By
the end of my college career I was completely burnt out on academia. I could
not handle the thought of grad school; I would rather just work a menial job at
a movie theater. And so I did.
I
worked at Woodhill Movies 10, where my friend Chris was an assistant manager. I
swept floors, sold popcorn, tore tickets, and even eventually learned to thread
the projectors. I worked there during the release of such blockbuster films as
Twister, Mission Impossible, and Independence Day. It was the perfect job for a
carefree young man. I made friends and saw tons of free movies.
One
day at work we learned about a contest for promoting Spawn, the upcoming movie based
on the comic book series created by Todd McFarlane. The theatre that did the
best job pushing Spawn would win a cash prize. I was not a fan of the comic,
but I decided that we would win the contest.
One
of my co-workers loaned me a big pile of Spawn comics. I read them and, man,
were they terrible. So slow-paced, endlessly advancing the same two subplots,
with nothing ever changing. My opinion didn’t matter, though, because that
research gave me the material for a Spawn trivia contest.
I
drew a poster to go with the contest, with a cartoony Spawn sitting in a movie
seat and munching popcorn, and I oversaw the creation of a series of large drawings
on the theatre’s front windows. I drew the outlines, and other people helped
fill in the colors. I even came in and worked off the clock to get this done. It
turned out great. We were the most Spawn-focused theatre you have ever seen.
Our
theatre won the contest, but by the time they announced the winner I had been
fired. Me! The mastermind behind this award-winning promotional campaign. That’s
gratitude for you. I still got my cut of the award money, though.
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