I actually saw something about this in magazine from the late 90's. At the time, I was in LA, working the movie scene, which required a certain level of drunkenness to navigate, therefore I learned to sling drinks.

All right, like a lot of aspiring director/screenwriting actors who want to produce, when I first moved to LA, I had to get a day job. But my day job was at night, leaving me free to take meetings during the day. A quick aside: if you ever get the chance to take a meeting do it. Let me repeat, do it, it's that fun and important. It doesn't matter what kind of business you're in, if you can take it meeting, it usually happens like this.

First, they invite you to the office. When you arrive, they ask you if you want something to drink. Always accept, but be easy. Take a bottled water. Then you are seen as sociable. Give them your pitch, which is a 90 second verbal trailer for your script. A dedicated catholic priest falls in love with a renegade female pilot in the jungles of Central America.

If they like your pitch, they will ask for the script, and if they like you, they will ask you to lunch. Clear your calendar. I got invited to lunch weekly by mid level producers, guys with deals at Showtime, and Warner Brothers, and they took me to restaurants that I normally wouldn't have visited. Over lunch, you say you won't talk about business, but you ask them questions about their last film. My best lunch was with the producers of MY DOG SKIP, who shot in MS. While shooting the cemetery scene, the producers were actually shot at! I'm from the South, and knew where they were shooting (general area) and we connected. I ended up getting invited back three times to pitch to them, and was even offered a job working for the company! Take a meeting. Be interesting.

A second aside; if you really want to go to work in Hollywood behind the scenes, save up enough money to live for one year (about $25K) and then as soon as you get there, walk up to the production company that made your favorite movie and volunteer to work as an intern. Stay long hours. Do the task no one will. When someone notices, and they will notice, they will ask what you want to do. Here's your chance to shine. Give them the elevator pitch. "I want to (write) (direct) (produce) fill in the blank a movie about . . ." it's got to be good, it's got to be commercial and it's got to be original and fun. Done right, they will help you make that movie. Or they will buy it from you. Or they will tell you that you are an idiot, and you go back to schlepping coffee. At least until someone else asks you. But you will learn. I promise that. And that will help you.

Back to mixing drinks- I worked nights as a bartender, and while it's easier to pour a jigger and half into a glass of coke and swizzle it with your fingertip, the best way to mix any drink is to Bond it- as in James Bond. Shaken.

Something about the air particles intermingling with the chemical process and syntosis or whose it- I never claimed to know chemistry. But shake the drink and deliver it poured.

So I tried it. Rum and coke. Know what happens when you shake coke? It fizzes. Lot's of fizz. Guess what happens when you shake coke in a pressurized container, much like what you would get putting two metal shakers together.

If you guessed a volcano, then give yourself a gold star. I mean, it's a whole new meaning to Cuba Libra. Much like the videos of mentos dropped into a diet coke bottle, your concoction will spew forth and drench you, or if you're unlucky, your unsuspecting customer. This can be a good trick if you've been working out a lot, and wearing a white tee shirt that gets very clingy when wet, and may even be fun if your female patron is doing the same.

However, most customers hate it when you shower them with the drink they just ordered. Word to the wise. Don't' shake rum and coke. Or Whiskey and Coke. Or Seven and 7. Pretty much any of the carbonated wonder drinks should be stirred, not shaken. So ignore the inner Bond and just finger swirl those.

Shake the rest. Pretend you're in a cheesy Tom Cruise movie from the 80's and hearing the beach boys talk about a small town in Michigan. (Kokimo, look it up on the map) You can toss a bottle, you can drip and pour, you can make the drinks, we'll tip you more. Just put on a show, and make us smile, and when we're drunk, don't let us dial.

Pour me another one, I'm finished with the other one, I'm drinking this hub good bye.