Whether it’s dodging a speeding car or putting out a burning drunk, nightclub security specialist Ari Knazan has seen his share of inebriated lunacy.
The car was driven at Knazan while he was on duty as a bouncer at a now-defunct Victoria nightclub just below Wharf Street alongside the waterfront more than 10 years ago.
He’s also seen people there fall from Wharf Street to the waterfront parking lot below. And he once helped fish a man out of his sinking car after it was driven into the ocean.
“Things were a little rougher back then,” Knazan, 39, said in an interview.
Now, as head of security at the Strathcona Hotel, 919 Douglas St., the oddest things include seeing lubricated patrons talking into their wallet as if it was a cellphone.
And, of course, there was the flaming drunk.
A patron stepped outside for a cigarette and later asked Knazan if he could smell something burning. It turned out to be the patron, who had dropped a lit cigarette into the cuff of his jeans.
“He walked away and his pants were on fire,” Knazan said, “so we had to run after him and put him out.”
The 18-year veteran of Victoria’s nightclub scene has jotted some of his experiences down in a book, Tales From Beyond the Velvet Rope, expected later this year.
It will be a recollection of some of his experiences, but also a how-to book with useful advice for club owners and security people whose responsibility is providing safe places for people to enjoy a drink.
Knazan has been in Victoria since 1994 when he moved from Vancouver to go to UVic. He earned a degree in philosophy specializing in ethical reasoning. He also dabbled in radio and hoped to get hired eventually.
But before that happened, he was in a now-defunct bar having a drink when a short scuffle broke out. A longtime jiu jitsu practitioner, Knazan pinned the troublemaker and removed him from the bar. The following day, he was contacted by the bar owner and offered a job.
Knazan said he took the job and tried to read up about maintaining order in a bar, and found little.
This was the end of a time when some bars paid bouncers by the pound — the bigger the bouncer, the bigger his paycheque. So he perused psychology texts, looking for topics on conflict resolution and advance warning signs of violence.
Since then, he has also learned a few tricks to keeping a room full of people, many of them intoxicated, safe and happy. Most of it is guile and psychology, not fists and force.
“You have to know how to handle yourself — verbally, emotionally and physically,” Knazan said. “You can’t reason with a drunk but you can tell them a little lie to get them to do what you want.”
He has also started a fitness studio called Fierce, 1101 Fort St., with his wife, Lindsay. At Fierce Studio, Knazan is the chief jiu jitsu instructor, one of the martial arts that specializes in grappling and immobilizing an opponent. Lindsay is the chief yoga instructor.
Knazan also continues to work at the Strathcona Hotel, where he has been for 10 years and oversees a staff of 25. They are all needed for the hotel, which has 1,600 seats in six separate bars and sells more draught beer than any other establishment in B.C.
Violence, Knazan said, has changed in Victoria in the past decade. There is generally less of it, even if incidents such as last year’s non-fatal shooting of a doorman occur.
Programs such as the Bar Watch scanning system, which flags people with a history of disruptive or criminal behaviour, have cut down on trouble, he said.
Also, people today are much more likely to sue. As a result, the Strathcona protects itself with almost 80 video recorders to keep tabs on the goings on. Anybody who says they were beaten up by doormen had better hope their claim is backed up by the visual record.
“Before, people would get in a confrontation, they would dust themselves off and go their own separate ways,” he said. “Now they go looking for a cash grab.”
Knazan said he likes to think of doormen as professionals. They are all paid to provide a certain level of supervision to see everybody enjoys a night out.
The key to keeping everything running smoothly and safely is the good relationships an establishment has built: with the city, the police and patrons.
“We have some great customers who come in all the time. We have stags, staggettes, retirement parties and it’s all good,” he said. “But it’s always one per cent of the population creating 99 per cent of the problems.”
