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How I went from theatre usher to bouncer in one night.
This is an old story of mine that happened about 2 years ago when I first started working at the movie theatre. We have these positions called "lobby porter" which essentially means that you're stuck in the lobby all night waiting to clean something. trust me when i say it's the most boring part of the job. But we do get to handle a radio.
Anyway I get stuck with the lobby porter position for the night and I'm walking around in circles waiting for something to happen when one of the box office people come over the radio.
B: Managers, it looks like a lot of kids are going to start something.
Cue adrenaline intake. I make it outside in like 8 seconds. The only problem is that the side walk is filled with people. Great, needle in a haystack scenario. So it's me, two managers and two of my head ushers (they act as floor managers, making sure the regular ushers get stuff done).
We're in full on bouncer mode and I'm keeping my eye on these two groups of kids. You can just feel the tension between them so I watch them like a hawk. I can't really remember what was said but all of a sudden I hear this one girl say:
C'mon, lets see the knife then.
Okay, play times over kids.
For the record, I'm like 5'11, 195 lbs and pretty toned these days. Back then I wasn't as toned, but still, I'm a big guy. And I have never lost my temper, ever. I just shove things done or vent by playing some video games. To say I was one of the quiet ones was pretty much the nail on the head. What happened next astounded one of my coworkers.
I get right in between the two groups of kids (20-30 count per group) and yell:
No, whatever's gonna happen, whatever you think is gonna happen, it ends NOW! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! NO ONE IS FIGHTING ANYONE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
At this point I had back up from everyone else and they try to get a low down on what's happening. When the managers hear that one of the kids has a knife they're all:
Get off our property now or we'll call the cops.
So we have to walk both groups of kids off our property in seperate directions to keep them from killing themselves. One group was stubborn, borderlining our property as we thretened to call the cops, but finally left.
In retrospect, what I did was very stupid. I could have been seriously injured or worse. I don't really condone trying to diffuse that big of a situation without knowing what the hell you're doing.
But what was funny was as we we're walking back, one of my coworkers was telling me:
Yeah, I'm just standing there and all of a sudden I hear Metal Gear yelling and I'm like, what they hell?
good night to that.
Anyway I get stuck with the lobby porter position for the night and I'm walking around in circles waiting for something to happen when one of the box office people come over the radio.
B: Managers, it looks like a lot of kids are going to start something.
Cue adrenaline intake. I make it outside in like 8 seconds. The only problem is that the side walk is filled with people. Great, needle in a haystack scenario. So it's me, two managers and two of my head ushers (they act as floor managers, making sure the regular ushers get stuff done).
We're in full on bouncer mode and I'm keeping my eye on these two groups of kids. You can just feel the tension between them so I watch them like a hawk. I can't really remember what was said but all of a sudden I hear this one girl say:
C'mon, lets see the knife then.
Okay, play times over kids.
For the record, I'm like 5'11, 195 lbs and pretty toned these days. Back then I wasn't as toned, but still, I'm a big guy. And I have never lost my temper, ever. I just shove things done or vent by playing some video games. To say I was one of the quiet ones was pretty much the nail on the head. What happened next astounded one of my coworkers.
I get right in between the two groups of kids (20-30 count per group) and yell:
No, whatever's gonna happen, whatever you think is gonna happen, it ends NOW! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! NO ONE IS FIGHTING ANYONE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
At this point I had back up from everyone else and they try to get a low down on what's happening. When the managers hear that one of the kids has a knife they're all:
Get off our property now or we'll call the cops.
So we have to walk both groups of kids off our property in seperate directions to keep them from killing themselves. One group was stubborn, borderlining our property as we thretened to call the cops, but finally left.
In retrospect, what I did was very stupid. I could have been seriously injured or worse. I don't really condone trying to diffuse that big of a situation without knowing what the hell you're doing.
But what was funny was as we we're walking back, one of my coworkers was telling me:
Yeah, I'm just standing there and all of a sudden I hear Metal Gear yelling and I'm like, what they hell?
good night to that.
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