Elderly Comedian Begs for Charity

Irwin Corey, the 97-year-old comedian who spent decades in television and on stage, has been begging for change from New York drivers for nearly two decades to raise money to help sick children in Cuba, writes The New York Times.

Mr. Corey, who still performs in his comedic persona as a spurious, nonsense-spouting “professor,” has been asking for money at a midtown Manhattan stoplight daily for 17 years. Hobbling on a walker and looking like a typically scruffy street person, he is rarely recognized, according to The Times.

The elderly comic lives in a neighborhood of multimillion-dollar apartments near the spot where he begs and is financially secure, according to his manager. He collects around $100 a day and donates all the money to a charity (which the article does not name) that buys medical supplies for treatment of Cuban children.

Of the drivers who give him spare change, Mr. Corey, a longtime left-wing activist, said, “I don’t tell them where the money’s going, and I’m sure they don’t care.”