Submitted by UNKOWN in California.
Sometimes I feel like the only person on earth who doesn’t ooh and ahh when a celebrity is around. I don’t know why, but people really lose their minds when someone from television or in movies shows up where I work.
Maybe I’m jaded because I’ve had so many bad experiences with these famous people. In my 2 years of waiting tables, I’ve waited on 9 or 10 “famous” people. I can remember but only 1 time I got some kind of awesome tip. The other times, the people were rude and tipped like an average Joe. See, the problem with that is the restaurant doesn’t have me treat these people like “normal” customers.
Once a famous person is spotted in your section, the manager will make you hand off your other tables to focus solely on the celebrity. Damn it if this doesn’t seem to cost me money each and every time. I can have 4 tables going then a celebrity walks in and I have to drop them. Well, if my average tip is $10-$20/table, this celebrity (or the restaurant) better look like tipping me $50+ for having to cater to this one person like they’re some kind of royalty. Problem is, that usually doesn’t happen.
Another thing that bothers me about celebrities is when they get spotted, they act one way, but if no one notices them, they act another. If the celebrity is not noticed by the other patrons in the restaurant, they’ll act cool and laid back. If they’re spotted, they start acting like the spoiled shits they usually are.
From the editor:
I used to work at a movie theater when I was in high school. I can relate to your story, in a way, because Al Copeland used to pop in, on occasion, after the last movie started playing. We would have to open a theater just for him. This would mean, instead of getting off at 11 or midnight, we’d get off at 1 or 2 AM because we couldn’t close up. We would have to make him fresh popcorn, etc. He wouldn’t even tip us kids for all this.
I’ve been looinkg for a post like this forever (and a day)
I serve LeAnn Rhymes a couple of times a year; she always leaves in excess of 25%. Lewis Black is also a rockstar restaurant/bar patron. As for the bad tippers, Lady Gaga is a cheap c*nt, as is Nicholas Cage.
Lady gaga is cheap as hell. One of my coworkers served her at the restaurant I work at, and she tipped way under 20%. It was $12 on an extremely large tab.
Who were those celebrities?-And i have heard that 2!-They tip the same or worse than everyone else when they had far better service & were completely catered 2!-I hate it when celebs think they’re better than everyone else!-Sometimes they actually call ahead & get the place 2 open early 4 them so they can eat before everybody shows up & then don’t leave a tip or a shitty one(Lebron James,Dwayne Johnson,etc…)-Though sometimes they do tip good & aren’t demanding or full of themselves(Drew Carey,Johnny Depp,etc…)-But ya,They usually SUCK!
If I had a buck for all of the celebs I’ve waited on, I’d be richer than some of them are. Some people I’ve worked with get star struck -they never last long at the job. I don’t see what the big deal is, either. They are just people. Some tip well and are dream customers, some are the total opposite.
One thing that’s true of all of them, though, is that if you’re a star struck idiot they can smell it like sharks smell blood in the water. The ones who are bad customers/tippers will use that knowledge to run you ragged. The ones who are good customers/tippers will take care of you regardless, but you won’t get as big a tip (or a potential regular customer) like you will if you play it cool.
Awesome to know. Personally, I don’t care who is famous and who isn’t. Everyone gets the chance to get good service from me. I think the worst scenario I could imagine would be to sweat some celebrity, get run around like an idiot thinking he’s going to get some giant tip, then get a shitty tip from a jerky famous person.
I feel your pain on this, only at my restaurant they don’t have us give tables up, tell us to treat them like any other person, then bitch because we were too busy to treat them like a celeb. They almost always tip for shit too. Is it just me, or do servers tip more like “celebrities” and everyone else tips like shit?