It's the
girl yelling and spilling her drink. It's the guy
shouting and looking for a fight. It's the person puking
in the corner. They're the people in bars that everyone
avoids.
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|
Hopkins works as a bouncer at The Phyrst. |
But bouncers
and doormen can't avoid these people, and they don't
simply return to a conversation or order another drink
like everyone else enjoying their night.
No, for
these guys, the worst people in the bar are the bulk of
their night.
Jay
Petraitis, a member of the Café 210 West door staff,
said most of the people he escorts out of the bar are
VIP's -- visibly intoxicated persons.
"Usually
people are nice about it," Petraitis (senior-energy,
business and finance) said. "But you will get that
handful."
While
escorting people from the bar can cause problems,
Petraitis said the tougher job is keeping people out.
"The main
problem is whenever we don't let people in because
they're too drunk," Petraitis said. "I've seen a guy
come up to me in the morning after a football weekend
with puke all over his shirt."
Petraitis
said that while kicking people out is sometimes
difficult, kicking women out is usually more difficult
than men.
Petraitis
said he keeps his hands in his pockets and just asks the
women to leave to avoid them from getting angry.
Blake
Hopkins, a Phyrst bouncer, echoed the statement that
women are more difficult to escort out of the bar.
"A technique
that I use if a girl is too drunk to be in the bar: I'll
go up to her friends," Hopkins said. "Because most of
the time, there'll be one sober friend and I'll talk to
her and she'll deal with the situation and get her out
of here so there is no problem."
Hopkins said
he escorts someone out of the bar a couple of times a
night during the school year, but during the summer it
is more relaxed.
Hopkins said
escorting people from the bar is the toughest part,
because many are too drunk to understand.
"The worst
part is dealing with drunk people who are out of control
and don't understand what's going on," Hopkins
(senior-telecommunications) said. "You're trying to tell
them, but you can't really get through to them. You try
to be calm."
Hopkins said
one of his main responsibilities is to check the IDs of
people entering the bar, but he also walks around to
make sure everyone is having a good time and not
starting any trouble.
Hopkins said
the Phyrst uses an ID scanner to ensure that people
don't get in with fake IDs.
"People know
in this town it's very hard to get into bars with fake
IDs," Hopkins said. "We catch all of them, because we
have that scanner. We've taken classes to study fake IDs
too. So we know what's fake and what's not."
William
Conway, a doorman at Gingerbread Man, said the bar
catches several fake IDs at the beginning of the
semesters, but less after students realize they will get
caught.
Conway
(senior-psychology) said the bar also catches more fake
IDs during large events including the Central
Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts when the bar caught
five fake IDs in one night.