Every bartender has had to deal with a difficult or annoying customer at some point during his or her career. Sometimes a bartender might have to deal with difficult customers, multiple times during one shift. It’s the nature of the business, especially when there is alcohol involved. Ideally each situation between a customer and a bartender are handled in a professional manner. Bartenders make money off of the tips they receive from their customers. The general idea with working in the bar and restaurant industry is that the happier the customer is with their service, the bigger the tip they will leave.
The Bartender Hates You (TBHU) is a collection of videos put together by Generation Awesome. The video series brings the war stories that take place while working behind the bar in the Hollywood bar scene, to life. Customer service is obviously not of the essence in this series. Instead, TBHU shows its viewers what really goes on in the head of a bartender when customers ask stupid questions and do stupid things.
I recently had a chance to talk to Alan Stephens, the writer, producer and actor (Alan stars as the bartender in the series) of TBHU about how the concept for the series was developed and where the inspiration for the series came from.
When and where did you come up with the idea for TBHU? I came up with TBHY while I was working at a nightclub in Los Angeles about 4 years ago.
Have you ever been a bartender? If so, how did you get started in the industry? Yes, for the better part of the last 10 years I've been bartending. My father and sister are both chefs so I've been around the industry for a long time, plus its the easiest industry to make quick cash. I worked my way up from being a dishwasher and busser in high school. I started waiting tables in college and then the place I worked for trained me to bartend. I've worked in a handful of different types of places (margarita bar, Asian fusion, Italian, many dives, and a few nightclubs). I started out on the east coast (Boston), and then realized I could bartend in a much nicer climate, which brought me to Los Angeles.
As a bartender, what is your biggest pet peeve? Hmmm, I have a lot of pet peeves. The snapping customer is one of the worst. If you're snapping at me, I'll usually ignore you. On some occasions I have been known to call out the snapper on being a jerk though. Oh, another one, when someone works so hard on getting your attention, you make it over to them, then they turn to their friends and go "What do you guys want?" Know your order before you flag me down.
Are the war stories that are featured in TBHU actual situations that have happened to you or are they purely fictional and wishful thinking? It's a mix of both. Some of them have happened, some of them are things I've always wanted to do, and a few are a little mix of both. We try to let people decide for themselves which ones I have and haven't done. I'll let you know one, My Hieny , I did during a very busy nightclub rush. And yes, the guy paid me for his beer (and tipped me).
Once the idea for TBHU was developed, how did you decide to make it a reality? We decided to finally shoot the series when we realized we needed more content for a screening party we were going to be hosting. We knew it was time to put these on film. We shot the series at a bar that Bert (another Generation Awesome member and bartender) was working at.
How have you marketed TBHU to be so popular? Other than doing an email, MySpace, and Facebook blast to our friends, we haven't really marketed these in any way. They have just caught on themselves. I think the content of them naturally drew in the fan base.
What is next up for TBHU? The Bartender Hates You series is really taking off right now. We've been getting around 30,000 hits per day over the past few weeks. We are scheduled to shoot about 20 more by the end of this month. They will be on the web shortly after.
As of November 4th, 2009: There are now 22 NEW TBHU episodes. Be sure to check out all of the new videos on "The Bartender Hates You" YouTube page.
The Bartender Hates You has been featured on Comedy Central's Tosh.0, Butterfinger's Comedy Network, Revver Live, College Humor, Metacafe, Funny Or Die and YouTube. You can check out all of the other videos in The Bartender Hates You series on YouTube and on the Generation Awesome website.
Warning: some of the content for The Bartender Hates You series may contain profanity.
Check out Kathleen Neves at Examiner.com as the National Bartender Examiner
Read Kathleen's personal bartender blog at Cielo Gold: San Francisco Bartender Blog
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