“I’d go, ‘Five, four, three’—and then I’d stop,” says Marquise Brown, explaining his former job as ride operator at Six Flags Magic Mountain, near Valencia, Calif. “Then I’d say, ‘Y’all want me to keep counting?’ and before they could respond I’d hit the button and the ride would take off.” The Oklahoma wide receiver can’t stifle a laugh at the memory of all those bugged eyes and strained necks.
Each ride operator at Magic Mountain, which hosts some three million guests each year, is encouraged to “have fun and come up with his own spiel,” supervisor Byron Douglas explained while standing beneath the double-looped and corkscrewed white tracks of the Full Throttle ride, where Brown worked, and which hovers over the park like tangled spaghetti.