EXT. HALFWAY HOUSE-NIGHT.
Dressed business casual, messenger bag bouncing at his side, STEVE runs from the 3 train subway station up to the house.

INT. HALFWAY HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR-NIGHT.
Out of breath, Steve enters a living room area crowded with bunk beds and several MEN standing and sitting around a 13-inch TV set. They are watching Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Onscreen, Zohan (Adam Sandler) and other Israeli men are playing hackysack with a cat.

The men in the room bust out laughing.

Steve sets down a newspaper with the headline OBAMA TO SPEAK…

STEVE
(laughs)
Oh, Zohan. Yeah, that shit is retarded.

Some of the men turn toward him and say, “What up, Steve?”

STEVE
What they watching downstairs?

BIG BISWAS shrugs his shoulders.

BIG BISWAS
Prolly a game…?

Steve glances at his watch: 9:48PM.

CUT TO:

INT. BASEMENT.
Steve comes down the stairs to find MR. OCTOBER, DIVA, and TOTAL LOSS sitting on the well-worn sofa. Behind them, SLIM sits on a weight bench. The big 30-inch TV set is showing commercials.

STEVE
Fellas, whatup?

The fellas grunt or mutter feeble responses.

STEVE
What y’all watching?

DIVA
Wrestling.

STEVE
Not gonna watch the speech?

DIVA
Speech?

STEVE
Obama.

DIVA
Obama’s speaking tonight?

STEVE
Yeah, at the convention.

DIVA
What convention? …Read more