One of my favorite anecdotes is about the single day that I worked at Chuck-E-Cheese. During the interview the manager was interested in my theatre background and asked me if I’d like to wear the mouse costume. I jumped at the chance and a few days later started my first shift.

Never having worked in the food industry, I wasn’t prepared for all the busing of tables and trying to remember orders. And while I had visited the place before as a patron, I wasn’t at all prepared for 8 hours of listening to squealing brats.

Then came the moment I had been waiting for — putting on the mouse costume and walking out amongst the kids. But I wasn’t quite ready for them all to rush me and try to pull off my hand gloves and my tail and kick and pummel me. The head didn’t quite line up with my eyes, so I couldn’t see anything as I stumbled around the showroom. They’re supposed to send out a “handler” with the person in the costume to watch out for him — but my handler drifted off to talk to a friend and left me to fend for myself.

Suffice to say, it was a miserable experience and I quit at the end of my shift. I’ve never wanted to work in the food industry since.

Still, it was cool to follow Dan‘s link to this ShowBiz / Chuck E. Cheese fan page — including the super multimedia section. It brought back a priceless childhood memory of decorating spagetti strainers like space helmets with a slight, shy friend (who I’m sure also grew up to be gay) and going to the Colander Night Contest at ShowBiz.