Ryan Zeitz doesn’t stay home or set up at a café when he’s working remotely.
Instead, he goes to Canada’s Wonderland and works from The Gryphon’s Crown lounge for seven hours before going on a few rides at the end of the day when the crowds have thinned out.
As a comedian and a mental health peer support worker, Zeitz says he spends his work day at the park writing jokes, editing, and posting content on social media as well as planning for his 11-week stand-up comedy for mental health course.
This has been Zeitz’s routine for the last 132 days.
The Richmond Hill resident said it wasn’t his initial plan to turn the amusement park into his own personal office, he just kind of “stumbled into it.”
“I was just gonna get a pass. There was even a world where I wasn’t gonna get a pass at all, but they had this really amazing deal last year,” Zeitz said in an Aug. 21 interview with CTV News.
Zeitz said he spent $99 on a gold pass for Canada’s Wonderland then, which also included parking. He then paid an additional $110 for the dining plan, and then eventually upgraded to the Prestige pass. All together, he says he paid $422.59, including taxes, and the membership will carry him on until the end of December.
‘Trying to find ways to work with my brain’
The first time he used his pass was with his partner last summer.
“We just came for a weekend at the end of July and was just scanning my QR code, my pass everywhere, and getting free food and free drinks. It was like this cashless society where I was king,” Zeitz recounted.
The 33-year-old says he has been trying to find a proper place to work out of since he gets too distracted working from home due to his ADHD.
“I’m trying to find ways to work with my brain instead of against it, and there’s this concept known as body doubling, which is really cool, where essentially just being in the presence of others helps you stay on task and accomplish tasks because there’s this accountability, there’s people (who) are watching me,” he explained.
Going to a coffee shop each day becomes too costly, Zeitz said.
So, during that one weekend at Canada’s Wonderland, he says he had a lightbulb moment to work out of the park.
“I’ve already technically prepaid for a year-and-a-half’s worth of free drinks and food. Why don’t I just come work here?,” he said.
A spokesperson for Canada’s Wonderland said they are excited Zeitz is making the most out of his season pass.
“We do advertise that they allow you to come and go like you own the place, and he’s certainly taking us up on that offer,” Grace Peacock, director of communications for Six Flags, said in an email.
With his membership, Zeitz says he gets two meals per day at the park and since he also opted for the premium drink plan, he can choose from an array of beverages outside of fountain soda, like coffee, hot chocolate, and Icees.
Each day he goes to the park he documents how many beverages he consumes, what food he eats, and what rides he goes on that day, documenting the costs of everything.
“Some people say, ‘Oh, you’re not eating healthy,’ or ‘You’re eating all this fat.’ Honestly, I feel like I’m personally as healthy as I’ve been in a long time, if only because I’m properly hydrated for the first time in my life because it’s a game now,” Zeitz said.
“I’ve gamified hydration because every single drink that I drink here is another $5.49. I get to add to my tally to try and hit that $10,000 of retail value. I’m drinking, I’m eating like a king.”
‘I started doing this because I saw your videos’
Zeitz had been posting what a day in his life looks like working from the park, but he acknowledges it has been some time since he last posted (the last video showcased his 82nd day there).
Though the comedian says he has garnered a fair bit of attention online and even at the park, noting that he has met a lot of people and have even seen others come to the park with their laptops.
“A lot of people they’ve mentioned in the comments on the videos, or come up to me in person, just like, ‘Hey, I started doing this because I saw your videos,’” Zeitz said.
The lounge has remained relatively quiet, Zeitz adds, as he still has been able to find a spot to park up at each work day.
“In order to be able to do it as often as me, you have to live within a really close proximity to the park, have a job that allows you to do that a whole bunch, and then also just be weird and crazy enough to want to do that everyday and come every day,” he said.
“There are very few people who fit all three of those criteria.”
Zeitz plans to work every day at Canada’s Wonderland until his pass expires at the end of the year.
