WORKING behind a bar might conjure up scenes of Tom Cruise tossing bottles, Cocktail-style, but for Josh Cameron, the experience almost drove him around the twist.

So he did what any self-respecting performer would do and used his “twisted sense of comedy” to write his first show, Le Garcon Neurotique.

The one-man show is a maniacal monologue set in a cocktail bar about a waiter that is out of his depth and teetering on the edge of madness.

The premise, Mr Cameron admits, is based on his own two-month stint as a waiter at an upmarket cocktail bar.

“I didn’t know anything about alcohol or making cocktails, but they were desperate for people,” he remembers.

Mr Cameron said he was constantly paranoid about his lack of experience when on the job and hated having to be polite and courteous to even the most heinous customers.

Despite biting his tongue at the time, the show is his chance to get his own back on some of his rudest patrons.

“The story is generally about the neurosis that’s going on in my head. As a waiter, you churn inside if a customer says something bad to you.

“Most insist on being quite rude; they treat workers like they’re slaves.”

One scenario that made it into the show revolved around a martini that had been sitting untouched at a table for over 40 minutes.

Sure that the customers had moved since the drink had been delivered, Mr Cameron went to remove the glass, only to get a stinging tirade from a female customer who insisted the drink should be free.

Apart from the bad memories, Mr Cameron walked away from the job with a taste for classic gin martinis and a knack for expresso martinis.

Le Garcon Neurotique debuted at the 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival. This year, Mr Cameron will spend four weeks entertaining the masses at the Adelaide Fringe Festival after being picked up by theatre company Strut and Fret.

Mr Cameron will do a one-off performance of Le Garcon Neurotique this Saturday at Footscray’s Dog Theatre, 42a Albert St, from 8pm. Tickets will be $20 at the door.