Ah, so this is what I have in common with Eddie besides our 1958 birth year. I too attended a bartending school that used real liquor bottles, but with colored water! Mine was in Manhattan, a two week, 40 hour course with final written and practical exams. I learned 150 drink recipes, most of which you seldom use, but still good training. The thing is to get comfortable behind the bar - it’s your domain.

I could never wait tables, you’re going into the customers’ space and you’re vulnerable. As a bartender, you command the situation. Customers and waiters come to YOU, they’re all supplicants. You can cut people off. You can have them tossed. You have a lot of power. No one enters your fortress. And by virtue of all that, if you have even an average amount of sexual magnetism, the bar magnifies it fivefold. Something tells me that the young Eddie made capital of this. I mean, if I did…

Bartending is really the ideal job for when you’re working on your creative projects, between other jobs, or just wanting to supplement your income a little. It’s a hell of a lot safer than taxi driving, that’s for sure, but you get the same exposure to all types and all stories. I do recommend to go to a bartending school and get the training, it professionalizes you instantly.