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Speaker 1: This season, we're bringing you stories about people finding their
Speaker 1: professional stride by virtue of who they know, whether it's
Speaker 1: breathing new life into an age old profession, taking the
Speaker 1: reins in a family business, forging your own path with
Speaker 1: a new idea, or landing the perfect job doing something
Speaker 1: you'd never before even considered. Avery Thompson grew up in
Speaker 1: Long Island. Today he's a writer and radio producer, but
Speaker 1: his past is fraught with jobs that spanned the globe
Speaker 1: and made him into the person he is today. He
Speaker 1: was a ski lift operator in Colorado, a line cook
Speaker 1: in Zurich. He's bailed Hey in New Hampshire Today. A
Speaker 1: story from his early life as he pursued his dream
Speaker 1: of being a filmmaker. Like most twenty year olds, I
Speaker 1: had delusions grandeur. My particular delusion was that I was
Speaker 1: going to be a film director, and not just any
Speaker 1: film director. I wanted to be the next Orson Welles,
Speaker 1: but with a little the show. Besides some zany no
Speaker 1: budget student films. Believe it or not, no studio had
Speaker 1: yet handed me a blank check. So if I intended
Speaker 1: to direct my next film, I would need to fund
Speaker 1: it with my own money. In other words, I needed
Speaker 1: a summer job. I quit golf caddying after two days.
Speaker 1: FedEx didn't think I was overnight box order material to
Speaker 1: work at the local movie theater would have been too
Speaker 1: large a slice of humble pie, and so I called
Speaker 1: my friend Matt, another film buff, and complained about how
Speaker 1: the world didn't recognize my genius, how my talents were
Speaker 1: being squandered looking for a job. Then Matt said, well,
Speaker 1: we can work for my brother. He owns a landscape
Speaker 1: and company in the Hamptons. The Hamptons, I repeated. The
Speaker 1: following Monday, Matt and I talked about movies for the
Speaker 1: whole two hour drive out to the Hamptons, and as
Speaker 1: the roads gave way to leafy lanes and mansions rose
Speaker 1: above tall hedges, I knew we were exactly where I
Speaker 1: needed to be. Here were the people that would change
Speaker 1: my life. These people had taste, they had class connections,
Speaker 1: but most importantly, they had the money I needed to
Speaker 1: direct my masterpiece. I could already see myself smoking a
Speaker 1: cigar and yelling action. So you can imagine my shock
Speaker 1: when we pulled up to a barn and we're told
Speaker 1: by Matt's brother to get in the back of a
Speaker 1: pickup truck with a bunch of weather worn Latino men.
Speaker 1: For the first few weeks, Matt and I met no celebrities,
Speaker 1: We attended no parties. We worked like dogs as rich
Speaker 1: old ladies eyed us suspiciously from curtained windows. We dug trenches,
Speaker 1: we built fences. We were told to work faster and
Speaker 1: talk about Fellini less, and all the while no one
Speaker 1: recognized the geniuses toiling in their backyard. No one even
Speaker 1: brought us lemonade. Despite being the future of filmmaking, Matt
Speaker 1: and I were being treated like a bunch of day labors,
Speaker 1: except by our coworkers, day labors who didn't appreciate these
Speaker 1: two pale giants who talked about wide angle lenses and
Speaker 1: stopped every now and then to drink water. And worst
Speaker 1: of all, these co workers wouldn't take us to lunch
Speaker 1: with them. Instead, every day, on their way to some
Speaker 1: secret Latin food layer, Matt and I would get dropped
Speaker 1: off in the village of East Hampton, quite possibly the
Speaker 1: richest postious town in America. We're the only thing we
Speaker 1: could afford was pizza, and not even good pizza, because,
Speaker 1: let's face it wasps don't know how to make pizza,
Speaker 1: so every day we ate crappy pizza. And let me
Speaker 1: tell you, for a New Yorker, few things are worse.
Speaker 1: But one thing sustained me that summer. For all the
Speaker 1: blisters and back aches, I held that hope that it
Speaker 1: was only a matter of time before I met the
Speaker 1: right people. One day Jerry Seinfeld would need a new walkway,
Speaker 1: or Robert de Niro would need his roses cut back,
Speaker 1: and somehow I figured that would be all it took.
Speaker 1: But that didn't happen. As the weeks wore on, Matt
Speaker 1: and I talked of films less and less. We started
Speaker 1: crying more and more, and just when we thought it
Speaker 1: couldn't get any worse, we got the job from hell.
Speaker 1: Our task was the paint a quarter mile fence wedged
Speaker 1: between two strands of overgrown holly bushes. Now, for those
Speaker 1: of you that don't know, holly bushes have little prickly thorns,
Speaker 1: and as a grown man, I don't have a problem
Speaker 1: saying that thorns really hurt. So the only way that
Speaker 1: Matt and I were able to paint this fence without
Speaker 1: blooding our backs was the jam a piece of plywood
Speaker 1: in there, lean against it, and brush just in front
Speaker 1: of us, which worked some of the time. When it didn't.
Speaker 1: If we tripped or got a little tired, then the
Speaker 1: holly bush would shove us against the fence that we
Speaker 1: had just painted, and that happened a lot. By lunchtime,
Speaker 1: Matt and I were covered in green paint. I mean
Speaker 1: covered head to toe, and when the truck arrived to
Speaker 1: pick us up for lunch, the Latino guys can't help themselves.
Speaker 1: They slapped their knees and laughed big gold tooth laughs
Speaker 1: right in our face. And then they drop us off
Speaker 1: in the center of East Hampton. We'll get back to
Speaker 1: the story in a second. First, a word from Express
Speaker 1: Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic takes pride in a
Speaker 1: job well done. This is you. But to get an
Speaker 1: honest day's work, you need a callback. You need a job.
Speaker 1: Express Employment Professionals can help. We'll connect you to the
Speaker 1: right company. We're committed to your success and never charge
Speaker 1: a fee to find you a job. Express Nose Jobs
Speaker 1: get to No Express find your location at express pros
Speaker 1: dot com or on the Express Jobs app. And now
Speaker 1: back to our story. Before we can even climb out
Speaker 1: of the truck, people were staring. Not that I blame them.
Speaker 1: We were two life sized g I. Joe figures, and
Speaker 1: as such, our mission was to reach the public restroom
Speaker 1: to wash this paint off. Except when we get there,
Speaker 1: the paint doesn't come off. And I want to reiterate,
Speaker 1: we're covered. Matt, who is six four bor an uncanny
Speaker 1: resemblance to the Jolly Green Giant. I looked more like Gumby.
Speaker 1: So Matt called his brother, who informed us the paint
Speaker 1: thinner would take it right off. But we were on
Speaker 1: Main Street in East Hampton, whose shops weren't exactly stocked
Speaker 1: with paint thinner. So then Matt's brother says, the gasoline
Speaker 1: would do the trick. Yeah, gasoline. So Gumby and the
Speaker 1: Jolly Green Giant go walking through a living Jay Crewe
Speaker 1: catalog in search of a gas station. Let me tell you,
Speaker 1: being laughed at by a bunch of our day labor
Speaker 1: co workers was one thing, But to be laughed at
Speaker 1: by people wearing boat shoes and pastel pants, that's a
Speaker 1: pain that sticks with you. After a few blocks, Matt
Speaker 1: and I find a gas station and then we start
Speaker 1: rummaging through the garbage because obviously we need something to
Speaker 1: put the gasoline in. We find an empty gatorade bottle
Speaker 1: beneath a rotten sandwich and then pumped thirty cents of
Speaker 1: gas into it, and then we pour the gas all
Speaker 1: over us. And I know what you're thinking, that's not
Speaker 1: a good idea. But this story doesn't end with self immolation.
Speaker 1: Well not literally, because as Matt and I stand in
Speaker 1: this parking lot, our bodies covered in a toxic smere
Speaker 1: of gasoline and paint, one of the most beautiful cars
Speaker 1: I have ever seen pulls up beside us, and we
Speaker 1: look up to see a familiar face, gray beard, round glasses.
Speaker 1: I'd know that face anywhere. That's that's Stephen Stephen. Matt
Speaker 1: yells at Steven Spielberg, and Matt, who now resembles the
Speaker 1: creature from the Black Lagoon, starts running towards the car
Speaker 1: and screaming at him. Stephen. Now, I don't know if
Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg saw us or not, but I do know
Speaker 1: that he didn't stop. He kept right on going. But
Speaker 1: Stephen didn't go far because down the street we see
Speaker 1: his break lights. Come on, Come on, Matt shouts, running
Speaker 1: back to the pump for more gas. Pump, more gas.
Speaker 1: Steven's getting pizza. We can catch him, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I may have been only twenty, but that summer I
Speaker 1: learned that no amount of gasoline would help Steven Spielberg
Speaker 1: or anyone else see through to the genius underneath. Instead,
Speaker 1: I walked over to the little convenience store attached to
Speaker 1: the gas station. I bought a Snickers bar from my
Speaker 1: lunch and I decided screw movies. I'm going to be
Speaker 1: a writer instead. This piece was written by Avery Thompson
Speaker 1: and produced by me Otis Gray. You can find more
Speaker 1: of Avery's work at Avery H. Thompson dot com. We'll
Speaker 1: have a link over on our website, Express Pros dot
Speaker 1: com slash podcast. Thanks for listening to On the Job,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. Find out more
Speaker 1: at Express pros dot com. This season of On the
Speaker 1: Job is produced by Audiation and Red Seat Ventures. Our
Speaker 1: executive producer is Sandy Smallens. Our producer is Otis Gray.
Speaker 1: The show is mixed by Matt Noble at The Loft
Speaker 1: in Bronxville, New York. Find us on I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard, please
Speaker 1: consider rating or reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For more
Speaker 1: inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Ariation