Behind the Lights

The Truths of Promoting Revealed

Standing outside 5 East 19th St., the hordes of young women wearing short and tight dresses with high fashion stilettos, waited little to no time to get into Roam, a new club that opened up this year.

In spite of the bone chilling temperatures and the fish smelling garbage on the side of the road, the women waiting on line seemed excited and determined to get into Roam, with high expectations for a drunken, party-filled night.

Promoters instill this sense of hope and high expectations in order to convince the best looking people and more well endowed people to come out and party with them.

The bouncers made the club seem pretty exclusive and very secure. They checked IDs to make sure patrons met the age requirement of 21, a policy they follow closely.

The doorman, a lanky fellow with his shaven head and solid framed glasses, seemed courteous and efficient in finding out who was on what list and in speeding up the process of moving the line along.

These positions, such as bouncers, doormen, and club management have specific and more straightforward roles that need to be carried out.

Promoters, on the other hand, are not held to the same standards as these positions.

They have more of an omnipresent role, requiring them to expand on their resources and responsibilities, but also grow as individuals, experiencing the positives and negatives of working in the nightlife industry.

With promoting rising to the forefront of the club scene in the past decade, it has evolved from being just a conduit between clubs and partygoers to a more integral part of establishing a club’s success and the overall satisfaction of partygoers.

“I came into this with the mindset that, as a promoter, I will be able to have more wiggle

Promoting has also enabled promoters to have more power and influence on a club’s strategy in enticing their cliental. With money in mind, club owners give promoters more flexibility in getting patrons into clubs, either by promising the club goers bottle service or complimentary drinks.

The more people a promoter could bring in on a given night, especially if it is a crowd consisting mostly of good looking girls, the more willing a club’s management would be to hand out complimentary drink tickets and bottle service to the promoter.

“I make money if the club makes money. I take a percentage, between 15-25% of what the bar makes on the night that I promote. The deal that I have with Roam is purely by head count, getting $10 a head,” said Alex Castillo.

There are tenured promoters, or promoters who have been working for a specific club or owner for a long time, who get first priority on drink tickets and bottle service.  Usually new promoters would have to prove themselves before reaping these types of benefits from a club.

The best way for a promoter to impress a club owner would be to get crowds willing to buy bottles and tables, which cost around $300 per bottle. The bigger the crowd, the more bottles they would have to buy in order to get in.

Bottle service is usually designated to large groups of guys, with females being the bargaining chips in enticing guys to buy bottles. The cover at Roam is $30 for guys, and girls are free for the entire night. This is usually the case, with guys paying cover and the girls getting in for free or reduced price.

But promoting is not all about fun and partying. Those in the business say it is a ruthless business that requires promoters, who may or may not be good people, often do things they are not comfortable doing.

“I do not like to tell girls that they’re not pretty enough or that they are not dressed the right way to get in. It’s horrible, because not only do I feel bad telling them this, I know that it was my fault that they were even that kind of situation” said club promoter Alex Castillo about his guilt trip.

This moral dilemma plagues many promoters, but that is what promoting is about. It is a superficial, money-hungry business, which requires people to behave in a certain way to achieve whatever goals they set forth.

Most club owners want everything to be perfect, even it means being judgmental and morally wrong, the promoters said. There is a standard by which promoters and doormen and hosts have to live by when working for a particular club.

“I am told to bring in the best looking crowd, so that the club will look good and so that I don’t look bad,” said Michael Clemente, 21, a promoter from Staten Island.

“I do it because it is good money and the hours are obviously flexible. It’s definitely a lot better than being behind a desk, despite my feelings towards certain club owners and managers,” Castillo said in response to being asked about morals and beliefs.

Promoting has its perks and benefits, but should there be a line drawn for how far a promoter should go to earn a paycheck. “I’m only doing this till I get a better job in the future,” said Clemente.

Clemente said he has had to change the way he operates in order to be successful at promoting.

“When I first started promoting, I was really nervous and shy and did not have the bearing or understanding of what needed to be done to become a profitable and successful promoter,” he said. Through experience, and witnessing other promoters at work, Clemente realized that he needed to be more aggressive and assertive in establishing deals with clubs, while also expanding on his name.

“My name is now more well-known around the club scene in Manhattan, because of my body of work. I’ve been able to get more people, because I started taking promoting more seriously. Promoting is a business and it requires a lot of work and time in order to be successful in it.” Clemente said.

He used social networks, such as Facebook at first, but then expanded by creating his own website and blog that detailed what clubs he was promoting for and what to expect if one was to come out with him.

His blog includes inside information and updates on events and clubs in the city and his opinions and advice for those interested in what’s new and happening in the club world. Clemente promotes for various clubs, such as Roam and Cain, but also does small places such as Su Casa, which is considered a bar and lounge.

Aleksey Kernes, another promoter, said the business required a level of toughness. “Promoting is a competition that requires you to do things that go against your personality,” Kernes said. “When I’m a promoter, I have to be mentally stronger, because once people, especially other promoters, see that I’m slipping or getting weak, they take advantage of it and try to steal my people and my business.”

Kernes, who also started promoting around the age of 19 and promotes for clubs with Clemente, is promoting for different reasons.

Even though he does the same things that many promoters do, such as making money and meeting new people, he has bigger plans for his future with promoting.

“I’m promoting not just because of the money or the accolades, but because it is a good way of meeting and interacting with new people, plus it will definitely help me better myself for my future in public relations and marketing, which is my ultimate goal after I finish college,” Kernes said.