Bouncers are a group of people in Auburn who most students have come in contact with. Some students view bouncers as the mean guys who enforce all of the rules and make the bars less fun. Some hardly notice the bouncers in their haste to get into the bar. Some have more contact with bouncers than they would like when they break bar rules and get thrown out. But in reality, all that bouncers try to do are their jobs.

Many aspects go into bouncers’ jobs. They must put up with drunk college students, work late hours, balance school obligations and clean the bar after everyone has gone home.

A typical night for a bouncer varies slightly at different bars. At 17-16, a night usually starts at 8 or 9 p.m. Weekdays are slow, and pick up Thursday through Saturday nights. SkyBar experiences a more steady flow of traffic, but Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights are the most packed. At Bad Habits, bouncers don’t arrive until 10 p.m. and decide which “station” to man for the evening. Most of the bouncers have to stay after the night is over to clean up the bar, resulting in a late night.

Each bouncer enforces bar rules differently. Some bouncers are more lenient than others.

“Rules at 17-16 were laid back,” says Todd Crawford, a bouncer at 17-16 from 2008-2010. “We really had control of enforcing rules. Some bouncers would kick people out for the sake of doing it, but I didn’t care as long as people weren’t acting like idiots.”

As a bouncer, one gets to witness bizarre and inappropriate behavior. Customers abusing illegal substances, students performing sexual intercourse in the bar and uncontrollable fighting are all events that have taken place during bouncers’ shifts.

“One night, I had twin brothers that didn’t want to cooperate, so I started to escort one of them out,” says Chaz Ramsey, bouncer at Bad Habits for 16 months. “Before I could get him out of the door, the other one jumped on me. By the time it was done we had six bouncers fighting about 10 guys. They ended up with a free hotel room in jail that night.”

The late hours make it difficult for bouncers to balance life as a student.

“It’s tough, but I try to get as much sleep as possible the night that I’m off, and sleep in on the weekends,” says Cody Salmon, bouncer at SkyBar Café for the last five months.

There are advantages of life as a bouncer.

“It’s nice to drink half-off if you’re ever off work,” says Gabe Gentle, current bouncer at SkyBar Café. “That’s always a plus. Even if you’re at work, you get to see people you would normally hang out with because so many students come up there.”

The job also holds its disadvantages.

“Certainly no one enjoys babysitting 21-year-old drunk kids,” says Crawford. “Being in a fraternity and working at the bar was hard because everyone expects to be hooked up, get in underage or get discounted drinks.”

While the job holds benefits and hard times, being a bouncer is a college experience to be remembered.

“There are nights I’ve worked that I’ll never forget,” says Gentle.







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