"World's Worst Waiter"

1/18/06

It's fun to go the events I book (I get to sit back and enjoy them while the event planner runs around), and yesterday all I had to do was walk across the street from our office to the Cool Springs Convention Center/Marriott to enjoy two of the best entertainers out there. The first was Don Pryor, "World's Worst Waiter". Unbeknownst to the audience, but knownst to us (thanks Mel Brooks), he is an actually a comedian. He goes around to tables, serving wine, "Do you want dark or clear?", talking on his cell phone, eating rolls, leaning across tables to shakily pour water all the way up to brim of the glass. The attention he gets as the dinner grows is like an incoming thunderstorm- just a subtle noise at first that grows into a cacophony of laughter by the end. The funniest part was watching people's reactions. At a table near us, a guy who looks just Dr. Mark from ER, would watch Don do something at his table, and when Don walked away, he'd sprint over to the surrounding tables to recount the tale. Another table had a group of women who turned beet red from laughter. Quite the sight to behold. And, of course, the woman who booked him got into the act by playing the hard nosed event planner telling him loudly to get his act together. But it all resolved itself in the end (see his video), and he received a rousing round of applause.