Into the fire!

The first night of the new ownership offered some very interesting events.  It was a Thursday and the entire weekend was deemed the goodbye party for the old night club and publicized largely around town and via Facebook.  Five new to the job bouncers were scheduled and the night promised to be an exciting indoctrination.  The evening was not only our first night in operation as a new business, but it was the dreaded College Night.

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.