Collegiate Times

"The fireman carry is the best," he said. "Say you got a girl who won't get out, you just throw her over your shoulder."

The most common problems that the bouncers have to deal with are underage kids trying to pass as over 21 years old; this includes kids attempting to use fake IDs. After working on the job for so long, Wiley has started his own wall of shame for the number of IDs he has personally started confiscating.

Currently, he has nine and at times the kids make it easy for him to consider the possibility of future additions. Normally he sees people just using other friend's IDs, where descriptions such as height and eye color can lead to their demise.

"I had one girl that was 6'1," said Wiley. "Her ID said like five foot."

Minors have recently gotten creative with the ways in which they attempt to slip into the legal drinking realm. The club tries to combat this by checking IDs (normally with a variation on greetings such as "'Sup, hoss? ID?" or "Can I see your ID, bud?") and handing out wristbands to those who can legally drink.

These wristbands change every day in order to make it even more difficult for anyone to get past the bouncers unnoticed. For the unders, their hands are stained by a permanent marker that leaves two, large, damning X's.

"A lot of people wash them off," Wiley said. "Some people put Vaseline on their hands so right when you put your X's on, you can do this (rubs top of hand against palm) and it comes right off."

At two o'clock, the lights flick on, the music stops, and people begin to mill toward the door. What is left is what is keeping the bouncers from getting back home: a sticky floor, half empty beer bottles, and ashtrays loaded with butts. These types of preoccupations can sometimes force the men to remain until 3:30 a.m. or later. Right before McCoy jokingly tells me I need to go or hide in a corner somewhere, I ask Caldwell how his ninth night went. The stern looking man standing next to the stage before has reverted to his old self. An unprovoked smile rests on his face.

"Great," he said. "Loved it. I'm still trying to get beer off the floor."

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