Miller High Life guy comes to town for Spring Break

Windell Middlebrooks has become a household face for his role as the Miller High Life delivery man in commercials, a sort of beer-man Robin Hood. He takes High Life away from "snooty, blue-blood, high-faluting, fancy-pants muckety-mucks" and returns it to working-class people, where the beer ostensibly belongs.

Saturday, as Spring Break kicks into overdrive, Middlebrooks (that's his real name, his commercial character is nameless) will bring Miller High Life's message of "common sense" to area grocery stores and bars.

The delivery man will sign autographs and give away merchandise (he has a bobblehead) while mingling with the "common folks" (it's unclear if spring breakers qualify as common folks, but they certainly aren't blue-blood, high-faluting, fancy pants).

Middlebrooks has played the High Life delivery man for two years. The standard motif of his commercials goes something like this: Middlebrooks busts into some place filled with haughty, high-society types (a limousine, overpriced new-age bar, or luxury box at a sporting event) where he lectures the snobs while taking back the High Life beer.

A Fort Worth, Texas, native, the 30-year-old Middlebrooks said in phone interview this week that he brings a lot of his upbringing into the role.

"I come from hardworking people, so I think that's just something that's in me," said the actor, who also has a recurring role on the Disney Channel show "The Suite Life on Deck" (about two kids who go to school on a ship, and probably will grow up to be people the delivery man would take beer from).

Middlebrooks went through four rounds of auditions before winning the delivery man job. For the first audition, Middlebrooks and the more than 100 other actors didn't need to speak - just prove that they could look natural while loading beer onto a dolly and moving it.

This proved to be a difficult task for many of the actors.

"People were laying the dollies down," Middlebrooks said, laughing incredulously. "I just assumed you know how to use a dolly; that you stack them up, put your foot on the back, and pivot."

Only in Hollywood could using a dolly be considered a challenge. Then again, only in Hollywood would spending $100,000 instead of $3 million be considered "common sense." Middlebrooks and High Life earned top billing among this year's Super Bowl commercials for their 1-second ad.

Middlebrooks explained the rationale behind the ad in an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

"The High Life is about common sense," Middlebrooks said. He wore blue jeans and a brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was sandwiched between Leno and actor Josh Brolin, who both sported expensive suits.

"Which I agree with, I'm a common-sense man. We don't need to spend $3 million for 30 seconds. We can tell our story in one."

So Middlebrooks appeared on screens across the country for one second, enough time to throw his arms up in the air and shout "High Life!" while standing in front of a room-full of the beer.

Today's promotional appearances are among more than 50 Middlebrooks has done since 2007, keeping his weekends busy while he tries to expand his resume. He also has appeared in episodes of "ER", "Entourage," and "My Name is Earl."

The tours allow Middlebrooks to cut loose, and he urges anyone with free time on Saturday to stop by and see him.

"I feel like I'm in college again - dancing on bars, line-dancing in the street," he said. "It'll be like I'm back on Spring Break."

 WANT TO GO?

Check out the Miller High Life Guy's schedule:

l  10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.               Wal-Mart (10270 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

l  1:30  p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Capt Hais Fresh Seafood Market and Convenience Store (1107 N. East Avenue, Panama City)

                                                                   Sun Mart (15400 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

                                                                   Winn Dixie (17184 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

l  3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.   Wal-Mart (10270 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

l 7:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.  Dusty's (16450 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

                                                                 Buffalo Wild Wings (701 Pier Park Drive, Panama City Beach)

                                                                 Red Door (13006 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach)

                                                                 Spinnaker (8795 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach)