Monday, December 4, 2006

STANDING GUARD

VETERAN NEW YORK CLUB BOUNCER KNOWS THE ROPES

By C.J. SULLIVAN December 4, 2006 (New York Post)










SPOTCHECK: Tom Meade working the door at Bar 13 on East 13th Street.

BOUNCERS in New York City have had a rough year. First Daryl Littlejohn, who manned the door at the SoHo bar The Falls, was charged with abducting and killing law student and bar patron Imette St. Guillen. Then Stephen Sakai of Brooklyn was charged with killing a man after opening fire in front of Opus 22, the Chelsea lounge where he worked.

And, of course, there's the recent Post series on the underage drinking, drug-selling and violence that have plagued Club Row on West 27th Street, activity that doesn't always cast the street's bouncers in the most flattering light.

Tom Meade, 42, is not that kind of bouncer. He lives on the Upper West Side with his wife and two daughters, 11 and 17, and has a pristine record after 21 years of working the door at city clubs.

Meade's first gig was in 1985 at the Palladium. He later moved on to the World, the Cat Club and Au Bar. For the past 10 years, he's worked Bar 13, near Union Square, as the head bouncer. Tall and brawny, but with a laid-back demeanor, he spoke to The Post about the view from the door, and why he resents the few who tarnish his profession.

WHEN those two bouncers got nailed for murder in the same year, they gave everyone a bad name. That was not good for this job. People start to distrust the whole profession, which isn't fair. Then you have these other guys letting underage girls in and then letting them run wild. The kids leave the club drunk out of their minds, and they don't care what happens to them out on the street.

They don't do enough of a background check on some of these guys. They say they do, but how do these bad apples slip through the way they do? They need to tighten up this profession. I've been at this a long time, and I've seen it all. You can hire good people if you take the time to find them.

I like this job because I'm a nocturnal person, so I like the hours and the sociability of all the people and action. You see who people really are at night, once they have a few cocktails in them. The suit and tie comes off and Mr. Hyde comes out.

Twenty-one years ago, I was working as a bank teller, and I hated it. I got into this by a fluke, because I saw an ad in the paper that said a club was looking for men 6-foot-1 and over, and I got hired at the Palladium. I took to this job like a fish to water - I had found a home. Where else would a kid who grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, get to dance on a bar with Tom Cruise and drink with Jack Nicholson?

The worst part of this job is watching a young, pretty girl in a beautiful dress get so drunk that she's puking her guts up before midnight. That's just sad to see.

People can also be verbally abusive to bouncers. You deal with some real idiots. Guys who think they're hotshots, but are just drunks. Mr. Wall Street will tell me I make $10 an hour - which I don't; I make more than that. I blow them off, but by him being a wiseguy it makes me feel justified in not letting him into the club.

At Bar 13, I only try to keep trouble out. We've been here 10 years, and we don't really care how people look. We're not all trendy. If you're polite and have ID, you get in. I've been offered jobs at trendy clubs, but I turn them down, because you have to be a sociopath and have no conscience to turn away decent people from a club. I'm not like that.

The dream I have is to keep accumulating the stories I get from watching all the Jekyll and Hydes, and turn that into a good screenplay. I also have a public access show that I produce and host called "Rant & Rave TV." But I haven't made money from that yet, and I have to put food on the table for my kids.

I haven't had much trouble here. I'm a talker, and I keep peace. If a fight breaks out, I try to defuse it and keep it from escalating. I use my wits, because I really don't want to get hit. I made mistakes in my younger years as a bouncer, but I'm still in one piece, so I guess I'm doing all right.

I certainly can relate to this...


NUFF SAID