What If You Could Be Who You Really Want To Be....

....And Get Paid For It?

Would it be enough to get you to force yourself to work for one of the worst employer's in the world?

For this guy it was:

Like everyone, I grew up going to Disneyland.

Even as an adult I loved it there and went at least once a month. I was an annual pass holder, though not like the freaky ones you may have heard of. I’d see the park’s characters and think, “It’d be so cool to work here.” But there was never a character I really wanted to play. I had a role on the television show Veronica Mars and was working at Coco’s when a friend told me Disneyland was casting a Jack Sparrow character.....

{snippety-doo-dah}

We were the Johnny Depps and the Jack Sparrows of Disneyland. People called you either “Johnny” or “Jack.” They wanted to talk with you or ask for your autograph. It took me a while to get my rhythm down. I could figure out five or six different things to say to kids, so that by the time the sixth kid was gone, the next group in line hadn’t heard what I’d said to the first kid......

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

I'll be honest: I didn’t follow all the Disney rules. I played Jack like he was real, and if a woman flirted, I would flirt back......


Of course, there was only one way for this end.

And that was badly.

Because after wearing his costume off-site, which resulted in a surreptitious YouTube upload, the man who would be Jack (or Johnny, or Keef) was fired:

They had a manager walk me off the property. She told me she felt bad.

She took me past security and then asked for my Disney ID.

I asked when I could come back. She said in five years I could reapply......


But like all Fairytales it didn't end all that badly:

You’d hear that it sucks to work for Disney. They’re Nazis in Mickey hats. But I’d thought, “How bad could it be?” By the time I got fired, half of me was relieved. I was getting sick of constantly being barked at about what to do.

It was a month before I went back to the park. I missed it. At first I thought it would be a Walk of Shame, but everyone was very nice.

Not long after that I went back to stand in my girlfriend’s Ariel line on Valentine’s Day and give her flowers. I was wearing a beanie and a sweatshirt, but the parents in line were asking me, “Are you Jack Sparrow? You’re him, aren’t you?” I looked to the line’s host, who was a friend of mine. He said, “You don’t work here anymore—do what you want.” But I did what I was trained to do. I said, “Jack Sparrow and I are just friends.”.....

Self-delusion.

It's not just for children anymore.

OK?

.