Jason Grosboll was cooking popcorn for moviegoers in Texas just a few weeks ago.
After becoming viral on social media for his unique gift, he has now been invited to serve the stars at the Oscars by the award ceremony’s host, Jimmy Kimmel.
Last week, Jason piqued the interest of a customer named Oscar, who had gone to see Avatar: The Way of Water but was treated to a show before he’d even entered the theatre after witnessing some weird skills going on behind the bar.
Jason – whose new nickname ‘Popcorn Guy’ originates from the name tag he was wearing – was seen twirling popcorn tubs on his thumbs and tossing them in the air as he squirted heated butter over the kernels with ease before chucking up a peace sign at the camera in a TikTok video.
‘This was totally awesome!’ says the video’s caption. Since it was first posted on Boxing Day, it has had over 14 million views.
Jimmy, the talk show presenter, invited Popcorn Guy onto his show to learn more about his abilities.
Jason was asked how long he’d spent honing his routine from the Corpus Christi Century 16 Theatre where he works, but also if he’d be prepared to take a few days off for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘You know I love somebody who loves their job and I assume you do?’ Jimmy asked him.
‘Oh, I love my job more than anything in the world right now,’ Jason replied.
Jimmy then went to ask what Jason was doing on March 12 ‘because I’m hosting the Oscars and we could probably do with the world’s greatest popcorn bucket filler’.
‘Can you get the weekend off to come serve popcorn for Tom Cruise?’ he added.
When presented with the invitation, Jason acted unusually calm, but said he would love to come and serve at the event.
‘Oh man if I got the weekend off for Tom Cruise that would be amazing,’ he added. ‘I’d definitely take it off.’
While his video has been going viral for nearly two weeks, Jason confessed he had no idea he was a viral sensation, only learning about it a few days ago.
He also stated that he has been recognised at work and that many people have approached him to film his skills.
Jason, on the other hand, told Jimmy that it had taken him five years to perfect his specific style of producing popcorn.
‘I had to keep practising it over and over until I perfected it,’ he said.
While Jason’s tried to create a routine on the soda machine, he admitted ‘it got super messy’, so he has a little bit more work to do.
Jimmy Kimmel airs on ABC in the US.