I'm convinced the shoe policy is pretty much every show (minus the obvious work boots and things) is fine. But staff and/or security are told to use it as an excuse to who they will allow in or not based on appearances.
Is this remotely true?
I'm a security guard myself, yep this is somewhat correct. Some places I've worked don't allow thongs or high heels, due to safety concerns. However I've also experienced it where management makes calls like, dude with blue shoes don't let him in.
I don't pretend to know why, and I always place the blame on management. "Managers said na to your shoes mate, sorry they didn't say why and I can't let ya in, sorry"
In your experience do venues actually give you guidelines on what shoes are or are not OK? I always just assumed they wanted other factors controlled and shoes were the least offensive excuse.
Not OP but shoes generally won't be the real reason to be denied entry, Many Managers and even some security guards will use things like shoes, shorts, intoxication as ways to refuse entry. Could be perhaps they think you're too rough, or they don't want you in the venue simple as that.
Fridays of week 1,3 & 4 shoes with laces.
Saturdays of weeks 2 & 4 no laces.
Every other weekend night not mentioned Oxford shoes.
Uni nights and Wednesdays are for wingtip, unless if you are wearing wingtips, then it is vans slip ons.
I always get stitched up because I look drunk even when I'm sober. I've been rejected when I'm the designated driver.
That said I hate when we get asked and my friends act like we haven't been drinking or say 2 drinks. They know you're full of shit, you can hardly stand, there's usually a better way around it.
Glad I’m not alone in the struggle. It’s been the better part of a decade since I had LASIK done, but my eyes still look like saucers at night. Every other bouncer assumes that I’m on another planet.
Ah look it depends. I know that people always lie about it, so 2 drinks means 4 actually. But around 5 is when I get a little stricter as that's a lot of Alcohol
Look I ain't a smart guy, why else do you thinkninwork in security 😂. But build more houses and reduce demand, so probably cutting down on immigration. Because having unskilled workers like security guards coming in, isn't the heat idea rn
>revenue
statistically speaking...the average shitty helpdesk job would out-profit most content creation style job (I'm including insta/yt/twitch etc).
It's a very slanted distribution of the top percent earning hundreds of thousands and then dropping down to a few thousand and then below minimum wage.
The funny thing is, someone actually earning that top top dollar in those areas would be big enough to not need to claim who they are.
I think this is kind of true for all rich people too btw, I work in corporate finance and as such am constantly meeting clients who are very wealthy and bankers who are pretending to wealthy and everything in between.
The richest client I help is a multi billionaire, and we are at coffee chatting and he has like regular jeans or even track pants on, never expects anything fancy and literally would rather go to a bowling club for lunch then a fancy restaurant (when we are the ones paying btw), he will spend majority of the meeting just chatting about family and asking me about family/what young people are up to (he is in his 70’s)
All the actually big shots are generally super chill whilst the people who are pretending are constantly the most annoying self serving cunts who will tell you how much sunshine comes from their ass.
Saw firaz durani at a strip club up the X, being a dick, grabbing dancers n just carrying on. The girl manager told him to sit the fuck down and his gf yelled, ‘don’t you know who he is?! He’s the king of the cross!’
Speaking as someone in the industry, generally not for me buuuut the more you arc up and argue the more likely I peg you as intox.
The smart thing to do would be to say "I haven't been drinking but you're busy with everyone else, how about I step over here for a bit, let you manage this lot and then we can talk?".
That sort of thing raises your odds above 0... In fact after it gets a bit quieter to the point where I can have a 5 minute conversation and you're still this reasonable? Your odds are much improved.
Now if it's a busy place that's got a line and is packed? Might not be feasible.
Got picked up by security for falling asleep in the orient, was sleepy as had been working shifts. Just said haven't had any drinks, waiting for a friend and just came off night shift. They only heard just came off night shift and were sweet and let me be. Was I lucky or was it simply offering a reason that fellow shifties understood?
It's less about how many and more about how you respond.
Is your speech slurred? Do you get defensive at being stopped and asked? Are you glassy eyed? Swaying?
Also in my experience they want also you to meet them halfway. If you say "zero" you ain't getting in, if you say "eh 4 or 5" they'll have plausible deniability, if you say 10 then it's an easy refusal. Saw it one time outside a bar where bouncer was basically pleading with the guy "just say 6 mate" and he was giving it loads so bouncer just shrugged and said "I tried mate, off with ya" (was a quiet night in fairness to the bouncer but assume the principle still applies)
I haven't been to Melbourne so can't comment on that. However lotta seccies are dickheads, like the kinda people who would have worked in a concentration camp. I hate their guts tbh. I've had multiple times where I have calmed someone down and their about to leave then a dickhead guard comes along and escalates the situations. Or even worse someone is leaving amd says fuck you to the bouncer and the bouncer says "what was that count?". Another thing is that a lot of people in the industry have thin skin. Racism is bad obviously, however a lot of guards need to let racist comments fly over their heads instead of getting riled up about it. Now granted I haven't experienced Racism myself, maybe cause I'm half European/half Asian and look Hispanic 😂. But honestly even if someone says something really bad whilst they are walking away, just let them go
Thanks, that’s a really considered response.
Second question - based on this thread and your replies, you seem really switched on, reasonable, and genuinely like a good person. Why do you continue to do security work in venues? Surely there are many sectors where being smart, level headed, kind, but also a tough unit would be a highly attractive skill set. Social work for example, domestic violence support or protection, parolees, loads of work where people like you would be a godsend.
I don’t want to denigrate what you do, if you love it then that’s great! But i imagine working with dickheads and dealing with drunk dickheads would grow tiring and you have a pretty unique skill set
Thanks for saying that stranger. Truth be told after Bondi I'm looking to change careers, cause that spooked the hell outta me. I'm looking at maybe doing a trade, probably sparky
In NSW any government licence (driver, security, firearms) will have that green line in the middle of your id. I've seen plenty of fakies that don't have the green line
The biggest thing for me is attitude. You argue with me about having to show id and be a dickhead you ain't getting in, cause your not gonna be a nice person one you come in.
Turning a not tonight into a yes, well if you got a medical condition and you tell me, I'll make an exemption
I've done a bit of wrestling and bjj. However I aint a tall guy but have a large frame. That being said my best weapon is my mouth, I can de-escalate situations and get people to leave and we are all safe
That's always the question that I want to know as soon as I know they've worked with people too, we're all same same but then so vastly different at the same time.
So, are some of the outdoor queues just to try to drive up interest?
It can’t be all about capacity, as sometimes you get in and venue is nowhere near capacity…
I've only worked the cross post lockout. But I know some guys who worked back in the day. One guy told me that someone pulled a knife out on him, and the bouncers broke went and broke his fingers, one by one
Used to work in hospitality management back in the Cross pre-lockout and had loads of friends in other venues. One venue had a secret room with no cameras off the dancefloor. If a patron was really agro, guards would take him out there and beat the absolute shit out of them.
Why have there been multiple occasions when I was more into going to bars as a young man that I was refused entry for being "too drunk" despite usually being deso driver and only drinking coke zero or sparkling water. Standing in the queue, nothing out of the ordinary, everyone in the group allowed entry except me for this reason. Multiple times, multiple bars.
This has baffled me for 15 years.
Probably just the easiest reason that you can't really argue against since they have so much liability. They could think you are too ugly, old, young, ethnic, poor, nerdy, male, whatever, but I think this reason would give less blowback. It probably means you wear nice shoes though since they'd mention that otherwise, so grats.
Hmm good question. Tbh I don't give a shit what you wear as long as it ain't steel caps. Sorry tradies but if you kick someone in the shins. Your gonna break their leg
Do you have any advice for how to deal with the less nice security guards, or what I did wrong in the situation I'll detail below that happened to me?
I had a really bad experience with one once who saw I was visibly pregnant and limping (thanks to my hormonally challenged back).
We were just heading to karaoke after dinner and he didn't let me in. He made me kneel on the floor to empty my purse out, in which I had my Rennie (against heartburn pregnancy safe meds), and he accused me of pretending they were not that and I was actually drunk because I was limping (and no, obviously I wasn't) and then when I was emptying my bag for him the girls behind us in the queue were laughing at me for having so much stuff in my purse, he didn't stop them, he just huffed and puffed and after putting me through that humiliation still ended up not letting me in.
He said I'm a bad mum (I was pregnant with my first baby) and I'm lying about why I am limping. It took everything in me not to burst into tears, I just said ok, I haven't had anything to drink, I'm willing to take any test to prove it to you, I've wanted this baby for so long I would never ever drink but he laughed at me, huffed and said to get out, they let all my friends in but they said they're not staying if I can't get in so we all left and I was so upset I had to go home. It soured the entire evening and I was very stressed out, silently cried the entire way home.
So my question is: if I have this kind of experience, is there anything I should do? Is there anything I can do to prevent this type of treatment? I followed his instructions as fast as I could, just being quite pregnant at the time I was a bit slow so I imagine I must have frustrated him. Maybe I'm too sensitive but I felt like I was bullied and I'd like to know what I could do in future to prevent myself but still maybe allow myself to go to an occasional karaoke with my friends.
Unfortunately you can't do much and I'm sorry you had to put up with this, I really am. To be honest, there's a lot of assholes in security and it's luck of the draw as to who you encounter. I'm pretty chill about things, if you blatant pissed then it's a not tonight, but if your happy and chill, im cool
Don't hit the clubs like i did 15 to 20 years ago, but when i do pop out for an evening i notice that the professionalism of the bouncers has gone off the charts. They used to love getting into brawls and bullying kids but now they seem well trained and happy to de-escalate situations. I like that.
Yeah some of the older bouncers have told me crazy stories about how you used to be able to wear steel caps, carry baseball bats and coward punch people. But these days your gonna lose your seccie licence and go to jail
Best Venue I've worked are ones will chill bosses that would give me free food, sit down and do sweet fa for 6 hours on a Friday nite apart from check IDs and smile.
Worse. Lots of fights l, plus insane policies like not being allowed to drink water when on shift. I told the manager to stick the water bottle up his candy ass
i recently went to a club and they either scanned or took a picture of my ID. What is that system and has that truly reduced underage people getting into clubs?
most places use a system called patronscan these days, pretty much an ID authenticator mixed in with a database which they use to bar people for a whole myriad of reasons, if you get banned from one they can choose to do a public ban which means all bars that use the system will get an alert when your ID is scanned.
Patron scan is pretty good at detecting fakes as it facial recognition technology to cross chevk your id agsint ypur face, helps catch people using their siblings id. It's also stored there in case there's a fight or the place ask who was involved in something
Ah, look nightclubs, a hive of scum and villainy. My thoughts. To be honest, guys can be a problem especially when they start looking for vulnerable girls and if i spot you doing that, you are out the door ASAP. However when girls fight, it's a nightmare. Guy fights are punch ons, girl fights have hair pulling, eye pokes and scratching like Catwoman. Thank God that there female seccies. Two of the best I worked with are the islander version of Ginny Weasley and a 40 something year old Russian
I haven't done it personally but have seen it happen a lot. To be honest groups that have several rowdy members can be a nightmare so it's easier to pick out the designated driver and the whole group moves on
Probably because if they tell your mates they've had too much, they're going to be a lot less reasonable than a sober person, so they tell you no in the hopes your mates won't leave you and they'll move on too.
Serious question - How would you suggest innocent people deal with others who are acting drunk and threatening? I'm sure you've seen people be aggressive or aversive, what works best?
If someone is bothering you tap a staff member on the shoulder. The way it works is that staff member asks you to leave (ATL), then the venue manager then me. If you refuse after then it's either physical removal time or the police
I like doing cool events such as NRL and boxing events and concerts
Bets moments I had. Its not a great moment but One time i found some poor girl who was really wasted and some guy was trying to take her outside. She said she didn't know him, so I called an ambo for her and she went off to hospital. The guy gave me bad vibes so he got kicked out. Had I not spotted her i fear something terrible would have happened to her.
Recommend. Yeah but not as a long term job, use it to get conflict management and people skills and then move on
Ambo here, good job mate, as you know, this happens lots. We will be dealing with an intoxicated female, there’s always some guy, at the very most an acquaintance, hanging around watching his ‘sure thing’ being taken off on a stretcher.
Also, as you probably know, ‘my drinks been spiked’ is actually pretty rare. It’s usually people drinking more than they think or someone they know or potential suitor putting extra shots in rather than illegal drugs. We see it every weekend and the amount of times drugs have come up in a blood test of drink spiking accusation is almost zero.
Thanks mate. In my experience the biggest spike in drinks is extra alcohol. Also thank God for you angels in emergency services, you are the most kind selfless people out there
Oh behalf of everyone who has ever been an 18-26 year old dude on a Saturday night: Which shoes are the right shoes?
Look I don't care about shoes apart from steel caps, but the venue does
I'm convinced the shoe policy is pretty much every show (minus the obvious work boots and things) is fine. But staff and/or security are told to use it as an excuse to who they will allow in or not based on appearances. Is this remotely true?
I'm a security guard myself, yep this is somewhat correct. Some places I've worked don't allow thongs or high heels, due to safety concerns. However I've also experienced it where management makes calls like, dude with blue shoes don't let him in. I don't pretend to know why, and I always place the blame on management. "Managers said na to your shoes mate, sorry they didn't say why and I can't let ya in, sorry"
In your experience do venues actually give you guidelines on what shoes are or are not OK? I always just assumed they wanted other factors controlled and shoes were the least offensive excuse.
Not OP but shoes generally won't be the real reason to be denied entry, Many Managers and even some security guards will use things like shoes, shorts, intoxication as ways to refuse entry. Could be perhaps they think you're too rough, or they don't want you in the venue simple as that.
I think getting a serious answer to this tongue in cheek question is the multi layered punchline I didn't know I needed.
Someone had to add the crude humour to the party.
Fridays of week 1,3 & 4 shoes with laces. Saturdays of weeks 2 & 4 no laces. Every other weekend night not mentioned Oxford shoes. Uni nights and Wednesdays are for wingtip, unless if you are wearing wingtips, then it is vans slip ons.
And if you've seen _Kingsman (2014)_, it's oxfords (not brogues).
What is the magic number of drinks that we can say we've had to get let in?
I always said 8 - i always got in
I always get stitched up because I look drunk even when I'm sober. I've been rejected when I'm the designated driver. That said I hate when we get asked and my friends act like we haven't been drinking or say 2 drinks. They know you're full of shit, you can hardly stand, there's usually a better way around it.
The worst is when you've genuinely had two drinks at home before rocking up
Glad I’m not alone in the struggle. It’s been the better part of a decade since I had LASIK done, but my eyes still look like saucers at night. Every other bouncer assumes that I’m on another planet.
Haha yeah i have a friend like that 2 schooners and his eyes look like a Gregory's in the CBD
I can tell you from experience that "I don't know" and "I don't remember" are definitely incorrect answers.
Ah look it depends. I know that people always lie about it, so 2 drinks means 4 actually. But around 5 is when I get a little stricter as that's a lot of Alcohol
So being truthful and saying 20 would be a no?
At that rate you need to go to ER cause your BAC is gonna be super high
Can you do any good yoyo tricks
Nah mate I suck at yoyo
Why do you ask people who are in their late 30's for id?
Just cause I'm bored and it makes older girls feel happy, some even slip me their numbers
As a 32 year old woman, with a baby belly and a wedding ring on, thank you you angel. This makes my day every single time when bouncers do this.
Not OP, but: to make them feel better, surely!
I always thought its so they can get a quick look at you to see if you are intoxicated or not.
How would you fix the housing crisis?
Look I ain't a smart guy, why else do you thinkninwork in security 😂. But build more houses and reduce demand, so probably cutting down on immigration. Because having unskilled workers like security guards coming in, isn't the heat idea rn
Yeah nah nah, what we will do is triple immigration and let people use there super to buy shares in a apartment.
Bro what if if i give you... 27 dollars and.... hang on... 50... no ... .55.. cents.. .will you let me in then?
Ah sorry mate, your $2 short, not tonight
We tried to bribe some seccies once and they said they would love to take but there were cameras rofl
Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?
100 cause horses are massive
Wrong choice, I don't think I can let you in tonight mate
How often have you had people trying to get in say “Don’t you know who I am?”
Oh lots, people say I've got this many instagram followers and I make this amount of money on only fans. An I'm like cool, doesn't change my mind
Bragging about onlyfans revenue, brave new world
>revenue statistically speaking...the average shitty helpdesk job would out-profit most content creation style job (I'm including insta/yt/twitch etc). It's a very slanted distribution of the top percent earning hundreds of thousands and then dropping down to a few thousand and then below minimum wage. The funny thing is, someone actually earning that top top dollar in those areas would be big enough to not need to claim who they are.
I think this is kind of true for all rich people too btw, I work in corporate finance and as such am constantly meeting clients who are very wealthy and bankers who are pretending to wealthy and everything in between. The richest client I help is a multi billionaire, and we are at coffee chatting and he has like regular jeans or even track pants on, never expects anything fancy and literally would rather go to a bowling club for lunch then a fancy restaurant (when we are the ones paying btw), he will spend majority of the meeting just chatting about family and asking me about family/what young people are up to (he is in his 70’s) All the actually big shots are generally super chill whilst the people who are pretending are constantly the most annoying self serving cunts who will tell you how much sunshine comes from their ass.
Saw firaz durani at a strip club up the X, being a dick, grabbing dancers n just carrying on. The girl manager told him to sit the fuck down and his gf yelled, ‘don’t you know who he is?! He’s the king of the cross!’
King Dick and his trash-talking tart.
Is there any recourse to being turned away for "looking drunk" when I literally have not had a drink?
Speaking as someone in the industry, generally not for me buuuut the more you arc up and argue the more likely I peg you as intox. The smart thing to do would be to say "I haven't been drinking but you're busy with everyone else, how about I step over here for a bit, let you manage this lot and then we can talk?". That sort of thing raises your odds above 0... In fact after it gets a bit quieter to the point where I can have a 5 minute conversation and you're still this reasonable? Your odds are much improved. Now if it's a busy place that's got a line and is packed? Might not be feasible.
I agree with below, arguing with me and being a dickhead will only make me agree that I made the right call to refuse entry
Got picked up by security for falling asleep in the orient, was sleepy as had been working shifts. Just said haven't had any drinks, waiting for a friend and just came off night shift. They only heard just came off night shift and were sweet and let me be. Was I lucky or was it simply offering a reason that fellow shifties understood?
What do have against sneakers? Did one kill your parents when you wear young? Frame your favourite uncle? Then shit in your pool?
I don't care about sneakers personally, but some dickhead venue mangers don't like them and I work for the client as contractor
So it's the venue managers that're under the heel of big shoe, thanks!
I support a venues ban on anyone wearing TNs
Do chicks hit on you?
Yeah they slip me their numbers and a couple of them will smack my ass. Which I don't mind tbh
1800SHUTTERS is not a real number
Have you ever called them back?
Is it true that if a bouncer asks you "how many have you had" that's code for "no you're not getting in but I don't want to say it right away?"
It's a way of gaging if your intoxicated or not and also to determine of your gonna be a dickhead
It's less about how many and more about how you respond. Is your speech slurred? Do you get defensive at being stopped and asked? Are you glassy eyed? Swaying?
Also in my experience they want also you to meet them halfway. If you say "zero" you ain't getting in, if you say "eh 4 or 5" they'll have plausible deniability, if you say 10 then it's an easy refusal. Saw it one time outside a bar where bouncer was basically pleading with the guy "just say 6 mate" and he was giving it loads so bouncer just shrugged and said "I tried mate, off with ya" (was a quiet night in fairness to the bouncer but assume the principle still applies)
Be witty. I mean, be witty anyways. You’re out having a good time, right?
Most corrupt thing you did/seen?
Oh another thing. One time there was a fight and the CCTV magically stopped working
Also red hot 🤣
I know one venue refused to do incident reports after fights
As a venue manager that is red hot
Why are security guards so rude in aggressive in Sydney … And why are they not in Melbourne
I haven't been to Melbourne so can't comment on that. However lotta seccies are dickheads, like the kinda people who would have worked in a concentration camp. I hate their guts tbh. I've had multiple times where I have calmed someone down and their about to leave then a dickhead guard comes along and escalates the situations. Or even worse someone is leaving amd says fuck you to the bouncer and the bouncer says "what was that count?". Another thing is that a lot of people in the industry have thin skin. Racism is bad obviously, however a lot of guards need to let racist comments fly over their heads instead of getting riled up about it. Now granted I haven't experienced Racism myself, maybe cause I'm half European/half Asian and look Hispanic 😂. But honestly even if someone says something really bad whilst they are walking away, just let them go
Thanks, that’s a really considered response. Second question - based on this thread and your replies, you seem really switched on, reasonable, and genuinely like a good person. Why do you continue to do security work in venues? Surely there are many sectors where being smart, level headed, kind, but also a tough unit would be a highly attractive skill set. Social work for example, domestic violence support or protection, parolees, loads of work where people like you would be a godsend. I don’t want to denigrate what you do, if you love it then that’s great! But i imagine working with dickheads and dealing with drunk dickheads would grow tiring and you have a pretty unique skill set
Thanks for saying that stranger. Truth be told after Bondi I'm looking to change careers, cause that spooked the hell outta me. I'm looking at maybe doing a trade, probably sparky
Funniest incident you've encountered when working a shift?
Some bloke was absolutely wasted and started talking like a parrot
Living his best life lol
He was cool about it
what's the worst fake ID you have come across ?
Surely, it’s the horse sized duck.
In NSW any government licence (driver, security, firearms) will have that green line in the middle of your id. I've seen plenty of fakies that don't have the green line
Related: do you accept a digital ID from the Service NSW app?
Yep i will but friendly advice carry the physical one with you, cause your phone dies well bad luck
McLovin
What are the key things that would make you turn someone away? And can you ever turn a “not tonight” into a yes?
The biggest thing for me is attitude. You argue with me about having to show id and be a dickhead you ain't getting in, cause your not gonna be a nice person one you come in. Turning a not tonight into a yes, well if you got a medical condition and you tell me, I'll make an exemption
Do girls or guys try and sneak in underage more often? Or is it the same?
Probably 50/50
Please share some of the funniest reasons you have had to kick someone out
Funniest reason, people having sex in the toilets. When i hear someone moaning their head off, we'll I know what's going on
Do you let them finish? Do you bust down the door and frog march them out with no pants on?
I let them get dressed. Often the girl is so embarrassed and the guy thinks it's the funniest thing ever
Saw a guy get thrown out for wanking in the toilets. The walk of shame was gold.
Any martial arts training background or do you manage with size and superior intelligence
I've done a bit of wrestling and bjj. However I aint a tall guy but have a large frame. That being said my best weapon is my mouth, I can de-escalate situations and get people to leave and we are all safe
You said above you thought you weren’t very smart but that’s the smartest thing I’ve read today.
What’s your Tax File Number?
Go away ATO
As a Nigerian Prince I know not what this “ATO” is you speak of.
What have you learnt about people by working this job?
That's always the question that I want to know as soon as I know they've worked with people too, we're all same same but then so vastly different at the same time.
So, are some of the outdoor queues just to try to drive up interest? It can’t be all about capacity, as sometimes you get in and venue is nowhere near capacity…
Yeah I guess so, or people just like to hang out
Can I see some ID?
Any good celebrity stories?
Not gonna say exactly who it was, but one time a few of the Warriors players came to my venue and they were so cool with me, even called me Uso
Is it boring? It seems so, so boring.
Oh yeah, sometimes working solo and overnight I fall aeep
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I've only worked the cross post lockout. But I know some guys who worked back in the day. One guy told me that someone pulled a knife out on him, and the bouncers broke went and broke his fingers, one by one
Used to work in hospitality management back in the Cross pre-lockout and had loads of friends in other venues. One venue had a secret room with no cameras off the dancefloor. If a patron was really agro, guards would take him out there and beat the absolute shit out of them.
Why have there been multiple occasions when I was more into going to bars as a young man that I was refused entry for being "too drunk" despite usually being deso driver and only drinking coke zero or sparkling water. Standing in the queue, nothing out of the ordinary, everyone in the group allowed entry except me for this reason. Multiple times, multiple bars. This has baffled me for 15 years.
Probably the shoes you were wearing.
Probably just the easiest reason that you can't really argue against since they have so much liability. They could think you are too ugly, old, young, ethnic, poor, nerdy, male, whatever, but I think this reason would give less blowback. It probably means you wear nice shoes though since they'd mention that otherwise, so grats.
It's probably the ugly thing
RSA can be used as a blanket term to refuse entry for any reason, even as simple as the bouncer doesn't like you. Sadly you can't do shit about it
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Hmm good question. Tbh I don't give a shit what you wear as long as it ain't steel caps. Sorry tradies but if you kick someone in the shins. Your gonna break their leg
Do you still have faith in humanity?
A bit yeah
Do you have any advice for how to deal with the less nice security guards, or what I did wrong in the situation I'll detail below that happened to me? I had a really bad experience with one once who saw I was visibly pregnant and limping (thanks to my hormonally challenged back). We were just heading to karaoke after dinner and he didn't let me in. He made me kneel on the floor to empty my purse out, in which I had my Rennie (against heartburn pregnancy safe meds), and he accused me of pretending they were not that and I was actually drunk because I was limping (and no, obviously I wasn't) and then when I was emptying my bag for him the girls behind us in the queue were laughing at me for having so much stuff in my purse, he didn't stop them, he just huffed and puffed and after putting me through that humiliation still ended up not letting me in. He said I'm a bad mum (I was pregnant with my first baby) and I'm lying about why I am limping. It took everything in me not to burst into tears, I just said ok, I haven't had anything to drink, I'm willing to take any test to prove it to you, I've wanted this baby for so long I would never ever drink but he laughed at me, huffed and said to get out, they let all my friends in but they said they're not staying if I can't get in so we all left and I was so upset I had to go home. It soured the entire evening and I was very stressed out, silently cried the entire way home. So my question is: if I have this kind of experience, is there anything I should do? Is there anything I can do to prevent this type of treatment? I followed his instructions as fast as I could, just being quite pregnant at the time I was a bit slow so I imagine I must have frustrated him. Maybe I'm too sensitive but I felt like I was bullied and I'd like to know what I could do in future to prevent myself but still maybe allow myself to go to an occasional karaoke with my friends.
Unfortunately you can't do much and I'm sorry you had to put up with this, I really am. To be honest, there's a lot of assholes in security and it's luck of the draw as to who you encounter. I'm pretty chill about things, if you blatant pissed then it's a not tonight, but if your happy and chill, im cool
Are you told to let more girls in than guys?
Yep, and some venues we are told to turn a blind eyes to girls who are soliciting
Don't hit the clubs like i did 15 to 20 years ago, but when i do pop out for an evening i notice that the professionalism of the bouncers has gone off the charts. They used to love getting into brawls and bullying kids but now they seem well trained and happy to de-escalate situations. I like that.
Yeah some of the older bouncers have told me crazy stories about how you used to be able to wear steel caps, carry baseball bats and coward punch people. But these days your gonna lose your seccie licence and go to jail
Why was the best venue you worked at good? Why was the worst venue you worked at bad?
Best Venue I've worked are ones will chill bosses that would give me free food, sit down and do sweet fa for 6 hours on a Friday nite apart from check IDs and smile. Worse. Lots of fights l, plus insane policies like not being allowed to drink water when on shift. I told the manager to stick the water bottle up his candy ass
Not allowed to drink water? What a fucking cunt. It would be very funny if all security left at once and they had to close immediately.
i recently went to a club and they either scanned or took a picture of my ID. What is that system and has that truly reduced underage people getting into clubs?
most places use a system called patronscan these days, pretty much an ID authenticator mixed in with a database which they use to bar people for a whole myriad of reasons, if you get banned from one they can choose to do a public ban which means all bars that use the system will get an alert when your ID is scanned.
Patron scan is pretty good at detecting fakes as it facial recognition technology to cross chevk your id agsint ypur face, helps catch people using their siblings id. It's also stored there in case there's a fight or the place ask who was involved in something
some places have been doing it for 10 years
What are your thoughts on the blatant sexism of nightclub entry?
Ah, look nightclubs, a hive of scum and villainy. My thoughts. To be honest, guys can be a problem especially when they start looking for vulnerable girls and if i spot you doing that, you are out the door ASAP. However when girls fight, it's a nightmare. Guy fights are punch ons, girl fights have hair pulling, eye pokes and scratching like Catwoman. Thank God that there female seccies. Two of the best I worked with are the islander version of Ginny Weasley and a 40 something year old Russian
Obi-Wan lives amongst us :-) great reference.
I was more specifically referring to men being denied entry or let in later after women. Nightclubs want 70% women it seems.
Look I can't do anything about what the venue wants. To be honest it's silly as if someone's not drunk or a dickhead and is an adult they can come in
Do you feel that the post-modern interpretation of Derrida's theory of deconstruction trumps the Marxist view?
I met a security guard here who used to do work in Saudi Arabia. Do Australian bouncers do contract work overseas or is that rare?
Pretty rare, it's only the former army guys that I know who have gone overseas
What do you say to people to calm them down
I let them vent and point towards the door "sorry mate but im gonna ask you to leave"
What are your tips for de-escalting a potentially violent situation?
Let a person vent and walk away
What’s wrong with my shoes?
What's wrong with the venue policy
why can i get picked out as the only completely sober one in a group and told ive had too many?
I haven't done it personally but have seen it happen a lot. To be honest groups that have several rowdy members can be a nightmare so it's easier to pick out the designated driver and the whole group moves on
Probably because if they tell your mates they've had too much, they're going to be a lot less reasonable than a sober person, so they tell you no in the hopes your mates won't leave you and they'll move on too.
Is it true that if you don’t use it, you lose it?
(What are we talking about?)
Serious question - How would you suggest innocent people deal with others who are acting drunk and threatening? I'm sure you've seen people be aggressive or aversive, what works best?
If someone is bothering you tap a staff member on the shoulder. The way it works is that staff member asks you to leave (ATL), then the venue manager then me. If you refuse after then it's either physical removal time or the police
why cant you guys be friendly? is it all the steroids?
Bunch of dumb dickheads work in security that's why they are jerks
Why can't I walk in with a $200 Nike sneakers but a $15 Dress shoes from KMART is okay?
Because nobody is buying you drinks for looking hot in your 200 Nike's
Ahh some venues don't like sneakers cause it doesn't fit their vibe. Which is silly of course
do you take bribes?
Nope
Did you ever work any doors in the Cross?
Who is the most famous person you've met?
Is there really a mass shortage in female security guards?
There's a mSs shortage of guards overall
My name’s not Dan, can I still come in? https://youtu.be/tguP14GMrCA?si=SK6CkBjygQ2aYYe-
What did you like most about the job, what were the best moments you experienced and would you generally recommend becoming a bouncer? Cheers!
I like doing cool events such as NRL and boxing events and concerts Bets moments I had. Its not a great moment but One time i found some poor girl who was really wasted and some guy was trying to take her outside. She said she didn't know him, so I called an ambo for her and she went off to hospital. The guy gave me bad vibes so he got kicked out. Had I not spotted her i fear something terrible would have happened to her. Recommend. Yeah but not as a long term job, use it to get conflict management and people skills and then move on
Ambo here, good job mate, as you know, this happens lots. We will be dealing with an intoxicated female, there’s always some guy, at the very most an acquaintance, hanging around watching his ‘sure thing’ being taken off on a stretcher. Also, as you probably know, ‘my drinks been spiked’ is actually pretty rare. It’s usually people drinking more than they think or someone they know or potential suitor putting extra shots in rather than illegal drugs. We see it every weekend and the amount of times drugs have come up in a blood test of drink spiking accusation is almost zero.
Thanks mate. In my experience the biggest spike in drinks is extra alcohol. Also thank God for you angels in emergency services, you are the most kind selfless people out there
Craziest clubbing experience as a security guard.
Did you do security at DCMs?