Blessed are the people who love their jobs. But few among us can proclaim the joys of going to work each day. Drudgery, boredom, mean bosses and lazy co-workers are only a few of the typical occupational hazards that keep many Americans counting the minutes until Friday.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Tempo Lake combed the county and found that, indeed, there are fun ways to make a buck. If your idea of a good time at work is casual dress day, then you probably can’t relate. But, yes, there are people who love each minute of each workday, and we’ve crowned them the jobholders with “The most fun jobs in Lake County.”
Criteria for the honors:
– Play, not pay, wove a common thread through our choices. Playing cowboy, riding personal watercraft, dancing on restaurant counters, hugging parrots and playing catch with professional football players are just some of the duties assigned to these laborers.
– They love what they do. Don’t tell the boss, but some of these lucky folks said they probably would do what they do for free, if the paychecks stopped coming. (When was the last time you said that?)
– They are the envy of that portion of the population that does not get the same zing out of its occupations. “You call this work?” is a question they have heard more than once. Stunt show actor Tim Henderson said he often is good-naturedly teased by adults after the show who say things such as: “Gee, this is a real tough job, isn’t it?”
So on this weekend honoring American laborers, we profile jobs that epitomize the most fun that work can be:
1.Tim Henderson has been doing stunt shows for 11 years and calls his current gig one of his favorites. In his second year as George, the hapless cowboy, in the Warner Bros. Western Stunt Show at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Henderson gets to shoot at the bad guys, plunge off a 32-foot tower, ride a donkey, tap dance with a horse and be adored by grateful fans.
Henderson has no formal training in stunt work, but he says his career roots are embedded in his childhood growing up in the tiny town of Weippe, Idaho (population 748).
“There was nothing else to do except sports: football, basketball, track and judo,” he said. “I got a black belt in judo. That’s where I learned to tumble.”
Henderson graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in business, moved to California “because that’s where the businesses are,” and then his career path hit a snag. “I decided I didn’t like business,” he said.
Perhaps it was destiny that he spotted an audition notice in his local paper for stunt-show actors. Competing against 399 other hopefuls who answered that audition call, only Henderson and one other were cast.
“I was just as surprised as anyone that I got hired,” said Henderson, who lives in Los Angeles in the off season and in Chicago during the show. “I didn’t have a head shot (publicity photo). I didn’t have a resume.”
On the Western Show, he works six days a week: four performing and two supervising. His favorite part of the show is a 10-minute audience warmup he developed, using a Charlie Chaplin-style, no-speaking routine to get the crowd ready to laugh.
Once the show begins, he plays the role of George, a cowboy who wants to rob a train, but there’s no train to rob. “It’s like being in a cartoon, and I’m a giant cartoon character,” he said. “I love coming to work.”
2.Adam Bryant wears a button that says: “Eat and get out.” He doesn’t mean it; it’s just part of the act at Ed Debevic’s, the ’50s-style diner where the wisecracks fly out as fast as the french fries.
Bryant (alias Mr. Koffee) has been insulting customers for seven years as a waiter at the Deerfield restaurant, and they keep coming back for more. “The main thing is to show the customers a good time,” Bryant said, pointing out that being a waiter at this restaurant means much more than serving food.
“If someone spills a drink or makes a mistake, I point it out, just to be funny. I love it; it’s a great job,” Bryant said.
Why not? He is allowed, even encouraged, to harass the customers. “Maybe I can get myself a happy meal,” he was overheard recently telling a customer who had handed him a tip (apparently, not a big one). And every 40 minutes or so, he and his co-workers jump up on the counter and do a dance routine. They dip, spin and clap in a choreographed routine to songs such as “Car Wash.”
“You might not ever get rich,” says the song blasting from the jukebox, with words that could fit this row of wacky waiters and waitresses turned line-dancers. “But let me tell you it’s better than digging a ditch.”
“The job fits me. I can be totally myself, I’m not pretending,” said Bryant, although he confessed that his East Coast accent (“I grew up in New Jersey”) comes out a tad bit stronger when he’s on the job. “You can let your hair down with your tables; you can talk with your tables, sit down with your tables, have a conversation.”
It was love at first visit for Bryant, who discovered the restaurant shortly after moving to the Midwest. “My mom brought me here to eat because she thought I’d like the place. I fell in love and got a job here the next summer,” said the Wilmette resident.
The pay is decent for a part-time job–$300 to $600 a week including tips. “It got me through college,” said Bryant, who graduated in December from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb with a degree in acting. “The job doesn’t seem like work. Some days I’m bummed out when I get here, but I can’t help but be in a good mood by the time I leave.”
3.Jeff Gross’ entire life has been dedicated to animals. So what better job could the Antioch resident ask for than one that lets him swim with the fish and snuggle with the parrots?
That’s exactly the job “Jungle Jeff” got a little more than a year ago when the Rainforest Cafe opened in the Gurnee Mills shopping center. “I’m responsible for the care, maintenance, love and attention of our resident parrots and also for a 13,000-gallon system of saltwater fish,” he said.
Not a day goes by that customers don’t marvel at how fun his job looks. “Everyone’s mouth hangs open when I put on a wet suit and dive into the archway aquarium: two 8-foot in diameter cylinders about 9 feet tall,” he said. “People see the fish eat from my hands. They don’t think a body can fit through the archway, but I swim through to the other side. When I come out, people stop me right and left.”
For the uninitiated, the cafe is more than a restaurant. It’s like a visit to the rain forest, a blend of dining experience and entertainment and environmental education. There are eight live parrots, 75 types of fish and also animated rain forest animals on display.
“We’re out there playing with the parrots and showing how they are social and affectionate,” he said. “We talk to kids about the structure of the rain forest and what it means to be endangered.”
For Gross, the job continues his lifelong interest in animals. He volunteered with a veterinarian from 8th grade through college, and after school he co-owned a Lindenhurst pet store with his parents for 11 years before they sold it. He later worked for a couple of pet-store chains before hooking up with Rainforest Cafe.
“I saw this going up and came by to talk to them,” he recalled in explaining how he was hired. “One thing led to another.”
Tending the parrots is much better than selling exotic birds, Gross said, because he does not worry about sending the animals home with people who are not going to care for them properly.
“A lot of people figure they can put the bird in a cage, give it food and water, and it will be happy,” he said. “Here we get to educate people who are thinking about owning one of these parrots about how much care is necessary. We show how every day we feed them, shower them, mist them, play with them, and give them their hugs and kisses.”
Gross’ involvement with the Rainforest Cafe’s animals will be expanding as the result of a recent promotion that will have him working more heavily with the restaurant at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg and a soon-to-open site in the River North area of Chicago.
4.You can’t highlight fun jobs without at least one mention of those poor folk who toil under the summer sun on sandy beaches surrounded by people dressed only in swimsuits.
Sarah Babchak has filled those ranks this summer, working on her tan at the same time she has worked at Jet Fun, a boat and personal watercraft rental store on Lake Nippersink in Fox Lake.
“It’s fun being outside and being by the water,” Babchak said of her job. “I love being able to wear shorts and a T-shirt, run around in sandals or bare feet and work on my tan.”
It’s a tough job, but somebody has to hop on board the Sea Doos as they come back to shore. “I stop them before they hit the ramp, pull them back out of the water and put gas in them,” she said. Her job duties also involve cleaning the boats and filling out paperwork in the rental office.
The work occasionally is frustrating, she said, particularly on weekends when the shop gets busy and the hours are from open to close. “But it’s something I love to do, so I don’t mind being here. Everyone who works here is like a family; it’s my second family,” she said. “None of us are related, but we’ve had comments like we are family, because we work so well together.”
Babchak, who lives over the Lake County border in Johnsburg, learned of the job through word of mouth and went in to apply. It has been a summer position for Babchak, who after Labor Day heads back to Winona State University in Minnesota, where she is a sophomore.
5. When it comes to getting hired for the really great jobs, sometimes it helps to know somebody in high places. That certainly is the case for Chicago Bears ball boys Joe DeSalvo and Kris Horton, who knew the right people at the right time.
“I knew the boss,” said DeSalvo, a Palatine resident in his third year tossing balls and hauling laundry for the players. At the time he was hired, his high school basketball coach was the Bears’ former equipment manager.
Horton, 14, of Calumet City said his brother-in-law, the current equipment manager, asked him if he wanted the job. Horton said he didn’t hesitate to say yes. “I liked all the players,” he said.
DeSalvo said he never expected that being a ball boy would be that big of a deal. “When I got here, I realized it is an important position,” he said. “We are definitely part of the association. If they didn’t have us, they’d really be behind.”
Ball boys work at Halas Hall in Lake Forest when the team trains there and also at the summer training camp in Platteville, Wis. During the season, they work the home games in Soldier Field.
They said the best part of the job is getting to mingle with the players. “They talk to us all the time,” DeSalvo said. “We have a conversation; a lot of them know me.”
By far, the best time on the job is the Sunday games, according to DeSalvo, who said, “It’s really exciting being out on the field with the fans going nuts. My friends all say they saw me on TV.”
Both Horton and DeSalvo said people usually think their job is easy, but that could not be further from the truth. Duties include cleaning helmets, putting cleats in shoes, hanging clothes, picking up dirty laundry, tossing balls with the players and warming them up.
But they both are well aware there is an endless list of boys who would be happy to take over if they were willing to turn in the towels. “My friends really envy me,” Horton said.
“Any person our age would want this job,” DeSalvo said.
