Waiting... a long time for a poignant movie about the restaurant industry that is all laughs

Bear and I just got back from a hilarious movie called, "Waiting". Rotten Tomatoes gave it terrible reviews (one even thought it was worse than Deuce Bigalow II to give you an idea), so we didn't have our hopes up too high. The movie follows the lives and social scene from an employee's perspective of your average corporate restaurant. If you have ever worked in a restaurant before, you will laugh your ass off seeing this film.

While the jokes tend to play out one ball joke followed by another, the movie did succeed at nailing down the archetype characters you would find any restaurant. The lame, "I don't know what I'm going to do with my life so I'm stuck here" server. The smoking hot hostess who everyone wants to touch, but is underage. The alcoholic, angry server who yells at everyone and everything until she reaches her table to put on her fake smile and personality. The "God... I'm too cool for school" server who is loved by everyone and makes his own rules. The hot server who tempts dudes with touch for tips. The nice, cute, down to earth server who gets the shittiest tables again and again. The manager who hides his sad little self behind the his perogatives of draconian power based on schedule changes and write-ups ("I bet he's crying himself to sleep on his cock-shaped pillow" ). The new trainee whom everyone ignores. The kitchen staff who are completely mentally unstable. And the bus-boys who are as high as kites.

Now having worked in a restaurant for some time (2 years at Applebees, a summer in Scotland, and 1 year at the Rainforest Cafe), let me tell you the life as a server is a lifestyle that is trapping. It's one where you find yourself in a routine with no end in sight, trapped by the comforts of a fat wad of cash in your pocket at the end of every night. Hidden beneath the fog of male anatomy jokes, I think this tends to be the underlying point of the film. Each night at the end of the shift, a different bar awaits you with different drink specials and bartenders who know your name. If it was a good night, you buy your friends drinks. If by chance you had a few bad tables, Jack Daniels is always there to comfort you. The commrodery and the drama always makes things exciting. If you work in a big restaurant, there are always new people coming and going, so you are never bored by the same old faces. There's no lull in the conversations after work because you can always bitch about the managers or the scapegoat who everyone picks on.

In essese, the actual work of serving tables is the bastard part, and is almost never a labor of love. The love comes after work, where all the laughs extrude among the pint glasses and the worry levels drop from 9 to 1. There is but not a care in the world until the next shift starts. And the best part is you don't have to wake up until noon.

That is about the only thing I miss about working nights in a restaurant- waking up late, making a big pot of coffee in the morning, reading the paper, and having a cigarette on the stoop. And to be honest, I enjoyed the lifestyle as a thing of the past- the laughs, all the different personalities of friends, the post-bar-closing tea-time with the Cowell brothers, the cash, the lifestyle.

But those days are done, and I'm glad I don't work in a restaurant anymore.

~ J-dub