LetsSeeSomeID
New York, NY
Male, 33
I was a bouncer at one of the biggest sh-thole bars on the Upper East Side of Manhattan from 2005-2007. Ask me anything.
If an ID is from Wilmington, Delaware, it’s fake 100% of the time. Wilmington, Delaware is the hands down, all star of fake IDs. There are a few other states that are often faked: Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Wisconsin, California – there are probably some others I can’t remember. Usually if someone looks young and they have an ID from one of those states you can start to wonder if it’s fake. California is the hardest to spot. The other ones vary in terms of how fake they seem. If I wasn’t sure I’d ask them some simple questions. For Michigan you ask what the ‘U.P.’ is. Everyone from Michigan knows it’s the Upper Peninsula, everyone who has a fake Michigan ID looks at you like you just punched their mother. For California I would ask, “Who’s the governor?” and they would get that panicky look in their eyes and say something like “I don’t follow politics.” Really? You missed that fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of your home state? That one slipped by you, huh? (Remember I worked as a bouncer four years ago). New York ID’s are harder to fake. People always scratch out the year of their birth and write in a new date with a red colored pencil. There used to be a license number at the bottom that also had their birth year in it. People always forgot to change that number. The new IDs came out right around the time I quit so I don’t know any tricks for that one. The other thing people pull is to get someone else’s ID and try to pass it off as theirs. Usually you just look for eye color or height differences. You can ask them something like their zip code – you’d be amazed how many people forget to memorize that. I had a kid come up to me once with someone else’s ID that said she was 33 years old. I gave her a raised eyebrow and she said, “Yeah, I know, I’m old.” I said, “How old are you?” I got the 'punched your mother' look.
I saw TONS of fake ID's. I never wanted kids in the bar, if for nothing else than they start a lot of fights. One of the owners (I call him “The Pig”) had a thing for 17-year-old girls, so my instructions were to let them in if he was working that night. A few times I wouldn't let kids with fake ID's in and they would pull out their cell phones, call The Pig and he would escort them in. One time while I was working, I heard a kid ask another kid to the prom.
After I wouldn't let this one kid in, he said, "Do you know who my mother is?"
Girls always got in, no matter what. The owner was extremely racist and didn't like it when black or latino customers came in. He often tried to find excuses to kick them out.
Flight Attendant
How do you handle belligerent passengers?Security / Bodyguard
Have you ever had to disarm an attacker?Navy Officer (Former)
Why do so many people miss the military after they get out?Number 1 is you have to be gigantic, which I am not (6', 190lbs). I have no idea why I got hired as a bouncer. The owner told everyone I was a former Navy SEAL and everyone was afraid of me. I was fine with that. Plus, most of the job is head games. If you have to get physical with someone (and we did) you aren't doing your job right or you are in a worst-case scenario. The whole point of the job is to make problems disappear, not escalate into brawls. Brawls are bad for business and draw the attention of the neighborhood and the cops. The place where I worked had lots of illegal stuff going on so avoiding cops was a priority. That said, brawls do happen so, yes, knowing how to 'whoop some ass' is important. Nowadays, in New York City anyway, you also have to have a security license which costs about $200 and involves a background check. This went into effect after a bouncer named Littlejohn killed a John Jay College student. I never got one -- I didn't feel like investing any money in such a shitty job. Eventually the bar I worked at got raided and I got a court summons for not being licensed. That's when I finally quit.
I got paid a shift fee, other bars pay by the hour -- it all depends. If we had to deal with something crazy like St. Patrick's Day or we handled some sort of situation that could have gotten very ugly we usually got 'Combat Pay.' which was a bonus or double-pay.
I actually don’t know. Those really came into effect after the Littlejohn murders when they started making bouncers have security IDs. I’ve never actually used one. My guess is they use them to see if an ID is real or not. Probably for insurance purposes.
I have no ID what the rules are on this. I do know that if you had a fake ID and you were a dick about it, I was taking it. The crazy thing is: A) Most kids on the Upper East Side are huge dicks when you don’t accept their fake IDs. They actually throw temper tantrums. B) As soon as you take their IDs the first thing they do is threaten to call a cop! Because you just took their FAKE ID! To this day I do not understand the logic there. Usually if someone came up with a fake I’d say something like, “Sorry kid” and it give it back to them and send them on their way. If that wasn’t working for them and they decided to get all up in my face, I would say “All right, let me see it again.” At which point they ALWAYS gave it back to me. And then I kept it. Then they would usually throw a full blown teenage temper tantrum, right there on the sidewalk, still believing they’re somehow going to get in. When they were finished I would say “Okay, for $80 I’ll give it back to you.” They’d freak out again. Then I would explain “Hey, I know you paid $100 for this down on MacDougal Street, so technically by selling you this back, I’m saving you $20.” Economics. I was doing them a favor.
ALL THE TIME. One thing you become acutely aware of working in the bar industry is how many creepy, freak-bag weirdoes live in New York. Towards the end of my bouncing career I worked in one of the sleazier, shitbag bars in the city, so we had extra weirdoes. After a while you get to the point where you can spot them coming in. You know exactly who to watch and they ALL always do the same things: 1) Come on very strong. 2) Initiate physical contact very quickly. Usually something possessive, like grabbing the victim’s arm or putting their arm around the victim. 3) Ignoring any and all signs that the victim isn’t interested, including when the victim says “I don’t want to talk to you anymore” and turns and gives the creeper full back. 4) Around this time they start buying drinks or shots to get the victim completely inebriated – and here’s the crazy thing: the victim almost always accepts the drink! This makes things especially difficult because the creeper takes this as a sign that his charms are working. A creeper like this is one of the hardest to kick out because they don’t believe they’re doing anything wrong and they think you’re picking on them. The scary thing in my case was that the owner of the bar was the biggest creeper of all of them.
Trying to “get in good” never worked with me. That meant you wanted something. A lot of people like to pull that “I’m friends with the bouncer ” crap, especially when they start drinking. Then they usually want you to throw someone out because they don't like them. I didn’t want anything to do with that. Ass kissing certainly never worked. Ass kissing’s weak. Best advice is, if you plan on frequenting a place, just frequent it and don’t be an asshole. “Getting in good” with a bouncer, or anyone for that matter, should be something you have to earn. If you’re there enough and you make yourself a friendly face and not part of the problems, they’ll come around. Unless you just outright suck. Then you’re on your own.
Bouncers get fucked up all of the time. The doorman at the first bar I worked at got stabbed on his way home with an eight-inch kitchen knife. I had a guy come to the bar after he'd just gotten out of jail -- I had to throw him out and he said he was going to come back and shoot me. I had lots of people tell me they were going to wait for me to get off shift and jump me on my way home. There’s a saying amongst bouncers that “it’s not a good night until you're home in bed.”
I pulled a few muscles dragging people out, especially when it was cold outside. Cut up my hands a few times, though nothing too serious. The key is that if someone is going to get hurt, it’s the other guy. p.s. You know why bouncers wear black? Because blood doesn't show up on it.
No. I never 'roughed up' a customer. The job was never a tough guy head trip for me, it was just, well, a job. If you're out to rough up customers you're in the wrong line of work. Plenty of people threaten to sue you or the bar when you throw them out. People are always threatening to sue over the dumbest things is bars, usually when they've done something wrong and want to avoid taking responsibility for it. The best is when I wouldn't let an underage kid with a fake ID in and they would threaten to sue me. I guess it says something about our culture.
Unfortunately, yes. I worked at bar in the East Village where a bouncer threw a guy out. That guy waited till the bar closed, followed the bouncer home and stabbed him in the back a few times with an 8” kitchen knife. Bouncing doesn’t come with a health care plan so something like that can be pretty devastating. The guy got away with it, by the way. In court he said the bouncer tried to attack him and he was defending himself. The guy was from Connecticut and had rich parents with good lawyers. I’ve personally had a lot of threats. Sometimes you would throw someone out, they would threaten you and then later in the night you’d see them across the street watching the bar. There was a guy who sat in front of the bar in his car once waiting for me to come out. If we had someone really creepy like that at the end of the night we would usually escort whoever was being threatened to a cab. You never want to walk home alone if you think someone’s after you. You also have to do this sometimes for the female bartenders and waitresses – they get some real stalkery characters waiting for them outside.
First off, your question makes no sense. I'm assuming you're asking about some sort of requirement about the length of your hair? If so, there is no requirement - I worked with a couple of guys who had dreadlocks. The down side of having long hair is it makes it easier for someone to grab.
Bigger.
Stop asking me these qustions. I'm not going to help you get into a bar with a fake ID. There is an entire internet out there that I'm sure has tons of info about this. Stop asking me.
I don't know about legal authority. If a guy (or girl) is being a knuckle head, they're going out the door. If you're in the middle of the bar duking it out with them, then you're doing something wrong. It's not Roadhouse. If you leave physical marks on someone you open yourself up to assault charges. I've heard of bouncers getting charged with assault for punching someone. I've also heard of bouncers giving the side of someone's head a quick trip to the door jam on the way out and getting away with it.
Striking someone in the face after they have not been physically touched, assaulted or threatened is excessive force in my optinion. That being said, I have never seen a bouncer do anything like this.
I have seen a lot of drunk idiots lie about what happened to try to duck responsibility for their actions.
If I knew I had to let in underaged kids I would sometimes make them pay me to get in. But for the most part I didn't let people 'grease' me. If you do that, then they've got something on you, they'll try to use that against you: "Hey, I gave you $50, why are you throwing me out?"; "Hey, you're my friend, this guy is giving me a hard time, why don't you throw him out?" You have to be 100% locked up (especially for someone my size). People are constantly trying to play power games with you -- taking money from them gives them an advantage.
True. Sort of. I've used "Private party" to keep people out, but I've also worked many actual private parties.
All of the above. You can throw cocktail waitress on that list too. Never dated anyone, though. If you were into me because I was a bouncer than I definitely wasn’t into you.
This completely depends on the person. Most of the guys I worked with just wanted a job, they didn't care about the power trip thing. I personally applied for a job as a bartender and was offered the bouncer gig instead. I never went looking for any kind power trip. That's not to say there aren't a bunch of meat heads looking to prove they're tough guys out there...
First of all, I don't believe a word of your story. "I accidentally picked up a drink that had alcohol in it. I had no idea! I'm just an innocent child in this big scary world! Whoa is me!"
Second of all, the bouncer probably wouldn't have had to grab you by the arm if you weren't acting like a jackass.
Third, based on your question I am confident that you are a jackass.
So, the answer is no, don't press charges.
I don't know about all this 'legally' stuff everyone keeps asking. There is no bouncer court. To answer your question, it depends. I sized people up from the second they walked in. You can spot a creeper immediately and we usually keep a close eye on the creepers
You can also spot an insane woman immediately.
If you are A) not an insane woman and B) the person who you are saying touched you has been acting like a creeper all night I would most likely ask them to leave you alone (depending on how they 'touched' you - if it's sexual harassment I would just throw them out).
A lot of times the creepers walk away for a little while and, inevitably return. If that happens I may ask them to leave.
You have to outsmart them. My move was to say "Oh yeah? You want to go? Let's take this outside." They usually get all puffed up and head straight for the sidewalk at which point I tell they guy working the door this chump isn't allowed back in and then I’d go back inside. Problem solved. You can also try to reason with them, like "Do you want to end up in jail tonight?" Or you can try the fearless thing, "One of us is going to the hospital, one of us is going to jail. I don't give a fuck which one of us ends up where." Of course that doesn't always work. I had a few very close calls, especially when I was outnumbered and I thought I might end my night hurt very badly.
Just be honest and be nice about it. Say something like, "Sorry, it was worth a shot." If the bouncer is having a good night they might give it back. DON'T freak out and act like an immature asshole.
Actually do. It's fun to watch.
Children with IDs that are not real or do not belong to them.
How the hell would I know that?
I never worked in the kind of place that needed pat downs. I would assume they would have to be the same gender. I can't imagine a male bouncer giving a 'pat down' to a female patron and getting away with it. If they could there would be a lot more 'mandatory pat downs' going on at bars and clubs.
Well, congratulations. You're insane.
Think about your question for a minute. Why not ask why you find yourself in situations where your drunken behaviour has the possibility of leading to physical altercations?
Work it out, man. Go see a therapist. Hug your father or something. Don't hang your immature shit out for all the world to deal with.
I don't know, I never searched any handbags. At the end of the day who cares what the rules are? It's unenforceable. Are you going to tell a cop, "Hey, this guy physically searched my hand bag, he didn't do it visibly!"
I do not believe a word you are saying. I have never seen anyone get 'punched in the face for no reason'.
I've seen a lot of people claim they've been 'punched in the face for no reason' after acting like aggressive drunk assholes all night.
I'm not sure what could happen. Hopefully it would involve a lot correct punctuation.
Joe, just wait till you're 21. You'll have the next 60 years to be a degenerate alcoholic.
Is it a giveaway to be able to correctly answer questions about information on your fake ID? Take a wild guess.
Why wouldn't you be able to? The job is to protect the bar, having underaged people in the bar is a threat to the bar.
There is a lot going on there. I can't answer this question without knowing the details. I would say this however: If you don't feel safe, quit.
I don't know of any rule against it. Obviously a male bouncer shouldn't be patting down a female customer and vicer versa.
This question makes no sense.
First thing I do is ask them to spell 'fake'. If they can do that I let them in.
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