Wayne Wang's follow-up movie to Smoke presents a series of improvisational situations strung together to form a pastiche of Brooklyn's diverse ethnicity, offbeat humor, and essential humanity. Many of the same characters inhabiting Auggie Wren's Brooklyn Cigar Store in Smoke return here to expound on their philosophy of smoking, relationships, baseball, New York, and Belgian Waffles. Most of all, this is a movie about living life, off-the-cuff.

Filmed in just five days, using the same set and much of the same cast as Smoke (1995). The premise of the film came to directors Wayne Wang and Paul Auster while watching an improvisation session between Harvey Keitel et. al. to help them get into character for filming Smoke (1995). They decided that the improvisations were so funny that they would spend a few days after shooting Smoke just filming film is almost entirely improvised. Auster and Wang claim to have "borrowed" the idea of shooting another movie on the back of an existing one from Roger Corman who often used to shoot movies very quickly on leftover sets from other productions.

Tommy:
I don't eat shit. It's against my religion.


Pete:
What religion is that?


Tommy:
The religion of sanity, Peter. You should try it some time.


Pete:
I did, but I was excommunicated.

Continuity: Dot bolts the store door to talk with Auggie, then leaves without unlocking it.

Performed by David Byrne and Selena
Written by David Byrne
Published by Moldy Fig Music (BMI)
David Byrne appears courtesy of Luaka Bop/Warner Brothers Records Inc.
Selena appears courtesy of EMI Latin Records