When four friends won The Internship contest from from Miller Lite, I wanted to hate them. After having lunch with them though, it’s impossible not to like these guys that get to live the dream for two weeks.
I assumed the sort of guys who won a beer contest would be douchebros, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mason Zimmer, John McLaughlin, Matt Kopina and Will Chrystal are just four spinach dip loving friends from a school you’ve never heard of in an Indiana city to which you’ve never been. Unless of course you went to Trine University in Angola, Indiana, which I doubt. The school only has 1,700 students, so the guys were forced to make their own fun. The foursome is known on campus for their rare but epic parties at “310,” the Madonna of addresses. It’s that create-your-own-fun attitude that eventually helped them land the Miller Lite gig. It wasn’t easy though.
YouTube
As you can imagine, every guy looking for a once in a lifetime vacation and two weeks of free beer applied. After making the top 15, which they humbly thought was the top 50, it was on to a Google Hangout for the next portion of the interview. If you’ve ever wondered who actually uses Google Hangouts, now you know. It’s Miller Lite. After advancing through that stage, they sealed the deal when they showed up to the final interview (top 4) in Berennan Huff and Dale Doback style- full tuxedos. It was a prom special accessoried with American flag headbands, because ‘Murica. What really sold Miller Lite on the group was their strong friendship, confidence bordering on cockiness, and a stellar impression of an otter.
After being selected, they piled into the Miller Lite mancave-style RV packed with three separate plasmas and plenty of beer. Let the internship begin. They were the honorary pit crew at a NASCAR race in Charlotte and took a few spins in the pace car. They took a tour of the brewery in Milwaukee, were named honorary brewmasters, and were then forced to give the tour to the next group. Hey, it’s an internship, not a free ride. It was then off to Chicago to stand in the rain with the Bulls’ dance team, the Luvabulls, outside the Today show and then have lunch with Guyism’s finest. I’m sure that was the highlight of the two week journey, though the White Sox game they left me for probably wasn’t bad either.
From there they were headed to Dallas to hang with the Cowboys and more importantly the “Rhythm and Blues Dance Team.” Not a bad game of pickup football. While lovely ladies are always fun, the guys had a date with the cruelest mistress of them all, Las Vegas. Several had never been before, and I haven’t check in to see if they survived. If not, just consider this article to be in memoriam. They were also tasked with interviewing Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson on the red carpet before the premier of The Internship. They walked and talked with Hollywood royalty. Rough gig, right?
When the trip ends, a couple of the guys will head back to Trine for one last semester while two will enter the real world. Their outgoing personalities and ability to learn on the fly earned them plenty of business cards along the way, including one from a major Indiana distributor. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few ended up continuing the beercation in some capacity full time. It is the best industry in the world, after all.
I was going to send them a handful of your questions, but to be honest, most of them were terrible. The query I was sent the most often though was, “how much beer do they drink per day?” The answer: “about a 12-pack…responsibly, along with all the Monster and coffee.”