As I have mentioned before, part of the clubs growing success is the V.I.P. section. For those not familiar with the concept, the V.I.P. section gives the group purchasing the service a bottle of middle-top shelf liquor, various containers of mixed drinks and the exclusive use of a roped off V.I.P. section that they can invite people into, while making their own drinks with their own alcohol and mixers.
This V.I.P. service, and its cost would cause one to think that it would attract more responsible and aged individuals who can afford such exclusivity. Unfortunately that is not always the case, and many wanna be V.I.P.'s regularly pool some cash together between five or six friends and then go party in their private area with little regard to responsibility or acting like a gentleman. Most of the time these wanna-be-V.I.P.'s get too drunk and end up being the biggest problems for security.
Well, the story to be told actually involves one of these groups of wannabe's and how they made some serious policy adjustments for our club. It was a Saturday night, and a group of college students had purchased use of the V.I.P. section and invited about twenty of their closest friends to come celebrate whatever event they were celebrating with them. With the large number of people pooling money these patrons were able to order several bottles of Vodka at the elevated price.
Because the bottles are then brought directly to their exclusive section, their individual drinking is not monitored by the bartenders. The bottles are delivered to the V.I.P. sections and then left there for the party goers to do what they please with them. Because they receive the alcohol in this manner, the patrons can consume as much of the bottle as they want. With this freedom on the amount of alcohol they can consume people tend to become drunker than would normally be allowed by bartenders who monitor intoxication.
On this particular Saturday night, that was exactly the case, and despite problems with the group in V.I.P. as a whole in terms of intoxication, the real problem came once the club was closed and we thought everyone had already left. While checking the downstairs bathroom I discovered an individual passed out on the toilet with his pants down, slumped forward vomiting into his pants. Stunned at the scene i attempted to awaken him and help him regain his consciousness.
Unsuccessful in waking up the inebriated man I grabbed some co-workers and we all decided the police would be the best personnel to deal with this individual. The police came and not wanting to touch him either called paramedics, who finally wheeled him out in a wheel chair. This episode of extreme drunkenness is cause for my 6th rule: Just because they are in the V.I.P. doesn't mean they are responsible, you must monitor their drunkenness!
This situation was dealt with and the man was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with alcohol poisoning. The funniest thing about this story is that the guy had actually been in to interview with my boss, and after finishing his interview had taken a walk through of the club. His friends, who had the V.I.P. section that evening flagged him down and got him so drunk that he passed out sick on a toilet. Lets just say that he didn't get the job...
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
All bets are off
Every Wednesday night at the club the theme of the evening is Mensday Wednesday, a party that features bar games such as beer pong, bags and free pool for all the patrons. The night is usually calm, seeing as how it is a Wednesday and doesn't feature the large crowds that seem to make being a bouncer so interesting. With the smaller, more peaceful crowds, drunken incidences and arguments are rare making my life ultimately easier. However with these bar games comes a whole different reason for incidents.
We have never allowed gambling in the bar in any form, but occasionally people may wager on beer pong games under the table and without anyones knowledge. One of these friendly wages came in the form of a gentleman's bet not too long ago where both sides decided that 20 dollars each was an appropriate amount and laid their money on the table.
Due to the more relaxed nature of Wednesday nights, there also are not as many bouncers on duty as usual and it was myself, the security manager and one other guy this evening. As I walked down the stairs i noticed that two of the young men were arguing, although it was not apparent why and when they saw me approaching they both stopped and went back to playing beer pong. Taking note of the argument I did not forget about them and lingered in the area waiting for more situations to occur, which did not take long.
"Dude give him the ball back, he gets a re-throw!" One disgruntled man yelled as he charged around the table and got in his opponents face.
"Fuck that man, the ball wasn't going in and so I caught it, go play so I can get my money!" the opponent replied. This exchange went on for about 20 seconds before I came over and broke up the argument. After I separated the two, I asked the least irate individual what had happened to cause the argument.
"They are trying to get an extra throw in Beer Pong and its bullshit, they aren't gonna steal our money." he told me. Confused at this concept of betting in the bar, as it was foreign to me, I told both sides that they needed to pick up their money and move along and enjoy themselves if they didn't want to get kicked out. Both teams obliged and collected their money, not without arguing over who would get which bills however. As they went there separate ways I went and talked to my manager and told him that I don't think gambling should be at all tolerated to which he agreed, and gambling is now not at all allowed, and if it is detected it is grounds for instant removal. This brings me to my fifth rule; Don't Allow Gambling in the Bar. It will lead to more disgruntled guests than happy guests.
We have never allowed gambling in the bar in any form, but occasionally people may wager on beer pong games under the table and without anyones knowledge. One of these friendly wages came in the form of a gentleman's bet not too long ago where both sides decided that 20 dollars each was an appropriate amount and laid their money on the table.
Due to the more relaxed nature of Wednesday nights, there also are not as many bouncers on duty as usual and it was myself, the security manager and one other guy this evening. As I walked down the stairs i noticed that two of the young men were arguing, although it was not apparent why and when they saw me approaching they both stopped and went back to playing beer pong. Taking note of the argument I did not forget about them and lingered in the area waiting for more situations to occur, which did not take long.
"Dude give him the ball back, he gets a re-throw!" One disgruntled man yelled as he charged around the table and got in his opponents face.
"Fuck that man, the ball wasn't going in and so I caught it, go play so I can get my money!" the opponent replied. This exchange went on for about 20 seconds before I came over and broke up the argument. After I separated the two, I asked the least irate individual what had happened to cause the argument.
"They are trying to get an extra throw in Beer Pong and its bullshit, they aren't gonna steal our money." he told me. Confused at this concept of betting in the bar, as it was foreign to me, I told both sides that they needed to pick up their money and move along and enjoy themselves if they didn't want to get kicked out. Both teams obliged and collected their money, not without arguing over who would get which bills however. As they went there separate ways I went and talked to my manager and told him that I don't think gambling should be at all tolerated to which he agreed, and gambling is now not at all allowed, and if it is detected it is grounds for instant removal. This brings me to my fifth rule; Don't Allow Gambling in the Bar. It will lead to more disgruntled guests than happy guests.
Monday, February 21, 2011
When force is necessary...
Over the last few weeks the club has established itself as the upscale nightlife hot spot in town. It has been attracting growing crowds seeking a dance party and live music in the upstairs bar has been attracting an older crowd as well. With these increasing crowds and multiplying attendance, weekends have become very hectic and it is an every day occurrence that someone gets too crazy and impulsively does something stupid.
That being said, it is also a frequent occurrence that a bar patron will make a complete ass of themselves and have to be handled with force. The other night an individual was on the verge of visibly being drunk, but not necessarily disorderly. We gave him a warning and told him any signs of jackass behavior and he was out, he seemed to understand, apologized for his actions and went on his way. Later that night the guy was buying some shots, in the full throw of the party around 1 am, at the main bar. The club again had a capacity crowd present and was a very busy place, and the bartenders were doing their best to make quality drinks quickly for all people craving their alcohol.
This individual received his shots in glass cups, and to his distaste, a small piece of ice from the mixer had slipped through while pouring and was now in his drink. Now recall that we had already warned this particular individual for being rather drunk earlier in the night, and it was more than an hour later, he was set to lose it. The individual yelled at the bartender "There is ice in my shot!"
The bartender looked at the man, angered by how busy it was and the small piece of ice that was being complained about and told him that he would pour him new shots if he wanted, trying to dispel the situation quickly. The drunken patron was not satisfied with this answer and after a moment of dazed consideration lifted both glasses and chucked them at the bartender, shattering glass everywhere at a packed bar. We jumped on him, there was no kind 'ask him to leave' this guy had just broken two glass cups, potentially hurting people and getting glass in two ice tubs under the bar, which then had to be dumped and refilled with ice before any more drinks could be sold using ice out of them.
To make it simple, we straight up threw this guy out, there was no polite "sir we have to ask you to leave" I grabbed him, put him in an arm bar, forced him down the stairs and threw him out. This is the cause for rule number 4; Sometimes force is the answer. Although I try to make it my policy while dealing with drunk people that kindness kills, sometimes it is necessary to forcefully remove an individual, and when they act this drastically, there is no alternative to throwing him out to simply remove the problem. This gentleman has since been banned for life and for any person who commits any action of similar severity, the same outcome will most definitely ensue.
That being said, it is also a frequent occurrence that a bar patron will make a complete ass of themselves and have to be handled with force. The other night an individual was on the verge of visibly being drunk, but not necessarily disorderly. We gave him a warning and told him any signs of jackass behavior and he was out, he seemed to understand, apologized for his actions and went on his way. Later that night the guy was buying some shots, in the full throw of the party around 1 am, at the main bar. The club again had a capacity crowd present and was a very busy place, and the bartenders were doing their best to make quality drinks quickly for all people craving their alcohol.
This individual received his shots in glass cups, and to his distaste, a small piece of ice from the mixer had slipped through while pouring and was now in his drink. Now recall that we had already warned this particular individual for being rather drunk earlier in the night, and it was more than an hour later, he was set to lose it. The individual yelled at the bartender "There is ice in my shot!"
The bartender looked at the man, angered by how busy it was and the small piece of ice that was being complained about and told him that he would pour him new shots if he wanted, trying to dispel the situation quickly. The drunken patron was not satisfied with this answer and after a moment of dazed consideration lifted both glasses and chucked them at the bartender, shattering glass everywhere at a packed bar. We jumped on him, there was no kind 'ask him to leave' this guy had just broken two glass cups, potentially hurting people and getting glass in two ice tubs under the bar, which then had to be dumped and refilled with ice before any more drinks could be sold using ice out of them.
To make it simple, we straight up threw this guy out, there was no polite "sir we have to ask you to leave" I grabbed him, put him in an arm bar, forced him down the stairs and threw him out. This is the cause for rule number 4; Sometimes force is the answer. Although I try to make it my policy while dealing with drunk people that kindness kills, sometimes it is necessary to forcefully remove an individual, and when they act this drastically, there is no alternative to throwing him out to simply remove the problem. This gentleman has since been banned for life and for any person who commits any action of similar severity, the same outcome will most definitely ensue.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Watch your fellow bouncers backs
After the events of last Thursday night, my co-workers and i were all very excited and felt a little more confident to get into the mayhem if a problem arose. Friday saw an increased crowd for the slowest night of the week which was a good accomplishment. However what we all feared was the coming Saturday, usually the biggest night of the week and the finale of the clubs grand opening weekend. We expected large crowds, but what we got was beyond our greatest nightmares.
Eleven p.m. most nights usually sees the club with about 25-40 people inside and a general calm before the storm kicks off. On this particular night however we had already booked our two V.I.P. areas for bottle service and had a third customer come and request a V.I.P. area. Due to this request we roped off a third spot on our mezzanine so we could serve three bottle service areas. Each bottle service area requires its own bouncer, and because of this extra V.I.P. area we were quite short staffed and my manager hired on the spot a couple individuals who were in the club and well know to the owner and staff.
So with several new bouncers and already more than 200 people inside by 11:15 pm, we began to fear the inevitable. By midnight the number of people in the club was skyrocketing, and by 12:30 we had reached our 400 person capacity inside the club, and it had become an energetic party inside. The patrons were having a great time and the music was right on cue with the crowd, people were dancing, everyone seemed happy and the temperature was literally rising despite an air conditioning system that was on full blast in the dead of winter. However with the number of people in attendance, not only did the coat check fill up but crowd resembled more of a giant sea of people than individuals, and keeping tabs on potential problems became a task of impossibility.
Around 1:30 am while watching the main dance floor I saw a female start throwing beer into the air onto other guests of the club, an offense that we do not allow any tolerance for. I instantly charged through the crowd to tell the girl that she had to leave, more so that the other annoyed guests around her would not begin a fight with her as she and her friends were being argumentative and stubborn. It came forward from a group of guys right next to her that not only did she throw beer but she had struck one of them in the face and literally been trying to push them out of the way. Annoyed that the girl was being confrontational and would not simply leave, and in the face of a stream of harrowing threats from her, i quickly scanned the surroundings for a fellow bouncer. I spotted one of the guys we had hired that night up in the V.I.P. area staring at the video screens that play music videos. I ran up the stairs and grabbed him since he wasn't paying attention, and told him to come help me. As i continued to tell the girl to leave, my co worker did nothing, at which point i told him to go find more people if he was going to be useless.
This girl and her friends were becoming irate and confrontational, and I was losing my patience. Another bouncer finally came to assist, and by now the group of guys was tired of getting chastised and beginning to get physical. It is a basic rule that I cannot touch girls to escort them out of the club, if a guy hits me, i will simply throw him out physically. A girl can do almost anything to me and i cannot touch her except in self defense. I made the call that both parties would have to leave and told them this in the form of a finality. Now both groups were mad as the music grew louder and the crowd just began to press harder, my coworkers and I were growing tired of asking nicely. The group of guys understood and left without a problem, but the girls continued to be total bitches and scream, and with a crowd at capacity in the club i was not in the mood for this. I opened my phone and mouthed that i was calling the police to remove them. She came at me like a freight train and i had to jump aside to avoid getting rammed into the crowd.
I ran over and grabbed another coworker 20 feet away who had not even spotted the scuffle because his attention was focused elsewhere on the thick crowd. Returning to the incident I again pretended to call the cops (not like the police could have heard me anyways), and with four bouncers there now the girls began to comply and we followed the few that had been confrontational down the stairs. As i returned up stairs to finish the night with the energetic capacity crowd still there I was frustrated and ready for the club to close, but the rest of the night went smoothly. This story leads to my third rule; Pay attention to your fellow bouncers! You could end up in a situation that you cannot do anything with and if each other bouncer isn't paying attention, that situation could just become more hostile and dangerous leading to escalation and drunken women charging at you trying to take your life! A crazy night ended and we all caught our breaths and laughed, i definitely needed a beer after the events of that insane evening. After that crowd and crazy party, the club had established itself as the place to be in town and that scuffle was just the beginning.
Eleven p.m. most nights usually sees the club with about 25-40 people inside and a general calm before the storm kicks off. On this particular night however we had already booked our two V.I.P. areas for bottle service and had a third customer come and request a V.I.P. area. Due to this request we roped off a third spot on our mezzanine so we could serve three bottle service areas. Each bottle service area requires its own bouncer, and because of this extra V.I.P. area we were quite short staffed and my manager hired on the spot a couple individuals who were in the club and well know to the owner and staff.
So with several new bouncers and already more than 200 people inside by 11:15 pm, we began to fear the inevitable. By midnight the number of people in the club was skyrocketing, and by 12:30 we had reached our 400 person capacity inside the club, and it had become an energetic party inside. The patrons were having a great time and the music was right on cue with the crowd, people were dancing, everyone seemed happy and the temperature was literally rising despite an air conditioning system that was on full blast in the dead of winter. However with the number of people in attendance, not only did the coat check fill up but crowd resembled more of a giant sea of people than individuals, and keeping tabs on potential problems became a task of impossibility.
Around 1:30 am while watching the main dance floor I saw a female start throwing beer into the air onto other guests of the club, an offense that we do not allow any tolerance for. I instantly charged through the crowd to tell the girl that she had to leave, more so that the other annoyed guests around her would not begin a fight with her as she and her friends were being argumentative and stubborn. It came forward from a group of guys right next to her that not only did she throw beer but she had struck one of them in the face and literally been trying to push them out of the way. Annoyed that the girl was being confrontational and would not simply leave, and in the face of a stream of harrowing threats from her, i quickly scanned the surroundings for a fellow bouncer. I spotted one of the guys we had hired that night up in the V.I.P. area staring at the video screens that play music videos. I ran up the stairs and grabbed him since he wasn't paying attention, and told him to come help me. As i continued to tell the girl to leave, my co worker did nothing, at which point i told him to go find more people if he was going to be useless.
This girl and her friends were becoming irate and confrontational, and I was losing my patience. Another bouncer finally came to assist, and by now the group of guys was tired of getting chastised and beginning to get physical. It is a basic rule that I cannot touch girls to escort them out of the club, if a guy hits me, i will simply throw him out physically. A girl can do almost anything to me and i cannot touch her except in self defense. I made the call that both parties would have to leave and told them this in the form of a finality. Now both groups were mad as the music grew louder and the crowd just began to press harder, my coworkers and I were growing tired of asking nicely. The group of guys understood and left without a problem, but the girls continued to be total bitches and scream, and with a crowd at capacity in the club i was not in the mood for this. I opened my phone and mouthed that i was calling the police to remove them. She came at me like a freight train and i had to jump aside to avoid getting rammed into the crowd.
I ran over and grabbed another coworker 20 feet away who had not even spotted the scuffle because his attention was focused elsewhere on the thick crowd. Returning to the incident I again pretended to call the cops (not like the police could have heard me anyways), and with four bouncers there now the girls began to comply and we followed the few that had been confrontational down the stairs. As i returned up stairs to finish the night with the energetic capacity crowd still there I was frustrated and ready for the club to close, but the rest of the night went smoothly. This story leads to my third rule; Pay attention to your fellow bouncers! You could end up in a situation that you cannot do anything with and if each other bouncer isn't paying attention, that situation could just become more hostile and dangerous leading to escalation and drunken women charging at you trying to take your life! A crazy night ended and we all caught our breaths and laughed, i definitely needed a beer after the events of that insane evening. After that crowd and crazy party, the club had established itself as the place to be in town and that scuffle was just the beginning.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fights in the street don't require assistance from security...
Last Thursday, the Night Club featured its first major drink specials in celebration of grand opening weekend. Thursday night was the first ever "Ladies Night" featuring 1 dollar anything you want drinks for women in a special cup that was handed out at the door. The catch about the cups was that ladies would only get one unless that cup broke, then they could bring it to a bouncer and we would replace it. If we saw a guy take a sip out of one of the ladies cups then that cup would get taken and the woman would not be able to receive dollar drinks any longer.
So with the parameters of the drink specials established and the first weekend following radio advertising, we were bracing for a hectic night. As the night progressed we saw huge crowds and the effects of the drink special on a Thursday night seemed to have major draw in the community. We caught very few people sharing the cups with guys and were pleased that our warnings at the door were taken so seriously.
The problems did not occur until the end of the night when a huge capacity crowd of around 400 people all feeling the effects of a night of drinking and dancing began to exit the club. At this time, I was downstairs holding the door and saying good bye to all the bar patrons. The door to the Bar is also in a precarious position, directly across the street is another local night life hotspot, two doors down is a pub which features great drink specials and two more 'Drunk Factories" are right around the corner with a dive bar to the west and another night club by the harbor to the east. All of these places see most of their visitors parking in a structure behind the bar across the street.
So with all 5 of these bars seeing the majority of their clients walking right past the club where i work and the two across the street, there is a massive choke point that see's many late night fights and scuffles. As I was letting out patrons, the other door guys went upstairs to sweep the building and make sure everyone was on their way out of the club, i was left alone at the door. As the crowds converged and people continued to poor out, a fight broke out in the dead center of Main Street.
"Downstairs, Downstairs, Downstairs!" i called into my radio as i sprinted into the street. By now the fight had grown and turned into somewhat of a 5 on 5 testosterone and alcohol fueled brawl. I jumped into the action and began ripping people off of the pile and was quickly joined in breaking up the fight by a few of my co-workers. With the fight finally dissolved the cops on their way and one of the involved parties on their way home, two gentleman involved in the fight, who had been on the same side started a shouting match over "if they had each others back or not". My co-workers and i were trying to disperse of the crowd before the police arrived and it seemed like another fight was going to quickly escalate. We managed to keep them separate for some time before finally in a moment where we weren't paying attention the two started throwing fists.
Annoyed with the persistence of these two gentleman to keep being assholes, i charged the two of them and in an attempt to break them up, tackled them both into the street, this proved to be a mistake. The larger of the two gentleman who had been screaming earlier "I am the baddest motherfucker alive!" stood up, looked at me and muttered under his breath, "you hit me..."
I responded "I didn't hit you and i will not fight you, you need to leave before the cops come." to which he squared up to me and began throwing punches. An advantage to being sober at two in the morning is that everyone else is drunk. His punches were mostly wild throws that were easily deflected with my hands. growing frustrated that he couldn't land a punch the man charged me and tried to take me down by my waist, which again my sober balance helped me to remain standing and I used the pressure points behind his ears to jam his head down and push it towards the ground.
By now my fellow co-workers had taken notice and came over and jumped on the guy, trying to rip him off of me, however his grip around my waist was something similar to a death lock, or the grip an alligator has when it spins around and rips its pray to pieces. With the weight of my coworkers hitting the pile, we all fell onto the ground and i tried to scoot backwards and push my self out of the instigators hold. At this point in time the Police decided to finally arrive fifteen minutes after they had been called for help with the original fight.
The cop could only see my back as I was now in a sitting position, with the man holding onto my waist and two or three of my coworkers fighting to get the guy off of me. The Officer ran up behind me and delivered a fist to the left side of my head screaming "Let go, Police!"
"I work here!" i responded as the cop was able to remove the gentleman from my waist since he stopped fighting at the announcement of the police arrival. The cop looked at me apologetically and lifted up the man and put him in handcuffs, my coworkers and i headed inside, both out of breath and excited that we had finally seen our first real action working as bouncers.
My manager (The only experienced bouncer of the bunch) came up to me and said that I had done a good job, but we don't need to follow fights into the street anymore unless it becomes a 'severe ass beating.' But otherwise we do not need to participate in those scuffles due to the rule that once it leaves the club the police wont differentiate between bar security and drunken instigator, thus i give my second rule; don't follow fights into the street, unless it becomes a severe ass beating.
So with the parameters of the drink specials established and the first weekend following radio advertising, we were bracing for a hectic night. As the night progressed we saw huge crowds and the effects of the drink special on a Thursday night seemed to have major draw in the community. We caught very few people sharing the cups with guys and were pleased that our warnings at the door were taken so seriously.
The problems did not occur until the end of the night when a huge capacity crowd of around 400 people all feeling the effects of a night of drinking and dancing began to exit the club. At this time, I was downstairs holding the door and saying good bye to all the bar patrons. The door to the Bar is also in a precarious position, directly across the street is another local night life hotspot, two doors down is a pub which features great drink specials and two more 'Drunk Factories" are right around the corner with a dive bar to the west and another night club by the harbor to the east. All of these places see most of their visitors parking in a structure behind the bar across the street.
So with all 5 of these bars seeing the majority of their clients walking right past the club where i work and the two across the street, there is a massive choke point that see's many late night fights and scuffles. As I was letting out patrons, the other door guys went upstairs to sweep the building and make sure everyone was on their way out of the club, i was left alone at the door. As the crowds converged and people continued to poor out, a fight broke out in the dead center of Main Street.
"Downstairs, Downstairs, Downstairs!" i called into my radio as i sprinted into the street. By now the fight had grown and turned into somewhat of a 5 on 5 testosterone and alcohol fueled brawl. I jumped into the action and began ripping people off of the pile and was quickly joined in breaking up the fight by a few of my co-workers. With the fight finally dissolved the cops on their way and one of the involved parties on their way home, two gentleman involved in the fight, who had been on the same side started a shouting match over "if they had each others back or not". My co-workers and i were trying to disperse of the crowd before the police arrived and it seemed like another fight was going to quickly escalate. We managed to keep them separate for some time before finally in a moment where we weren't paying attention the two started throwing fists.
Annoyed with the persistence of these two gentleman to keep being assholes, i charged the two of them and in an attempt to break them up, tackled them both into the street, this proved to be a mistake. The larger of the two gentleman who had been screaming earlier "I am the baddest motherfucker alive!" stood up, looked at me and muttered under his breath, "you hit me..."
I responded "I didn't hit you and i will not fight you, you need to leave before the cops come." to which he squared up to me and began throwing punches. An advantage to being sober at two in the morning is that everyone else is drunk. His punches were mostly wild throws that were easily deflected with my hands. growing frustrated that he couldn't land a punch the man charged me and tried to take me down by my waist, which again my sober balance helped me to remain standing and I used the pressure points behind his ears to jam his head down and push it towards the ground.
By now my fellow co-workers had taken notice and came over and jumped on the guy, trying to rip him off of me, however his grip around my waist was something similar to a death lock, or the grip an alligator has when it spins around and rips its pray to pieces. With the weight of my coworkers hitting the pile, we all fell onto the ground and i tried to scoot backwards and push my self out of the instigators hold. At this point in time the Police decided to finally arrive fifteen minutes after they had been called for help with the original fight.
The cop could only see my back as I was now in a sitting position, with the man holding onto my waist and two or three of my coworkers fighting to get the guy off of me. The Officer ran up behind me and delivered a fist to the left side of my head screaming "Let go, Police!"
"I work here!" i responded as the cop was able to remove the gentleman from my waist since he stopped fighting at the announcement of the police arrival. The cop looked at me apologetically and lifted up the man and put him in handcuffs, my coworkers and i headed inside, both out of breath and excited that we had finally seen our first real action working as bouncers.
My manager (The only experienced bouncer of the bunch) came up to me and said that I had done a good job, but we don't need to follow fights into the street anymore unless it becomes a 'severe ass beating.' But otherwise we do not need to participate in those scuffles due to the rule that once it leaves the club the police wont differentiate between bar security and drunken instigator, thus i give my second rule; don't follow fights into the street, unless it becomes a severe ass beating.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Into the fire!
College Night is when anybody, 18+ is allowed to attend, and seeing as how the only bar or club in Marquette that allows people under the age of 21 was the old bar, it was received largely by the younger collegiate population. This college night concept may sound lucrative to the inexperienced bar security, but it becomes a major issue when individuals under the age of 21 decide to start trying to sneak drinks and hide in corners and take pulls out of pints they have smuggled under their jackets.
So already our first night on the job is going to be a more difficult than usual night of security while we try to stop patrons under the age of 21 from drinking alcohol. Being that it was our first night as a security staff, as well as the first night of the new management the time which we would start was not well established and since most people do not go to the bar until after 11 p.m. we were told to arrive at work at 10:30 p.m. aside from the head of security and one other completely inexperienced bouncer who would be there at 10:00 to work the door, This would turn out to be our first mistake and the cause for my first rule; ARRIVE EARLY TO BEAT THE RUSH!
When my three friends and I arrived at work that first Thursday evening, we were met when we turned onto Main street downtown with a line that reached around the block (pictured above). As we went to the door and cut through the crowd that was pushing to get inside, our co-workers looked dazedly at us in relief as they were fighting to check i.d.'s collect cover charges and give wristbands to those patrons over the age of 21. As the four of us pushed through the crowd, we were stunned and fearful of what awaited us inside the night club.
After our untimely arrival to the nightclub, we had an intense first night of kicking out under 21 individuals as they tried to sneak alcohol and denying people of the pints they had brought in under their jackets. Unfortunately that first night saw the five of us out of our element as we came to work while the club was already half full and we had not yet established our presence. Therefore i give you my first rule of bouncing, get their early and establish yourself, you don't want to come into the club to find it already full because you will spend the entire evening playing catchup.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
All Things Must Begin...
A couple of months ago I was told by friends that a local nightclub in my Michigan college town was changing ownership and getting a much needed face lift. The new bar was to be a complete change from its past image, the club would be changing its name, appearance, employees and drink prices. My friend who informed me of the change in ownership is the owner of a local D.J. company who provide entertainment services to other bars around town, and had also been recently contracted to be in charge of entertainment for the new club. When i learned of the new owners, they also told me there would be hiring in every necessary position; Bartenders, Bouncers, Shot girls, Coat check etc... They also told me i should get on board with this new "nightlife hotspot" and that they could easily get me a job.
With this news i was instantly interested, having wanted to work in nightlife throughout my college career. My draw to nightlife stemmed from a perceived right of passage, I've met many people who tell of their stories being a doorman or a bartender and have secretly coveted these experiences for some time. My only problem is that i did not possess any experience in either of the above mentioned fields. My only experience behind a bar was filling up the occasional pitcher of Pabst for beer battered North Atlantic Cod while working as a cook in the summer of 2010. In terms of being a bouncer i had absolutely zero experience dealing with people in a dark, crowded, noisy and often heavily inebriated environment. Throughout college i was more often one of the problematic intoxicated people out at the bars and wondered what it would be like to experience the other side.
I continued my dialogue with the D.J.'s for the next couple of months and eventually when the purchase of the night club was imminent i sat down with the new owner and we discussed potential employment opportunities. The owner told me that security was where he wanted me, and that the four other new bouncers were going to be close friends of mine, with one veteran bouncer who hadn't been in the business for 15 years but was helping his friend to get established.
So here the plan is laid, five young men who have not been a bouncer for a day of their lives being thrown into a busy nightclub with no training and no true leadership. The potential for insanity was huge and the security and risk management of a night club which can see more than 400 people inside of it on any given weekend night was mostly in the hands of 5 inexperienced college students.
I must state a disclaimer that although we may not be experienced, the five of us do have some traits and skills that are advantageous to being a bouncer. All five of us are upper classmen in college, with 4 in our senior years and one in his junior year. We all are quite level headed and business minded, Tach and myself are also Pre-Law majors and have knowledge of legality in certain actions as well. In terms of our size, Tach and T.J. both weigh more than 300 pounds and thus have some kinetic energy behind them when trying to force someone out of the club. Joe and Sean while both not being of considerable size, do exhibit some substantial muscularity and are more than capable of ejecting your average-to-large sized drunken male out of a door. Now of everyone i am the tallest at 6'4" but also the lightest at about 190 semi-muscular pounds. Despite my size I am a United States Marine and have gone through some crowd control training as well as the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (M.C.M.A.P) which incorporates body and limb manipulation to take down larger opponents, so I am not completely out of my element.
Thus the stage is set for our trial by fire, we are going to learn how to work security at a crowded night club while doing just that, working security. We will learn how to be bouncers through the most literal form of on the job training. and because i feel no one should get thrown into this job as my friends and I are, I will pass that knowledge onto anyone willing to read this blog. As I learn the job, I will tell you (the readers) the lessons I learn, the hard way, so that you may have the knowledge to avoid some of the mistakes I will most definitely be making.
With this news i was instantly interested, having wanted to work in nightlife throughout my college career. My draw to nightlife stemmed from a perceived right of passage, I've met many people who tell of their stories being a doorman or a bartender and have secretly coveted these experiences for some time. My only problem is that i did not possess any experience in either of the above mentioned fields. My only experience behind a bar was filling up the occasional pitcher of Pabst for beer battered North Atlantic Cod while working as a cook in the summer of 2010. In terms of being a bouncer i had absolutely zero experience dealing with people in a dark, crowded, noisy and often heavily inebriated environment. Throughout college i was more often one of the problematic intoxicated people out at the bars and wondered what it would be like to experience the other side.
I continued my dialogue with the D.J.'s for the next couple of months and eventually when the purchase of the night club was imminent i sat down with the new owner and we discussed potential employment opportunities. The owner told me that security was where he wanted me, and that the four other new bouncers were going to be close friends of mine, with one veteran bouncer who hadn't been in the business for 15 years but was helping his friend to get established.
So here the plan is laid, five young men who have not been a bouncer for a day of their lives being thrown into a busy nightclub with no training and no true leadership. The potential for insanity was huge and the security and risk management of a night club which can see more than 400 people inside of it on any given weekend night was mostly in the hands of 5 inexperienced college students.
I must state a disclaimer that although we may not be experienced, the five of us do have some traits and skills that are advantageous to being a bouncer. All five of us are upper classmen in college, with 4 in our senior years and one in his junior year. We all are quite level headed and business minded, Tach and myself are also Pre-Law majors and have knowledge of legality in certain actions as well. In terms of our size, Tach and T.J. both weigh more than 300 pounds and thus have some kinetic energy behind them when trying to force someone out of the club. Joe and Sean while both not being of considerable size, do exhibit some substantial muscularity and are more than capable of ejecting your average-to-large sized drunken male out of a door. Now of everyone i am the tallest at 6'4" but also the lightest at about 190 semi-muscular pounds. Despite my size I am a United States Marine and have gone through some crowd control training as well as the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (M.C.M.A.P) which incorporates body and limb manipulation to take down larger opponents, so I am not completely out of my element.
Thus the stage is set for our trial by fire, we are going to learn how to work security at a crowded night club while doing just that, working security. We will learn how to be bouncers through the most literal form of on the job training. and because i feel no one should get thrown into this job as my friends and I are, I will pass that knowledge onto anyone willing to read this blog. As I learn the job, I will tell you (the readers) the lessons I learn, the hard way, so that you may have the knowledge to avoid some of the mistakes I will most definitely be making.
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