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Fully Committed
By: Patrick Maguire
Book Chapter: Human-to-Human Service
Posted: 08/3/2010
After recently watching Fully Committed , a one-man performance starring Gabriel Kuttner, I reflected on times I’ve seen customers behave like children when they didn’t get what they wanted. I recalled a sleazy guy from NY attempting to coax a Royal Caribbean Cruise Concierge into giving his group a specific dinner table for the entire cruise, despite the fact that he had neglected to make reservations by the stated deadline. After the concierge said “No” several times, explaining that the table was promised to another guest, Mr. NY actually said, I hear Royal Caribbean is a ‘can do’ cruise line. Well I’m a ‘can do’ kinda guy. Let’s make this work, big guy. Some people have no shame and no clue… (He didn’t get the table.)
Fully Committed is a very captivating, funny show. The play features Kuttner (Sam), a struggling actor, answering the phones in a dingy, makeshift, basement office at a very chic Manhattan restaurant. Sam contends with juggling the throng of demanding, snobby, and manipulative callers vying for tables. Here are a few excerpts from a recent Boston Globe review by Christopher Muther:
Is there a job that is less rewarding or appealing than being tethered to a telephone, juggling reservations for the entitled at a sizzling-hot four-star Manhattan eatery?… The classism, social jockeying, bullying, petty threats, and downright harassment faced by reservations clerk Sam Peliczowski in Becky Mode’s comedy “Fully Committed’’ would push even the strongest man to look more fondly at a career with the bomb squad…
…Kuttner plays 37 characters for this one-man show. With few pauses, he deliciously sends up these broadly drawn stereotypes of Manhattan’s elite, as well as those who want nothing more than to rub elbows with them.
There’s a cathartic and poignant moment at the end of the show when Sam realizes that conviction, combined with respect and decency, trump condescension, arrogance and elitism. Sam is an easy guy to root for. If you’re a fan of the underdog, you’ll love this show.
The show is performed at a cool outdoor amphitheatre on the banks of the Charles River in Brighton, MA. Please check out the website for Fully Committed, and enjoy the show if you are in the Boston area.
If you currently work in a customer service capacity, or have ever worked in a job serving customers, have you ever been unable to deliver exactly what someone wanted (you were Fully Committed) and had a customer snap or act innappropriately? How did you handle it?
Please share your thoughts. Thank you.
6 Responses to “Fully Committed”
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Permalink | Posted in Human-to-Human Service | 6 Comments »
Golly. It happens so often, I don’t react. There is a temptation to say “get over it, it’s only food,” but I refuse to fan the fire. I just state the case that if they wanted the pie, the chicken salad, or whatever it is that is such a matter of importance, then they should call ahead or place a special order. And yes, there was a customer that pitched a fit (including profanity and name calling) that his favorite chicken salad wasn’t available the day he came in. Really, now. It’s chicken salad. It’s good, but it’s chicken salad.
I worked as a hostess on Saturday nights at a very busy restaurant that didn’t use OpenTable or any rez system other than a clipboard. One very cold night, I had a huge crowd crammed into our entryway and overflowing bar — and those waiting were starting to get restless. Unless you had a rezzy, your name went on the list in the order in which you arrived. Well, I sat one party and a woman threw a fit, telling me they had arrived AFTER her. I explained that this was impossible as I wrote the names down as people gave them to me. There’s no possibility for line jumping. She insisted I seat her at once. I could not. She then physically tried to wrest my clipboard from me, almost knocking me over. The owner, to his credit, showed her the door.
Dava- So funny. It is a bummer when you go to a restaurant and have your heart set on something and it’s off the menu, but chicken salad??
Prezza, in Boston’s North End serves an amazing ravioli with an egg inside that I crave. I remember the disappointment when the bartender told me that it wasn’t being served one night I was in a while ago. I quickly found something else on the menu to satisfy my hunger.
As many people have said before, It’s food and drink, not life and death…
I work in a call center that tries to help people. One call was from a woman that wouldn’t let me ask any questions. I finally got the issue out of her and told her I’d get back to her with answers. She called back within 15 minutes to tell me she didn’t feel “validated” by me. I said I was sorry. She said that made her feel better. I replied: If I had known how to validate i would have done it earlier. All my cube mates stood up and laughed! I wanted to tell her it is up to her shrink to validate but I didn’t want to be unemployed!!!
While working a busy weekend night one of my coworkers asked if he could borrow two pens from me to drop a split check (we offered one pen for each person signing) because all of his pens were being used by other paying guests. Pens, as you know, are like gold in the restaurant industry. He dropped the checks with the pens at the table and one of the women said “I really like these pens, can I have them?”. My coworker told her that he actually borrowed them from another server and that he would have to ask to make sure they weren’t the last of my pens. She got snippy, threw the pens on the table and said “forget it!”. He told her that he could get her a couple of his own pens in a minute for her to have, but she refused and was really pissed and left.
She ended up calling the restaurant the next day and angrily complained to the GM that her server refused to give her his pens. The GM ended up consoling her with a gift certificate.
By the way, the pens were Bic pens. You can buy a box of them from Staples for $8.
Back in the early 80’s one of my jobs was waiting tables at the second Bertucci’s on Main St. in Cambridge when the mega-chain had only 2 locations. People went mad for the doughball rolls … insanely so.
One afternoon the lunch rush was over, the rolls were gone, and the pizza guy was just getting a paddle full into the brick ovens. A solo late-luncher asked me twice for rolls, doubting my smiling reply each time that “they’re baking right now, ma’am, I’ll bring some as soon as they come out of the oven”. The third time she asked, I looked across the room and saw the rolls being removed from the ovens and said to her “They’re coming out of the oven right now, I’ll be right back”. With an over-zealous dash to fill a bread basket with scathingly hot rolls, I assumed a just as overly gracious smile, dropped the basket at her table, “Here you are. Enjoy!” and sped away so I could peek over my shoulder to watch her pick up a roll, let out a cry and proceed to wave her hands like surrendering with a white flag of a paper napkin.
Ah, memories …