I’ve been thinking about moonlighting as a bouncer for a while now. Just yesterday I ran into a guy who manages the security at a bar near where I live, and he hinted that if I wanted the job it was mine.
Now, I’ve never done this before. I figure I would spend most of my time checking IDs and breaking up a fight or two. No big deal, I’ve done that kind of stuff before, just not for pay. So when I’m filling out the application, how much should I put down for my expected salary?
Also, if anyone has ever done this kind of work before and has some advice, please feel free to share.
Now you’ve done and brought up the terrors for me. And I thought I’d put them all behind me.
I did this for a couple of years. It was a fun job the first few nights but then it got to be tired and boring very quickly.
First of all, you’re going to be one of the only sober people in the place. Every drunk idiot is either going to want to challenge you or make some kind of smart remark about you. The women are going to flirt with you just to get in the place. The guys are going to try to be your bud.
Some bar fly will cozy up to you and want to have a dull, stupid and pointless conversation while he/shess barely able to stand without leaning on something.
The local tough guy(s) is going to want to see just how tough you are.
You’ll smell like stale beer and cigarettes at the end of every night even if you never touch the stuff. If you make friends with the staff, you’ll be sitting around well after closing time having that last beer or two and talking about who saw who leave with who or hanging out at the nearest open food joint, eating greasy pizza and warm sodas because you are too wired to sleep, .
They can’t pay you enough to do this job. But if you insist, I’d ask for $12-15/hr for a run of the mill local pub and make sure there are a few others working the door with you just to watch one anothers back.
Here is the most excellent treatise on ‘bouncing’. It’s a blog, by a bouncer with an excellent vocabulary and mad writing skills. I encourage you to write him for tips.
IIRC, he’s paid on an event basis, rather than an hourly basis. There’s a rate for his typical gig, paid weekly based upon nights worked, and separate rates for special events.
I’ve never seen bouncers get this well-paid. I think the more usual figure is $8-$10/hr. (We’re talking saloon bouncer here, not professional security employed by high-end places.)
I’ve never been a bouncer but I’ve worked a few bars. One word of advice, via Teddy Rosevelt: Speak softly and carry a big (hidden) stick. I would recommend dropping some cash on a Surefire torch like this one or this one, which can be used to stun a potential assailant with the light, or as a striking weapon if more aggressive measures are called for. Forget about carrying a knife for protection, and ditto for a firearm unless it’s that sort of place (in which case you’re better off finding a safer place to begin with.) The ASP baton is a nice compact striking weapon, too, but again, you’d rather avoid those sort of conflicts entirely. You will be challenged by some drunk asshole (or a few) who just wants to impress his buddies and/or assorted women. The best thing you can do is talk him down, but if he starts a move you have to end it, quick, lest others get the idea they can face up to you as well. It’s kind of a legally nebulous position, 'cause you might have to strike preemtively.
Keep an eye out for knives and the occasional firearm (depending on the sort of place) and have a good relationship with the bartenders–they should be able to indicate to you someone who is getting obnoxious/aggressive without having to exchange a word. For the most part, it’s just about checking IDs (which you should do every time, except for recognized regulars…the owner and bartenders are depending on you to protect them from civil liability and fines) and keeping obnoxious drunks from pawing at women.
Oh, and let it be said again: no drinking on the job. Socializing is okay, if it’s slow enough (and if you’re the typical bouncer type you’ll have women propositioning you) but no drinking, no drugs.
I was making almost $8 fifteen years ago when I had this job. I was figuring the pay rate would have risen to at least $12 by now. Guess not, huh.
Otherwise, yeah, a knife or weapon of some kind was always my biggest fear. I never carried or used anything. Never really wanted to hurt anybody that badly. Being smart, sober and pretty fit was usually all the advantage I felt I ever needed. Also, I was lucky to be able to negotiate my way out of far many more confrontations than those I just couldn’t avoid.
I still can’t believe I did this for a part time job for almost two years while in university. I’m so not the type.
I made $10/hr plus tips from the door when I was a doorman. That was in 1979.
While you’ll likely not have a Patrick Swayze/Roudhouse type of experience, his advice is sound.
Be nice.
Stop things before they start.
No bullet-launchers or edged weapons.
No drugs or alcohol.
Dress the part. But don’t wear anything too restrictive of movement.
Have an understanding with the owner about who gets in and who is kept out.
Well, it’s been almost as long since I was working in the service industry, and I don’t go to the types of places that need a serious bouncing staff ('cept for Mel’s On Water backwhen) but the impression I get is that it ain’t too highly paid–$12 is probably the upper limit, though there are tips and other ways of scamming for money.
I was reading Danalan’s link and looking for a hit on the BS meter, but either the guy is really a bouncer or he’s worked the scene; the Mafia stuff might be embroidery (or not…the only 'guys I ever met were at my grandfather’s funeral) and his droll, I’m-too-tired-to-take-it-personally schtick is dead on. He’s a fair hand with the prose, too.
I had a friend who was offered a ‘bouncer’ job. He found out the first night he got about $10/hr from 9-2am…and was expected to work for free sweeping, mopping, cleaning glassware, etc. It was about an hour of free, lousy work at a horrible hour. He lasted 3 days.
Any place to cheap to differentiate between the two isn’t worth working for. If you’re doing barstaff work you should be earning tips or tipshare. If you’re busy doing the dishes you can’t be checking IDs and scanning for trouble. I’ve seen bouncers help out, occasionally, collecting glassware on their run through the store, but expecting them to clean and mop is way too ripe for primetime. Part of the perks of being a bouncer is getting to stand around not do too much (other than check out and flirt up the ladies when it’s slow.)
I have this kind of love/hate thing about going back to barwork; on one hand, I really want to escape from corporate prison hell, and I love the night-owl hours; on the other hand, the pay is iffy, you have to put up with chronic assholism, and it isn’t the most healthy environ (though California’s no smoking laws clean that up a lot). OTOH, I could really put the slack time to good use instead of working idiot hours in a thankless dead-end engineering job. You’ll find me behind the bar, though.
I did it for a couple weeks in a topless bar nearby as a favor to a friend who happened to own the place. Maybe I managed to get the luckiest two weeks in the year, but it wasn’t all that bad. A couple of nasty incidents aside, it was just another job.
Funny thing though, when I was going over everything with the owner/friend, he said he’d pay me a flat rate or allow the “ladies” to take care of me (no, not like that!). There happened to be a dancer within earshot who blurted out “Let us take care of you, trust me.”
She was right. I made three times what I could have ever expected from any flat rate. Those girls highly value their protection.
All of my working-in-bars (except for a couple of fill in things) was done in generic Midwestern cities, so my numbers might be a bit low; however, from talking to people here in LA, the wages aren’t much higher. Manhattan might be different (gaw, what a bit of unreality that piece of real estate is) but I doubt other places are. OTOH, I do generally avoid the rougher dance clubs and such, so I could be off base with regard to that. YMMV.
I wouldn’t expect to get more than $8/hr (and that’s stretching it around here) at a bar/club. You’re going to get free shows, beer and the like from the owners if it’s a place worth working, so your “benefits” will be that stuff rather than pay.
Plus, if you’re checking IDs and you control who gets in free or discounted… you’ll get free stuff all over town once people know you work there.
Currently I work at one of the most popular night clubs in Baltimore. It’s actually a whole complex of clubs and bars. I’m a shift supervisor at one of them and I get paid the same I did 2 years ago, $10 a hour, before I got promoted. All of the other clubs I know of pay in the same range except for two, both of which pay considerably more but gunplay, stabbings and riots are far from uncommon. And even I have to do the “shitty barback” work at the end of the night, mainly sweeping, but I at least get my hourly wage to do it. On a good night at the door however I can easily walk away with an extra $200 from people paying to bump line. Essentially as others have said, it’s standing around talking to attractive females, which is why I stay in the business. On a good night we can film a Girls Gone Wild Video. On a bad night it’s very blah.
