The Night Bill Murray Became an Unofficial Bartender at SXSW — And Apparently Served Tequila to Everyone

There are celebrity appearances, and then there are Bill Murray appearances.

At the 2010 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Murray somehow managed to turn an ordinary night at a neighborhood bar into one of those stories that sounds completely made up when you tell it years later.

Except there was video.

Murray, already one of Hollywood's most recognizable comedic actors, ended up behind the bar at Shangri-La, a popular East Austin drinking spot. Instead of simply stopping in for a drink like any other festival visitor, he reportedly agreed to get behind the counter and serve customers.

The results were predictably chaotic.

People approached the bar asking for ordinary drinks. According to accounts from the night, Murray listened to their orders and then frequently ignored them, reaching for tequila instead. Video footage from the evening shows him pouring drinks while an increasingly excited crowd gathered around the unexpected bartender.

At some point, whiskey also appeared in the mix.

And before the night was over, Murray was no longer simply the actor who had wandered into a bar during SXSW. He had become the entertainment.

Adding another surreal layer to the evening was GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, who was also around the bar. Murray and members of Wu-Tang had a connection dating back to their work together on Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes.

Phones came out.

People started filming.

The story spread.

And one of the strangest celebrity moments in SXSW history was born.

SXSW Was Already the Perfect Place for Something This Strange

To understand why a moment like this could happen, it helps to understand South by Southwest.

SXSW, commonly known simply as South by Southwest, had become one of Austin's defining cultural events by 2010. The festival brought together musicians, filmmakers, technology companies, journalists, performers and enormous crowds of visitors.

The official events were only part of the experience.

During festival week, Austin's bars, clubs, restaurants and outdoor spaces became informal stages of their own. Musicians appeared in unexpected locations, celebrities moved through crowded venues and industry professionals mixed with ordinary festivalgoers.

That environment made spontaneous encounters almost inevitable.

And Bill Murray was particularly well suited to that kind of unpredictability.

By 2010, he had already spent decades building a reputation as an actor whose public persona seemed to blur the line between Hollywood celebrity and eccentric stranger.

He was famous for movies including Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Rushmore, Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

But his reputation outside his films was almost as entertaining as his work on screen.

Murray had developed a long-running reputation for unexpectedly appearing at ordinary places and interacting with people in ways that seemed almost impossible to predict.

So when reports emerged that he had ended up behind a bar at SXSW, the story sounded bizarre.

It also sounded exactly like something Bill Murray would do.

The Shangri-La Encounter

The bar at the center of the story was Shangri-La, located on Austin's East Sixth Street.

According to a later account of the incident, Murray had visited the bar earlier in the day and interacted with people there before leaving for another event.

He eventually returned.

This time, the situation became considerably more unusual.

A later account based on an interview with Shangri-La proprietor Tyler Van Aken says the owner was upstairs when a staff member contacted him to say that Murray had returned and was looking for a bartender named Trevor Rathbone. Van Aken reportedly suggested that Murray get behind the bar.

The response was immediate.

According to that account, within roughly half a minute, Van Aken received word that Murray was actually bartending.

And that was apparently all it took.

Instead of remaining a customer, one of Hollywood's most recognizable actors was suddenly working the other side of the counter.

The Crowd Quickly Realized What Was Happening

The moment people recognized Murray behind the bar, the atmosphere changed.

There is something inherently funny about seeing a famous actor doing an ordinary job.

But with Murray, the absurdity was even greater.

He was not dressed like someone arriving for a formal celebrity appearance.

There was no stage.

There was no planned introduction.

There was no promotional backdrop.

There was simply a crowded bar and Bill Murray standing behind the counter.

A later account quoted bartender Jesse Cates as saying he suddenly found himself bartending alongside the actor.

The customers, understandably, began approaching Murray.

And that was when the unofficial Murray cocktail menu apparently took shape.

Gin and Tonic? Tequila.

Martini?

Tequila.

Beer?

Well, the stories from the night suggest that tequila was Murray's preferred answer to just about everything.

According to accounts of the evening, several bottles of Hornitos tequila were within easy reach behind the bar. Murray apparently took advantage of what was immediately available and began pouring tequila shots for customers regardless of what they had originally requested.

The result was less traditional bartending and more performance art.

Customers weren't necessarily getting the drinks they ordered.

They were getting the drink Bill Murray apparently wanted to serve.

That became the joke.

And judging from the footage, many customers were perfectly happy to play along.

The video recorded by Erica Hoerl provides a particularly useful piece of evidence because it captures Murray actually behind the bar, pouring drinks rather than merely appearing in photographs. The video's description says Hoerl encountered Murray serving tequila and whiskey to an excited crowd at Shangri-La before he went to sit with GZA.

The footage transformed what might otherwise have been an exaggerated festival anecdote into something people could actually watch.

The Video Made the Story Almost Impossible to Ignore

Celebrity stories from the pre-social-media era often disappeared quickly.

A person would tell a friend.

The friend would tell someone else.

Eventually, the story became a legend.

But SXSW 2010 took place at a moment when smartphones, Twitter and online video were becoming increasingly important parts of how people documented nightlife.

That changed everything.

Someone had a camera.

Someone else had a phone.

People were able to upload and share what they had seen.

Hoerl's video, titled Bill Murray Bartending at SXSW 2010, remains an especially direct record of the incident.

The video itself is not a polished production.

That is part of its charm.

The footage feels like exactly what it was: somebody realizing something ridiculous was happening and deciding to record it.

Murray is behind the counter.

People are watching.

Drinks are being poured.

The room has the chaotic energy of a crowded festival night.

And somewhere nearby is GZA.

There is no elaborate explanation needed.

The footage speaks for itself.

GZA Added Another Layer of Weirdness

The presence of GZA made the story even more memorable.

GZA, one of the founding members of Wu-Tang Clan, had already worked with Murray several years earlier.

The two appeared together in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes, a film built around loosely connected conversations between musicians, actors and artists.

Murray's segment was particularly memorable because he played an exaggerated version of himself while interacting with members of Wu-Tang Clan.

The connection apparently continued beyond the movie.