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.
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