The Doorman’s Diary: 9.24-25.11

As The Doorman I am there to greet the public as they enter the club, comport myself in a professional manner thereby establishing an atmosphere of jazz appreciation, and collect the five dollar cover charge. The cover charge accomplishes two things: It screens out the drink-‘n-sink, non-jazz crowd and it does help pay the musicians. Tonight, the first three customers who came to the club hemmed and hawed at the cover charge before backing out. Ordinarily I would entice them in, but I wasn’t feeling generous. I discussed my frustration with the bartender who gave me the pep talk. “We’re a jazz club with live music and we don’t want just anyone – if they’re unwilling to pay a ridiculously modest five bucks to hear professional musicians play, then they are an insult we can do without.” Amen. The night of jazz turned out to be very interesting. A guest singer complemented the jazz quintet. Two other jazz singers were in the club, so over the course of the night they each had opportunities to sing as well. Three strong male jazz singers—incredible. The dance club down the block was busy, which meant the streets were alive with foot traffic. At one point I had stepped outside to make sure a couple of guests leaving our club made it safely to their car and noticed three young ladies in form-fitting mini-dresses crossing the street wearing stilettos. The one wearing hot pink was so striking she literally stopped traffic. A car full of guys literally slammed on the brakes while they ogled and made monosyllabic attempts to communicate. As the car slowly left the scene one of the guys exclaimed, “three months… three months wages just walked by.”