Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201230248
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BOUNCING'S A TOUGH JOB
At 5-feet-8 and 135 pounds, Tom Dalton may not look tough. But he can be.Dalton, usually a delivery person at the Hawaii Kai on North Main Street in Blacksburg, sometimes fills in as a bouncer. On those nights, you better think twice about stirring up trouble.
"Most bouncers are a lot heavier, exceeding 200 pounds," Dalton says. " . . . But I have a special skill."
That special skill is a black belt in Taekwondo. And, on occasion, this Virginia Tech sophomore from Warrenton has used it to rid the Hawaii Kai of obnoxious customers.
Still, Dalton and other bouncers say it's best to leave the trouble of offensive patrons to the police.
Take, for example, the approach of the South Main Cafe's bouncers. According to doorman Tom Ryan, they enter a ring of trouble inside the Blacksburg club with a portable phone and a threat: "Leave now or we'll dial 911."
Matthew Mays, who mans the door at Buddy's in Blacksburg, doesn't want to be tagged a "bouncer."
"Bouncer gives the wrong connotation," the 28-year-old said. "It implies you have to bounce people out."
Mays - at 6 feet and 190 pounds - is rarely forced to force people out.
"Generally, we don't get too many rowdy types here," he said.
Other clubs may not be so lucky.
"This drunk broad was stealing tips!" D.A. Turner, a doorman at Arnold's, shouted on a fall Wednesday night. Turner steamrolled the woman through the Blacksburg nightclub's crowd with a relentless shove.
Turner, at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, is muscle-packed. He probably would not have a worry if he got tangled in a barroom fight.
But, the 26-year-old Radford resident says the best way to handle trouble is, "Just ask people to leave. We're very sedate."
One main job of a bouncer or a doorman - whatever you call them - is to inspect IDs, preferably driver's licenses, of incoming clients.
"We don't take identification cards. You can get them anywhere," said Arnold's manager Sidney Snell of Blacksburg.
At Crickett's on North Main Street, one guy tried to pass by doorman Jason Fox, a Tech junior from Woodbridge, on a warm November night by flashing a driver's license with a 21-year-old birthdate - but with its photo box stamped "invalid without photo."
Fox, 6-2, 210 pounds, didn't buy the scam. Oh, he let the guy in - but marked his hand with red X's to show he was underage.
Underaged patrons often wash the X's off their hands to get beer, Fox said. Or they'll hide in a corner and start drinking.
But, the doorman warns, "If underage people are drinking, we just toss them out."
The same rule goes at every other bar where "yes/no" stamps are used.
Tech senior Ralph Forsht of Alexandria earned his street smarts manning the doors at clubs in Washington for four years.
Forsht, 6-3, 235 pounds, figures he's turning away 20 or 30 underage bar-hoppers a night as a gatekeeper to The Balcony, a club restricted to customers over 21.
"Some people say they'll go and get the cops [when they don't get in]. But people don't understand that this is private property. If we don't want them in here, they're not coming in."
Here's a recent example:
Two women climb The Balcony's wooden stairs and hand Forsht their driver's licenses. He flips one over.
"See this? It's fake," Forsht says, pointing to an altered birth year where a zero has been sloppily drawn with a black felt-tip pen.
Forsht asks the woman to produce another ID.
"This is all I've got," she pleads.
"Here!" cries the woman's friend, who whips out a Virginia Tech student ID.
Forsht laughs. The student ID adds nothing to the case because it does not list a birth date.
Forsht sends the women back down the stairs.
Pete Kent, 6-2, 230 pounds, has concluded, after manning Arnold's door for two years, that using fake IDs has a link with gender.
"More women try to use fake IDs than men," said the 1991 Tech graduate from Kansas City, Kan. "Women try to be sweet and sneaky. . . ."
Issues of time and money can produce considerable headaches for a doorman.
All night long, Mays deals "with drunk people when they're yelling and screaming about the price for admission."
Ryan, a 170-pound 6-footer, has the same problem.
A 28-year-old Tech senior from Baskin Ridge, N.J., Ryan finds himself constantly haggling with customers over cover charges.
"A lot of people think that after 12 they should bargain their price. But as long as they don't demand a lower price, I may work with them," he said.
Virginia's ABC laws state that all beer must be off a club's tables and bar area by 2 a.m.
Mays says the biggest problem "is trying to take away beers when it's 2 o'clock."
Dalton says the Hawaii Kai's approach to clearing out the masses is simple: Just turn up the lights and turn down the music.