Mighty!

I worked the door at Mighty! last night for the "end of the Love Parade" festival. Outside were the Space Cowboys and the Mog and indoors were a host of DJs laying down some deep breaks. I was perched in-between selling tickets for six and a half hours.

It was quite the experience. I would have never thought that there were so many ways that people interact with box offices. I must have sold tickets to well over 500 people last night and during that time encountered:

* the people who will come up with any story as to why you should give them a discount, among them:

"so and so outside told me to tell you to give me the ticket for $10 instead of $20"
"dude, i just drove here from Lombard, forgot my ID, went home again and then stood in line for an hour - i only got $9"
"what do i have to do to get in for free? do you want me to come back there and blow you?" (from a woman)
"if i pay for this, i won't be able to feed my dog, can you give me a break?"
"twenty bucks?! i'm cute, can i pay 10?"
"i'm a promoter"
"i know one of the djs"

* the normal people who come up, ask how much it is, take money out of their wallet and hand it to you

* the people who are so drunk that they can't see the numbers on the bills they are taking out to give you "is that a $20?"

* the friends who took double-takes when they saw it was me and jumped up and down

* the people who put a large, crumpled wad of money on the counter and then start peeling bills out one by one and leave them scattered around until they say, "there, that's 20" and wait for you to pick it all up to straighten out the bills and count it - usually they were short the full amount and usually all the other stuff that was in their pocket is all over the place too.

* the slow-moving sultry types who look you in the eye during the transaction all the while saying, "Damn, I'm cool"

* the hyped-up guys that would stick their upper torso INTO the booth to talk to you

* the generous types that paid for all their friends and refused their money

and i would think many of these people an anomaly, but most of these types of interactions happened more than once indicating that this is just how people are.

from the sound of it, you might gather that I didn't enjoy the experience, but i really did. it was a total trip and the best seat in the house for people watching. people are just freaks and this was freak-topia.

the only people who really bugged me were the ones with excuses as to why they couldn't pay. dude, if you can't pay for an event that you know costs money ... STAY HOME! and maybe you should feed your dog BEFORE YOU BUY YOUR DRUGS!

some people are, admittedly, just plain dumb.

but there is a precious balance in this world and you gotta have all kinds. i wouldn't want it any other way.