Tonight I worked at my very first "Buy Out" event. This means that a company "bought out" our entire restaurant for a special event this evening. Although at first I was confused why I was scheduled - since everyone had assigned seating and it was only one organization, my job was basically redundant. Quickly I found out what my role was - the lowly coat check.
So although boring (and mainly forgotten for most of the evening) it was an interesting position to be in, since I was able to observe my surroundings uninterrupted (and more importantly my manager didn't care if I was on my phone). As I watched, I realised I had taken on the equivalent of a PA on a set. The production, however, included both "the dinner and the show", as it were, as the whole point of the evening was to entertain the client which bought us out with a fancy mix-and-mingle meal along with an actual show as the most fancy "celebrity chef" Jean-Georges came to do a food demo for them.
It was fascinating to watch out team work with both the client and the third party team which was hired to coordinate the event. Every side seemed to play a role in "making magic" as it were, only instead of the movies (or Disney), it was to pull off a seamless event. It was intriguing to consider that the production was completely based on and for the audience as well as the client. A surreal mix of film and stage production (but with a tastier middle bit).
Suffice it to say, these were people that we as a restaurant wanted to woo for both their role as a returning individual customer and as a business customer. Therefore, there was a lot of toadying involved. We were never allowed to say "No" (although that is nothing new in the restaurant industry), and we were essentially the silent magicians who were supposed to anticipate every request both voiced and unvoiced (indeed, they had two server assistants all night whose only assignment was to make sure no one's water glass was ever empty).
It was rather amusing to see on one side of the glass, a group of people being entertained by a cooking demonstration or gathered eating around a table, while on the other side a team of (mainly) women frantically working together to coordinate the flow and pieces of the entire event (a role I know only too well first hand).
But since I had a lot of free time (personally) during the whole thing, as a result, it's unsurprising that I turned introspective (with a touch of melancholy) during my time alone in the closet (literally).
I was torn in my opinion about the whole production in general. On one hand, I very much felt "The Help" perspective. These were all the senior and mid-level executives of the client's company as well as outside people from other corporations they hoped to "wine and dine", as it were. One of their outfits probably cost as much as my entire wardrobe, and what I would make in an hour they would make in a fraction of a second. I instantly felt judged at my lack of wealth, suspicious that they would treat me rudely, and saddened that material wealth may be the only thing the people in the room may ever think about. Their lives were as foreign to me as those in Venezuela, and I was saddened at the thought that their event was a vapid spectacle meant to feed egos and wallets rather than increase meaningful connection.
However, at the same time I considered how everyone assembled was a person. They each had individual hopes and dreams, families and friends, and probably went through a variety of hardships and celebrations, just like me. I hoped, when I favoured this more optimistic interpretation, that they would remember that all the "invisible" help was also like them.
I similarly felt the same divide in attitude and opinion towards both the third party organization and my own management. On one hand, I was treated more abruptly (sometimes rudely) than I ever had before. I was in the way, not there enough, I was literally forgotten behind a closed coat check window (because otherwise I would've been in the background for pictures). However, on the other hand I had been them before (an a 1st AD) many times. And I remembered how I was also abrupt with my PAs under the stress. It's the nature of the business - you're not needed until you're needed, and then you were needed yesterday. So after considering this analogy I realised that I could do with being more understanding of their neglect of courtesy and habit towards me.
Particularly after one of my managers graciously gave me a serving of the actual meal the guests were eating tonight - a yellowfin tuna in a ginger sauce. My first time ever having tuna, the sauce was really good, along with the avacados hidden underneath and the beets as garnishes. I was touched that she even remembered me in the midst of her role as (essentially) the 1st AD tonight.
I also made sure to stay out of the way of the head honcho, so to speak, since I was super terrified that Jean-Georges would have me fired because I wasn't doing anything or because I wasn't up to his standards of front of house service. But luckily I was just mere footnote in his day because all he asked me about was where his cell phone was (assuming it was in the coat closet).
So all in all it was an interesting evening full of highs and lows on the "philosophical inquiry" scale, but practically speaking it was pretty successful since I got paid to stand in a closet for 5 hours, observe a fancy event up close and personal, and made an extra $20 in tips. The only thing that would've been better is if I could've had Bowie as the background music (which obviously would quickly take centre stage of the event).
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