Usher at The Muny

Q: What’s your hourly wage?

A: I get paid $17 an hour or $9, depending on what we are doing each night. I get around $35 every night.

Q: What’s your favorite part?

A: There are so many things I love about working at The Muny. I love being around the shows and seeing all these really great performers. I love giving tours of backstage and seeing kids get excited about being backstage or being on stage because that was me when I was little. I love the people and interacting with them.

Q: What have you learned?

A: I have learned a lot of people skills. I have learned how to deal with difficult situations where people might be angry that the parking lot is full and I might direct them or apologize. I have learned how to deal with people.

Q: Anything else?

I have this great memory. I was working in free seats, where people don’t have to buy tickets, they just wait in line to get seats at the top. It was the Buddy Holly show and my boss came up to me and had an extra ticket that he wanted me to give away to someone who was alone in free seats. So I was checking the bag of this older woman, because that’s what I do in free seats. I asked her if she was alone and she was, so I offered her the ticket and it was a really close to the stage. She said, “How much is it?” and I said, “No. It’s completely free.” She almost started crying, she was so excited and gave me this huge hug. It was amazing to be able to impact someone’s night. That was probably a great memory for that woman and I’m glad that I was able to do that.