Wednesday, March 31, 2010

It's an Art


From reading my blog, some people may gain the impression that I am ashamed of what I do for a living. Is it my ideal profession of choice? Fuck no. Am I good at it? Fuck yes. Believe it or not, I do take my job very seriously on occasion and I feel that if I am going to be a waiter, at least let me be a good one. Despite the thoughts that may be rolling around in my head (ie: I hate this job, this lady is annoying me, that lady is annoying me, when do I get off, of course I will bring your food to you when it's ready, that guy has ugly teeth, etc...), for the most part I keep those thoughts to myself and try to do my job with aplomb.

Years ago I saw a musical called Working. It was about all these different people and the jobs they had. One song stood out to me because it was about this waitress who kicked ass at her job and she really got a kick out of doing it. I must admit, that sometimes that happens to me. You ever have one of those shifts where your station is totally full and everyone needs something but nothing fazes you? You're in the zone and everything flows as easily as a frozen margarita goes down my throat. The girl who played the part when I saw it was really great and she had all this cool choreography that involved her spinning her tray and jumping onto tables and shit. I barely remember it though because it was about twenty years ago and if my calculations are correct then I would have been about four or five years old. (I am in my mid-twenties. I am in my mid-twenties, I am in mid-twenties...). Anyhoo, someone (holla out to Steven A.) sent me a video clip of the amazing Rita Moreno doing this number and I shall now share it with you. Rita is one cool lady. She was one of the first people to EGOT (win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) and besides that she was on The Electric Company in the 1970's, a television show that came on way before I was born. (I am in my mid-twenties. I am in my mid-twenties, I am in mid-twenties...). Next time you are at your job, take pride in what you do. Get that hot tea with pep in your step, Paulette! Polish that silver with joy, Jerry! And do some dancing on the tabletops. We are waiters and we are proud! (okay, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.)


"It's An Art" from the musical Working




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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure you have seen the movie "Waiting". I am primarily a bartender but on occasion have waitressed. Everyone who knows me tells me I am the Naomi character, and damn, if I'm not...

Dirty Disher said...

Awesome vid, thanks.

Danielle said...

In my highschool theater class we had to write monolouges from the book Working which the musical is based off of, and by chance I had chosen Dolores Dante, the waitress to use to write mine. I did not start serving tables until a few years later in college, but every once in a while parts of that monologue come back to me and I recite them to myself while working, particularly my favorite quote of hers, "people will tell me, 'you're great! how come you're just a waitress?' 'just a waitress? don't you think you deserve to be served by me?'"

Mary A. said...

You should see the restaurant scene in the Barney Movie where they sing "If all the raindrops were lollipos and gumdrops".

It's awesome.

Sarah said...

that was a great vid! Thanks!