More money , more problems
At this particular place , everyone supposedly pooled their tips at the end of the night and split them equally . Being the idiot that I was , I agreed to go in on it . I mean , I ’ m not going to be the fucking guy who dissents . It ’ s good money — I ’ m going to share it , I ’ m not greedy . I threw in . I had started my shift at 9:00 PM and by the time I was done it was 3:00 AM . I was helping them clean up . I was drained , just drained . If you had put a Fitbit on me , I would have probably walked like nine miles back-and-forth . Like I said , I was usually 215 lbs . at that time , but when I went home and weighed myself that night , I was like 206.5 . I sweat out nearly ten pounds .
Then , the manager goes , “ You did great , but this was a practice run so we can ’ t pay you .” That really pissed me off . How much practice do you need to be a barback ? Are you fucking kidding me ? Meanwhile , the bartenders are walking away with $ 500 , $ 600 . A couple of them were really cool . They each gave me $ 200 from their own tips . They said , “ Listen man , you busted your ass tonight , you deserve this .” So , all along , that guy wasn ’ t even planning on paying me . I still came back there , because the work was good and consistent , but it was nuts .
You ’ d always see guys getting cut off or thrown out . We had a couple of 350-lb . bouncers working round the clock . It was a completely different atmosphere than Splash , which was campy yet somehow classy , exactly what you think of when you think of gay New York .
This spot was like ratchet as fuck . I got in even better shape being there because it was so much physical labor , carting stuff around and batting people off . I could eat as much ice cream as I wanted because I was burning so many fucking calories that it didn ’ t matter .
120