BARTENDER® MAGAZINE is proud to present our Feature Bartender from Los Angeles, California
By Frederic Williams He’s a bartender - he just hasn’t played one on television. And that’s strange, because Los Angeles-based bartender and character actor Heath Centazzo has played just about everything else. Plumber, mobster, chef, and limo driver. In his 20 plus years of acting, Heath has shown an incredible range and ability to inhabit his characters. It’s that same commitment, drive and natural born talent that has also allowed Heath to excel behind the bar at both The Casting Call and The Crystal View Lounge in Burbank for the last 17 years.
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Centazzo attended The Visual and Performing Arts School at Syracuse University, majoring in Film and Drama. It was there, during his sophomore year in 1994, that he decided to pick up some extra cash by working as a bouncer at a local spot, Maggie’s On the Hill. “I started as a bouncer, then I was a DJ, then finally I got the chance to be a bartender. It was a packed college bar, lots of beers and shots, basic mixed drinks. I never had any training, I just picked it up. Bartenders there helped me, but the whole thing came pretty easy to me.”
“Being an actor is the toughest career to pursue, but also the most rewarding at the same time. A lot of rejection. You go on auditions, you meet people, you network, you try to build a career. It’s about people. Bartending is the same way. It’s helped me with personality skills, being under pressure. I treat auditions like I’m with a customer. I break the ice, I just go in and have fun and do my best and show I’m just happy to be there. If I book it, I’m stoked. If not, I move on. Same thing at the bar. Keep it moving, have fun.”
With bartending, Centazzo explains, there was a kind of synergy between his natural gift for gab and his history in athletics that put him naturally at ease.
Born in Providence RI, Centazzo moved around a bit when he was young, his family finally settling in Mechanicsburg, PA. A lifelong sports enthusiast, he dreamed of playing in the big leagues until a high school injury refocused his future squarely on acting.
But the real test came when he inquired about a summer job as a bartender at The Hotel Hershey.
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“With bartending I felt very comfortable right away. I love talking to people. I’ve always enjoyed it, so I loved the people, and I also loved being on my feet. Being an athlete in my younger days, I loved the pressure; I use it as a positive. And I’ll talk my way out if it if I make a mistake.”
“My parents were eating at the Hotel Hershey and they got the card of the Beverage Director there, Bernie Strackhouse,
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SPRING 2016