This Actor Auditioned with "Whopper Whopper" and Booked the Role of Line Cook for $11.50 an Hour

by Nick Navari. @nnavari.

TULSA, OK - Local restaurant manager Sheila Anderson had quite the surprise last Sunday when someone sang the "Whopper Whopper" song during the establishment’s walk-in interview weekend. She reportedly knew something was wrong when 26-year-old actor Josh Payne started the interview by pushing in an upright piano and asking her to play his starting notes.

“We don’t typically see a lot of creativity in those interviews,” said Anderson, as she put out her cigarette into an empty honey mustard packet. “I was willing to see how far he was gonna go. I was familiar with the meme, but I guess Josh wrote a few more verses? I specifically remember him singing ‘If she tried to kiss my Whoppers / With her lips, I’d never stop her,’ which I’m pretty sure is not in the commercials. He just kept going and going while doing this little jig until I think he passed out a little.”

We caught up with Payne following the exciting news.

“I love an open call,” said Payne from behind the griddle, covered in grease. “It’s been a few years since I booked a gig, so when they offered me the line cook role with a three year, non-equity contract - plus smoke breaks - I had to take it.”

Payne was last seen on a Tulsa stage in a 2018 production of The Wizard of Oz, where he played that horse that changes colors in the movie.

Staff members are just relieved to have finally filled the long-open role.

“He’s the twelfth line cook we’ve had in six months, and the first one to do vocal warmups before starting up the grill every morning,” said Brittany Baker, cashier, who is reportedly "sick of all of this shit," according to the rant she yelled at a customer this morning.

Payne’s performance, however, did elicit some critiques – most notably from Ms. Anderson herself.

“I honestly thought his whole ‘routine’ was pretty atrocious, and not just from a restaurant standpoint. I’ve been doing community theater for the past 35 years, and the kid has an awful voice, zero stage presence, and wasted all of my ketchup packets when he tried to recreate the final Sweeney scene."

She continued.

"I was just so desperate to hire a line cook, and he was the only one who showed up, so he got the job. I still haven’t had the heart to tell him that this is a Wendy's, though. Maybe one day he’ll figure it out.”