bartending vs college and boring 9-5 job

Bartending would be fun when you're young, but would you want to do it forever? Although maybe if you lived in Jamacia like when Flanagan tends there, that looked amazing.

Like most jobs, it depends on where you work. Most bartending jobs aren't glamorous and don't pay well. I bartended for several years during the time Cocktail was made and few places would tolerate tossing bottles around back then, although a few encouraged it. But keep in mind that your tossing heavy, glass bottles around, spilling and wasting expensive alcohol all over everything, and at the end of the night, you're likely the one who has to clean it all up. You break glass in your ice bin and it has to be emptied and cleaned immediately. So it's not all glamorous all the time.

I see several comments on the board about all the great money to be made, but that only happens at a few bars and those jobs aren't easy to get. I finally got tired of the late hours, belligerent drunks, the mostly low pay and just the smell of alcohol all over me, so I quit and went back to school to get a 9-5 job behind a desk. After doing that for over a decade, I couldn't stand never seeing sunlight or breathing fresh air, so I started a landscaping business. It's tough work and I don't make great money, but I love being outside all day, whether the sun's shining or it's pouring down rain.

One thing to keep in mind with bartending like you see in Cocktail is that Cruise's character isn't just tossing bottles around, but he's also entertaining the crowd. I was good at tossing bottles, but not so great at entertaining crowds, which is the real key here.

If you do it, you better be disciplined and have a Roth IRA savings for you're retirement...

Me too! No contest!