I go to this backyard gig on Friday, 250+ and notice an open bar. Sounds good, when I'm done I might have a drink. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of exactly HOW DRUNK the party goers would become, and how badly my night would go.

After a couple hours of eating and saucing it up, several people took a header into the grass. One guy who passed me vomits into a trash can, and starts clearing the puke out of his nostrils by holding one, and blowing violently with the other. After he's done, without skipping a beat, he drinks the remainder of his beer in hand. My first thought was - Now that's a hardcore drinker.

Most of the guys I encountered were absolute and total douchebags. Without a doubt, people you would NEVER socialize with outside of a gig. One hammered his open palm down on my cards, causing them to fall into something nasty on the ground so I went to my car to switch out existing tricks with more drunk-friendly versions.

And it just kept getting worse. I saw this girl by herself, and figured she was bored so I'd do a couple tricks. Coins across to her hand, a bent coin routine using a Bobo switch (I ditched my QB2, figured someone would steal it). Oh, and someone DID steal my Pointless pen - was in my back pocket and gone...

So I'm doing Liquid Metal, second fork phase when her boyfriend walks up. He's drunk, I'm talking TOTALLY SAUCED. She's basically holding him up. Like a complete idiot, he thinks I'm hitting on her, even though I'M WEARING A NAME TAG THAT SAYS MAGICIAN. I created a very nice, professional name tag to eliminate these situations in groups over 100.

But of course he doesn't notice. Says, "Nice trick f#cker" grabs the fork and bends all the tines backwards, cutting his hand pretty badly in the process. Now he's holding a fork with his blood all over it, and demands that I straighten it out. Dude... I try to joke it off by saying I just get paid to destroy them, it's a one way process for me. Then he starts FOLLOWING ME demanding I show him the whole trick again. Shoves the fork in my face, stabbing me with it. I probably need a tetanus shot now.

I end up leaving. Didn't contact the organizer, didn't pickup my pay, just bailed. They can bite my arse, NEVER going back. Really wanted to just beat down that guy, when that drunk I could have easily hit him 18 times before he actually reacted. But no, just left.

Holy crap that sounds AWFUL! My condolences to you...

Oh wow that's horrible! Glad you got out of there without anything worse happening. Good thing in this case that the forks weren't an expensive gimmick.
Best to you on your recovery

I am a pretty patient guy, but when my temper goes off it's BAD. I would've been taken out of that place in a cop car!

Kudos for keeping your composure.

-JT

Dude, that just plain out sucks. I never heard of people getting THAT drunk.

Made you a new name tag:

Where the edited do you live?

And did you get stabbed or POKED? if theres no blood, its not stabbed.
Luckily with all my bar and college party jobs Ive never had an incident like that... but sounds like it majorly sucked.

I got stabbed in the hand trying to keep him off my face, and bled for like an hour. The thought of my blood mixing with his blood wasn't all that appealing, so luckily I had brought Sanitized and used some of that to clean up.

The name tag is win.

Man that sucks. Good job keeping your composure but, I personally would have gotten the compensation from the event organizer as well as warned them of the situation. I understand the position you were put in especially when dealing with DOUCHEBAGS under the influence which makes them 100x more douchy. I would have been really pissed off as well but, I would have lost the guy in the crowd and go straight to the person who hired me and said with a serious tone, " I am sorry, I am going to have to leave early, as I am being put in danger. I am entitled to full compensation as stated in my Performance Agreement, that if the performer/artist is in anyway put in harms way then he has the right to leave with the agreed upon compensation. " I would have then shown my bloody hand and grabbed the bloody money. Thats the great thing about having a performance contract. Anyways, the situation sucks and I feel for you buddy. It happens to the best of us. If you don't have such terms in your contract you should think about adding it in there.

I'm not sure how the laws apply in America, but here in Canada if a party like that had resulted in you being stabbed, the event organizer can be sued. Actually, it is really whoever is in charge of serving alcohol that can be sued. In Ontario at the very least, you need a Smart Serve certificate in order to serve alcohol at a public event. As a result, the server (or servers) is/are responsible for keeping track of who is too sauced and who can have another drink. If someone was way too drunk (as your perpetrator was) then it is the fault of the server(s) that you got stabbed as well as the guy who was drunk. So it's something to think about. I'm not saying you should go and sue them, I'm just saying that it was a possibility to at least threaten legal action as the situation was not being properly controlled. Good on you for keeping composure and getting out of there though. I probably would have hit the guy myself.

DUDE That SUCKS! You should get this shirt and show it to any really hammered specs who come over to heckle you

There's some bars in PA who have gotten in trouble for serving some people who were visibly intoxicated. Near my college though, underage drinking's the bigger problem.

Akira, was this a gig with a client you've had before or was it a new one?

-JT

New one. And I'm not suing anybody. But I will add that clause to my contract, thanks for the idea!

Got a new gig to promote a fitness place. And I'm fat. Tell me that's not ironic.

Sounds like a good oppertunity to provide the rest of us with some performance footage that includes hot chicks in short, tight, spandex!

After having such an experince i'd leave and demand your payment afterwards..... double! Good thing you bailed though! Ohh and i'd also charge the organiser with a new pen...

i'm good with contracts so mine covers all that .

Kind regards,

Daniel,

The netherlands.