Discount Broadway Tickets

Songwriting Team Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik Recall Their Worst Survival Jobs

Last updated February 13th, 2015 by Yandura & Melocik
Songwriting Team Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik Recall T…
So you’ve been priced out of that Parade concert and you are looking for something awesome to do to cap off the long Valentine’s weekend, why not attend the big coming out bash for B’way’s next hot songwriting team Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik? The duo make their 54 Below debut on February 16 with the help of James Snyder, Jenni Barber, Greg Hildreth, Margo Seibert and many, many more.
Yandura & Melocik - 54 Below

The stars will be performing selections from three upcoming Yandura and Melocik musicals (The Last Queen of Canaan, Feral & Wringer); it’s a big deal. So as the duo preps to enjoy a career high, they don’t forget the bumpy road that led them here. Below, Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik share with BroadwayBox the worst/most bizarre jobs they’ve suffered through leading up to their big 54 debut.

Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik- Songwriting- Musicals

Jacob Yandura

Birdcage GIF

One of my most recent jobs—like a year ago—was as a catering temp at a law firm; it was totally corporate America. They had this kitchen where I had to put refreshments on a cart for the various meetings, and one day it was just me in the kitchen; Rebekah had sent me a new lyric to work on, and I thought, ‘Maybe I should work on this while I do the dishes.’ So I just started singing on the top of my lungs in the kitchen (it had great acoustics). Then I got a call from the receptionist saying, ‘Hi. The partners can hear some singing going on in the kitchen and it’s disrupting the meeting, so can you please stop.’ But we wrote a good song out of it.

Rebekah Melocik

Match.com GIF

I had a job briefly writing profiles for Match.com. When people sign up for the dating service, you have the option of paying an extra $40 and someone will write your profile for you. So I would get their questionnaire and I would write their page instead. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement; it was crazy! Some of the profiles were sweet and sad, and there were some people I felt wrong making them sound better.

Jacob Yandura

Cruel Intentions GIF

In college, I worked at Abercrombie & Fitch in Columbus, which is the home office, and one day during the summer I was asked to go to the corporate office where they would hire shirtless models to play football on the front lawn. Now anyone who knows me knows I cannot play football; I didn’t even know how to throw a football, so I had to learn that day. That was a very, very strange scenario.

Rebekah Melocik

Milk- Meet the Parents- GIF

There were a lot of strange things I did as one-offs to make money, and right before I moved to New York, my friend who is a casting agent for MTV in Los Angeles had me come in for a reality dating show where the parents are supposed to choose the person their son or daughter goes on a date with [Date My Mom]. She gave me a hundred bucks and said, ‘Be as weird as you possibly can.’ (I wasn't going to be the girl the parents chose.) So I went into this thing and I somehow steered the on-camera interview to how I think it’s weird that people drink other mammals' milk and that we are the only animals that do that, and how I think people should drink people milk. And I saw the episode and I’m quoted saying people should drink people milk.

Jacob Yandura

Waiting GIF- Party Down

My worst job was catering a formal dinner for 10 or 12 gay men and it was understaffed. It had one chef and I had to serve everything and be the bartender. So it gets to the later part of the evening and they learn that I’m a composer, and they have a grand piano right there and they would not stop bothering me. They basically forced me to play at the end. So I would finish one song and then someone would ask for another drink and then another song. I was like a three-in-one party host. It was the worst night; it was so demanding. And I thought I would get a great tip and I didn't even get a tip. I felt so taken advantage of. It was the worst job I ever worked.

Rebekah Melocik

Coughing GIF

This is my actual worst job ever. You know when you go to a concert or county fair and there are those poor people who try to get you to buy a time-share? I did that for a summer and it was the most demeaning, horrible job I’ve ever had. Constant rejection and you feel like a snake oil salesman. Then what made it worse was that whole summer I had chronic bronchitis, and I’d go to a Dodgers game and I’d have these horrible coughing fits while trying to get strangers to trust me. It was a beautiful day when I finally quit that job.

See Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Melocik do the job they’re meant to do at 54 Below on February 16.

BroadwayBox