Blown sideways through life

Have you ever held down a job for money rather than love? Put up with an impossible boss? Been told when and how often to visit the rest room, get a drink, or use the phone? Struggled to remember that who you are doesn't depend on what you do?

Meet Claudia Shear, a misfit from Brooklyn who grew up dreaming of adventure. An unconventional girl on a byzantine career track, Shear blew through sixty-four jobs before realizing that of all the "alternate identities" she'd sampled in her long and varied employment history, the only one she really wanted was her own.

Shear rode a wild wave of employment to arrive at that revelation. She worked as (among other things) a pastry chef, a nude model, a waitress (a lot), a receptionist in a whorehouse, a brunch chef on Fire Island, a proofreader on Wall Street (a lot), and an Italian translator. On the surface, her life makes for a hilarious tour de resume.

But underneath is a universal lesson learned about life in the workplace, a lesson that caused her one-woman show to be nationally celebrated by Peter Jennings, Regis and Kathie Lee, Connie Chung, and Charlie Rose: "You talk to the people who serve you the food the same way you talk to the people you eat the food with. You talk to the people who work for you the same way you talk to the people you work for. It's a one-size-fits-all proposition."