Life as a Bouncer in a College Town

Life as a Bouncer in a College Town

EAST LASNING - Beloved by their managers, but hated by underage drinkers, bouncers deal with it all.

“Of course they get upset, but they gotta understand, i’m just doing my job,” said PT O'Malleys bouncer Travis MacArthur.

A job with both ups and downs, a bouncer comes across more than just drunk college students.

“I’ll probably come around 75 to 100 fake id’s in a night," said Harper's bouncer Joseph Grobbel.

Fake ID’s are extremely common in college towns, and while being a student and a bouncer can be tough, it was a no brainer for Grobbel

“Brother was a bouncer, dad was a bouncer, yeah it’s like our whole family,” said Grobbel

Grobbel has been a bouncer at Harper's Restaurant and Brewpub for almost a year, and while bar bouncing runs in his family, it didn’t come easy.

“First month, my first month was a little rocky, I was scared because I knew how hard people worked to get their fake ID," said Grobbel.

Fake ID’s can come in many forms.. either a real ID of another person, or a falsified out of state ID.

Most fake IDs are out of state IDs, however, people have been starting to use more and more Michigan, because I think they just know that I can go ahead and tell the out of state ones.

If I catch 10 fakes in a night, I’d say easy 6 or 7 of those are from Michigan, which is somebody using somebody else's ID, and it's mainly women.

PT O'Malleys bouncer Travis MacArrthur has been bouncing for over 6 years, and has created himself a reputation.

“He’s sorta like the guru as you said, he sorta knows the most about it,” said Grobbel.

“I've been known as, the guy who checks a lot of ID’s, it used to be about 3 or 4 ID’s a night, now it’s getting down to about 1 or 2 a night, not a lot of ID’s are coming through here anymore.”

MacArrthur developed such a strong reputation, that a majority of the bouncers in East Lansing have been trained by him.

“The East Lansing Police Department who goes through the RHC, Responsibility Hospitality Council, they approached me four and a half years ago and asked me if I wanted to speak on the fake ID section,” said MacArthur.

It’s some of MacArthur's tips that have become useful for bouncers like Grobbel.

"Get creative… they should know most of their ID’s," said MacArthur.

“I've learned several cities, if you can't come up with any cities, I’m gonna know you’re not from around there,” said Grobbel.

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