Randal

They used to call me Randal when I worked at Blockbuster video back in the day. I would work the late shift to midnight on weeknights and after 10pm you'd get the same people coming in all the time. My boss was appalled by some of the things I would discuss with the customers. Sex scenes in movies, bloodiest horror films, and just how much a certain movie fucking sucked. I was actually written up but then my boss chilled when he saw sales and rentals actually going up when I was on. People were coming in to hang out in the store to watch the films I would put on. I would take off the standard trailer playing on all of the televisions and put on Basic Instinct,
9 1/2 Weeks, or Evil Dead. People would come in buy a bag of popcorn (which we'd pop for them), a couple of sodas and then just sit or stand around watching a movie with me and whoever else were working that night. I'd pause a film and yell at the screen. Customers would join in as well and it became a weekly in store tradition, "Movie Night with Randal." I was not PC. I told people exactly what I thought of whatever they brought up to me to rent. If I didn't like it I told them the movie "sucked more than Traci Lords" and they would laugh and then go get another movie.

I was eventually scheduled to work Sunday mornings as well so I would open the store and do what I did on the weeknights, play lousy, stinky, soft core porn, or horror movies. The same people started showing up to rent and this time they'd bring me coffee and danish for breakfast. We'd sit there and I would put in some random kids cartoon show and we'd all sit there and bust on it. I never had so much fun at the workplace.

When my last day working there came I sat on the counter and greeted people as they came in. Some brought cards, some brought porn on VHS for me to take with me. As the clock turned 10 pm I had a group of 8-10 people anxiously awaiting what movie would be the final film I would watch with them at Blockbuster. It was a no brainer for me and after I got permission from my store manger to play it without being censored I put into the VCR....