Meisner Obsessed? Waitress Repeats Orders Back to Customers

by Jake Alexander.

MINNEAPOLIS - 25-year-old waitress Pick-Me-Up Diner waitress Susie Tomlins made headlines this week for introducing her Meisner Technique training to her nine-to-five, with multiple customers claiming she’s been repeating the orders back to the customers after they've been placed.

“I think she’s taking it way too far,” lamented Pick-Me-Up manager Lenny Grodner while slicing ham in thick slabs behind the deli counter. “She’s trapping people in a scene of repeated lines, saying the same thing over and over to try to get a new reaction. This job is simple: take the orders, give the orders to the kitchen, and bring the wrong food to the table.”

Susie herself doesn’t seem to be aware of the issue, obviously caught in an actor’s self-delusion.

“I’m literally just repeating their orders back to make sure I heard them right - and living truthfully in the applied circumstances. Sue me,” she said while while chomping down on family meal in a state of egomania. “How else am I supposed to practice for my acting class tonight? Jeff gets mad at us for not applying the work.”

97-year-old Nancy Yoffgher, a regular at the Pick-Me-Up, had a different opinion on Susie’s obvious attention-grabbing behavior. 

“It's a fun new challenge for an old gal like me,” quipped Yoffgher as she watched the chef blend her eggs so that she could drink them through a straw. “So Susie says 'what can I get you?' and I go 'two eggs over-easy, bacon strips burnt to a crisp, and a side of fruit salad without the grapes' and Susie goes 'two egg over-easy, bacon strips burnt to a crisp, and a side of fruit salad without the grapes?' and I go 'yes, two eggs over-easy, bacon strips burnt to a-'.” Yoffgher fell asleep briefly.

When we jolted her awake she said “Plus, she's keeping me in the moment. That’s all anyone eating at a diner can hope for.”

For this family-owned establishment, Susie Tomlins seems to be shaking up the status quo. When asked what type of exercise she might introduce into the job next, she dropped a tray of water glasses and screamed “Can’t you see I was just about to create the imaginary circumstances of my character!? Now I gotta go back to square one.”

Our team identified the acting class Susie was attending as “Jeff’s Car Loans and Acting 101.”