Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 9:35 a.m.
It's a confessional cocoon, where strangers are happy to share their most intimate details.
There's the couple who have been picked up at something called the Red Rooster, regaling the driver with their naughty exploits of their long, sweaty evening (props are used, even, as visual aids).
There are the two young Armenian swingers, yukking it up in shades, shiny button-down shirts and gelled-up hair, leaning forward and yelling as they explain how they woo the ladies. They giggle, fidget and slap each other around, buffeted by the adrenaline rush of the Strip.
There's the former embalmer -- an early retiree in his mid-40s -- talking of the damaging effects water can have on a dead body. "Floaters," he calls them, remembering times he's accidentally pulled an arm from a torso or had to reattach a dismembered skull. As he speaks, the unmistakable Circus Circus sign flashes in the background.
There's the man who has no other destination other than to find "crack whores." The woman who tells, in apparent frustration, of her virginity, saying, "I couldn't even get laid in Europe. How pathetic is that?" There's the couple who, with some gentle goading from the driver, become engaged during a ride from the Venetian to the Rio.
There's not a dry eye in the house.
It's all on "The Best of Taxicab Confessions," an often startling and scintillating documentary crafted by filmmakers Joe and Harry Gantz. The all-Las Vegas installment, six months in the making, airs Saturday at 11 p.m. on HBO (Cox cable channel 54).
The premise is simple: The Gantz brothers rigged up a Yellow Checker cab with recording equipment and six cigarette-sized internal cameras. They retained a lean-and-mean platoon of cabbies -- all locals, all professional drivers -- to act as accomplices. The cabs were on a regular overnight shift, seven days per week, with a van trailing, watching and listening in on every move. The most interesting exchanges are saved and air as part of the series.
"People who come here are looking for something, they're in an exploratory mode," Joe Gantz said during a recent interview as "Taxicab Confessions" was ending its stay in Las Vegas. "That makes for interesting stories, whether they're moving here or are here to have fun, party or whatever. To do what we do, you have to be in a 24-hour city that cuts across all socio-economic and ethnic groups, and we found that in Las Vegas."
Said Harry: "You get everyone from a high-roller who for some reason doesn't want to get into a limo, to someone who might have begged for the money to get a cab. It's never boring."
The Gantz brothers have been taping "Taxicab Confessions" for HBO since 1994, visiting such cities as New York, Washington, D.C., and Vegas. In 1995 the show won an Emmy for Best Prime Time Documentary. The brothers have found a vein of gold in voyeuristic TV, examining the genre meticulously, poring over miles of videotape to glean the very best material.
"It's not as if I sit back and say, 'How do you craft a successful show? Voyeurism! Let's exploit that,' " Joe Gantz said. "We've been working on documentaries for 16 years, and we've learned that you can do something voyeuristic that never works, that makes people want to throw up. But when it's done well it you can catch the essence of people and it can touch you at a very deep level."
Critical to the success of "Taxicab Confessions" are the drivers, who play both parts actor and psychologist. Two of the more effective performers are Rita Scott and Ed Raney, neither of whom expected to attain celebrity status when the Gantz brothers came calling a couple years ago.
"There were times when I'd be driving and I'd go, 'Whoa, this should be on TV,' stuff like that," said Raney, a wide-eyed, energetic 28-year-old who has been with Yellow Checker for four years. "I feel the same thing when I'm on rides for the show, except now I sort of have to make sure they're in the camera angle, that I get the whole story."
Scott, whose distinctive New York accent cuts through any conversation, started driving a cab about four years ago, suffering from what she terms a "serious mid-life crisis."
"What I've found is each person has as great story," she said. "If you give a person half a chance, most people are OK with talking about themselves. If you have a little sympathy and compassion, you will get people to open up."
There is a fairly loose approach shared by all drivers. The idea is to engage the passenger (or passengers) in conversation, first off, then carefully follow the trail.
Rides last longer, because the drivers (and the Gantz brothers in the trailing van) are trying to milk the moment. While most cabs take up to 25 rides per night, drivers in "Taxicab Confessions" average 10.
"We're fortunate here in Las Vegas in that we can extend the rides," Joe Gantz said. "Las Vegas has the longest lights in the continental United States."
Less than five rides per week are deemed worthy of consideration for the show. Passengers are asked to sign a waiver form at the end of the ride, agreeing to have their images (but not names) used on the air. Anyone who signs gets a free ride. Anyone who makes it on the documentary receives $500 from HBO, for what usually amounts to a five-minute dissertation delivered from the back seat of a taxicab.
"What we are is a bartender on wheels," Scott said. "You have to win their trust, because it's very likely you'll never see them again. You have to gain confidence and lead them in the direction they want to be led."
Raney said he just tries to behave normally.
"After the cameras come on, you forget you're even being taped," he said. "You try to do what you do when you drive regularly. One thing is to make sure they don't notice the van following us, and for some reason dancers always figure it out. It's like they have radar or something, like someone's stalking them. But other than that you just try to make it seem as normal as possible."
One of Scott's favorite rides, which is on Saturday's show, was picking up the couple who became engaged. It starts innocently enough, with Scott inquiring about how long the couple have been together. Five years, it turns out.
"Why don't you get married?" she finally blurts out, addressing the woman. "Why don't you make an honest man out of him?"
With that came an uncomfortable pause and you sense the man positively blushing.
"Well ... " he starts, "I would like to spend the rest of my life with you ..."
Then the ring.
"I didn't have the slightest idea what was going to happen," she said. "When he flipped out the ring, I was as shocked as she was."
The Armenian swingers -- who looked like they were plucked out of a "Saturday Night Live" skit -- were favorites of Raney's.
"I should be their agent," Raney said. "They were hilarious. I spent 45 minutes in that cab, and before I knew it these guys were yelling at women out the window, slapping each other on the butt. With them, I didn't even need to do the whole, 'So, how's your sex life?' "
However, there are times when the drivers can stray outside the boundaries. One woman, who was driven by Raney, complained about the nature of personal questions after being driven from a rough part of town to the Maxim. Raney looped around the hotel, trying to draw out more information, and the woman later took issue with the show's approach (Raney declined to discuss that particular ride).
"Those cases are very rare, that I can tell you," Joe Gantz said. "If 100 people were to watch that ride, 100 would tell you she's in no way being intimidated or being made to feel fearful."
Scott said she occasionally feels guilty after ending a ride and telling a passenger he or she has been videotaped.
"It's 'Candid Camera' in a taxi," she said. "You have to remember, this is not a role you're playing as an actor. These are real people. I remember picking up a couple, in their 60s, both married with families, who met every year in Las Vegas to have a fling. They told me all about it, saying they wouldn't even tell their children they'd been lovers for the past 25 years, and at the end we had to ask them to sign a release. They felt like they'd been destroyed, and that is an area where you have to use your judgment."
There is enough material for at least three more Las Vegas episodes "Taxicab Confessions," though the Gantz brothers have not been told when the next installment will air. In the meantime they'll continue work on their website, Crushed Planet.com, which specializes in voyeuristic material, including such programs as "First Apartment," "War on Comedy," "Couples Arguing" and "Sex With Strangers."
As for the cab drivers who lucked into fame, the power of celebrity never ceases to amaze.
"We were eating at Battista's one night and a waitress came over and said, 'Look, I just want to ask you, are you the woman from the HBO show?' " Scott said. "I said I was, and she wanted me to sign an autograph. I was like, I'm not Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, but it's fun."
To be sure, it's real fun.
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