He took his shot — and hit nothing but net.
A longtime street musician scored his dream gig with the Knicks last week when two Madison Square Garden execs happened upon his drumming performance outside the World’s Most Famous Arena.
“What are the odds of you just walking past while I’m here trying to bust my ass in the cold trying to pay my rent?” Cornelio Joseph told the dazzled execs.
“Hey, let me know if there’s any opportunity for entertainment at the Garden,” he told them.
“I took my shot,” he recalled to The Post.
Days later, they texted him to perform at Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, where the Knicks were taking on the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I was freaking out,” he said.
“For the Knicks to find me, this changed my life,” he said after performing in front of 20,000 rabid fans Wednesday night.
The Panama-born Brooklynite has been performing with his handmade snare drums in subway stations and landmarks across NYC since he was a teenager, dreaming about his big break.
And whenever Knicks diehard Joseph, 33, whose stage name is Beat of New York, played outside MSG, he wistfully dreamed what it would be like to play inside.
Joseph’s bank account was in the red last week when the two MSG entertainment execs walked by the high-energy drummer, catching their attention with his “U Can’t Touch This” interpretation of MC Hammer.
“We want subway-themed street drumming,” Joseph recalled of the assignment of his life, which meant using buckets for the show to create a subway vibe.
He signed a contract for the performance over email for the full main timeout performance the Garden calls “Tonight’s Entertainment.”
“I legit got down on the floor, stared at the ceiling and thanked G-d, crying,” he said.
During his 80-second show, he showed off his high-flying signature “manifesto jump.”
The floor was shaking,” Joseph said of his “show-stopping” move, pulled off against the beats of Bad Bunny.
“I made the most out of that joint,” he said.
Even though the percussion impresario has performed alongside luminaries like Shakira, he admitted he fought his nerves once he spied Jay-Z, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and footballer Jeremiah Wright. Knicks superfan Spike Lee even darted over to congratulate Joseph on “a great job,” the drummer said.
“It definitely felt like I was a part of history,” he said. “This is my dream — every performance I did in every subway and street in this city led to this.”
Joseph, a Juilliard-trained part-time music education teacher, took home a cool $2,000 paycheck for his effort.
He said he’s confident he’ll be invited back to another Garden party — ” to put a smile on everyone’s face.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
