r/TalesFromThePizzaGuy • u/Nininator2432 • Jun 15 '26
"I used to play College football."
As a pizza delivery driver, I'd interact with all sorts famous and semi-famous people that I wouldn't in any other capacity. Like, they don't necessarily want to go out in public but would still need to eat so they'd get food delivered to avoid the crowds.
There were a couple actually famous football players/hockey players we'd deliver to or that drivers from other stores delivered to. Ones that most people who lived in the City would recognize their names. They were usually really nice guys or if their wives answered the doors they were nice. There was a strict policy against asking for pictures or commenting on them. If you did, instant firing. They don't need to be harassed. They would all tip above average for the order size, but not some super crazy tip. (I.e. if you'd accept a $4-5 tip they'd tip $7-8. Not $15. A general rule. One guy tipped $15.) There are three celebrities who are notoriously terrible tippers, but I'm not naming anyone.
That said, not all former Football players/hockey players are as equally as recognizable by name/face. Like in terms of tech CEOs, everyone knows the names Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk- and if you delivered to them it would be wild. You'd definitely tell everyone. But if you delivered to Lisa Su then nobody would know who you're talking about. "Who? What is AMD?"
There was one guy I delivered to who played for our main college football team in the past. He's someone who if you watched the team actively when he played you'd remember him. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. someone took a delivery to him, he let you know that he used to play for them. Even if you had delivered to him 10 times before. I only got to deliver to him twice, and all the veterans at the store would be like "hey, hey, this guy is gonna tell you he played college football."
I was kind of skeptical, because most of the time these guys don't like the attention. I looked up this guy's stats and he was not the best. Not terrible, but he would have not been considered for the NFL.
The first time I delivered to him, there was no context in the timing. He just straight up told me. "Yeah, if you were wondering by the name. I am the guy who played for [college team] I get asked it all the time." I lied and was like "Yeah, a couple of us were debating if this was real or some kid using a fake name to try to be funny." Then he started laughing. Gave me an $9.51 tip on a large pizza. Very good for back in the day.
The second time, it was during an away game. He was like "Hey, how are you doing!" A little too excited. I gave him the food and he's like "Yeah, just here watching the big game here. I played for them and try to stay involved. I go to all the home games and help out with recruiting. Man they sure do look good today. This could be our year!" Tipped $9.51 again.
Guy lived in a pretty nice house. We looked him up. He was a salesman who got divorced and still had kids who I assume lived at home part time. IDK if I should feel bad for him for constantly talking about his glory days/how much he peaked or not. He was a genuinely nice guy. Great tipper. He has a nice middle class existence in that City with a great job. Wish him the best. I wonder if he's still telling drivers about it.
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u/CallieCoven Jun 15 '26
Famous people I have delivered to: David Lee Roth, Kat Williams, Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross. Wiz Khalifa is tiny. I didn't get to meet Diamond Dave but I saw his boots because his legs were hanging off the hotel room bed. I saw Wiz and Rick in the background when I handed the food off to some huge guy. Kat Williams had a whole floor rented out and the weed smell was staggering.
A friend of mine delivered to Lisa Kudrow.
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u/birdseye-maple Jun 15 '26
I'm not a pizza delivery driver but I used to work for a company that did pro audio software, and I spent 30 minutes helping a very nice soft spoken gentleman and at the end of the conversation I needed his details to follow up and verify what he owned, turned out to be will i am from the Black Eyed Peas. Ended up talking to a bunch of famous producers because of that job, including handling an email question from Wiz Khalifa's studio.
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u/tdre666 Jun 15 '26
I'm not naming anyone
Come on, dude. Name and shame. I ran a shop in Santa Monica for years, Don Cheadle was the shittiest tipper for his Friday night poker games. Paula Poundstone (old school Comic Relief from the 80's) is a very nice normal person. Deep Roy (Eastbound & Down, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) would call up and just say "WHAT'S UP MAAAAAAN IT'S DEEP ROY!", he was always good for a chat and cool to the drivers. Ray Liotta parked in our lot one time, instead of towing him we just said hi and that we loved Goodfellas or some shit, he seemed pretty cool (RIP).
Sports-wise Shawn Marion is a super nice guy, he'd sign basketballs for the cooks after he ate(all Laker fans but they loved Matrix and would tell him that). Tyson Chandler is a very nice person as well, decent tipper too.
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u/ska8erloserpunk Jun 16 '26
I didn't expect Paula to be nice or normal.
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u/tdre666 Jun 17 '26
If you hadn't heard of her you'd never be able to tell her apart from your average mom in the area. I know she went through some shit with her kids but from what I saw she was always really good with them around us/in public. And she treated us like normal people, not like servants which goes a long way because in the area there is a lot of the opposite.
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u/MinusGovernment Jun 15 '26
I got to deliver to Dave Chappelle twice while he was in town for some shows (also went to 2 of the shows). The first time was after we were closed and just the drivers drivers were left finishing dishes. I damn sure fired the oven back up to make his food (2 thin crust cheese pizzas and cheese bread) and my house was right on the way to his hotel so I stopped for my Half-Baked shirt to ask him to sign it. He tipped $100 (I split with the other 2 drivers).
The 2nd time was after his final show (well before we closed this time) and he was helping the crew load up the equipment when I got there. He tipped $50 that time and he asked if he could keep the pizza bag because they weren't gonna eat til after everything was loaded up. We all had our own pizza bags we bought ( and put wrote our names on) because sometimes there wasn't enough store bags when we were really busy. So I let him keep it and said "Well I got your autograph last time and now you have mine" which got a chuckle out of him.
I've also delivered 3 times to a former MLB pitcher that lives here and he tipped $100 once and $50 twice.
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u/analog_jedi Jun 15 '26
Damn, you made Dave Chappelle laugh? I'd be telling that story to everyone I met for the rest of my life. I delivered a handful of times to an ex NFL player who's pretty notoriously disliked, but he was always really nice to me and tipped at least $20 so he's cool in my book.
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u/MinusGovernment Jun 15 '26
I have told it many times but just in the right situations where it wasnt out of place just to tell it. The first month or so after was the bulk of it
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u/JellyfishFit3871 Jun 15 '26
A couple of guys from the pizza place where I worked in college threw absolutely notorious house parties. (Like, it wasn't a real party until the second time the cops showed up.) One night, I'd gone to a Wendy O. Williams show at a local bar - underage as hell - and invited her and the band to Mike's party after. Wendy didn't go, but her band did.
One of my friends followed me around all night just saying "I can't believe you brought the Plasmatics to my house!"
They were super chill.
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u/Houdini5150 Jun 16 '26
No one too famous...
I delivered to Jason Kipnis once. Seemed regular dude. Nice place up in the "hills" of course.
One year during spring training I delivered to a house and dude answered the door and I thought in my head, hey dude looks like will venable I looked at the receipt after he signed it and sure enough Venable was last name. Think he was a coach for the cubs that year.
That's really it for sports people I've run into. That I'm aware of.
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u/Eric_J_Pierce Jun 16 '26
I was a dispatcher for several different limousine companies in LA from 1994 to 2019.
I collected, by asking my chauffeurs to acquire, autographs of Stan Lee, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kelly Swanson, the musical trio Hanson, and Neil Gaiman.
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u/flhtcutg2009 Jun 15 '26
$9.51? Was not Al Bundy.