over and got out.”
Cash Cab, Mondays, 11:30/10:30c, Bravo