It's a Saturday night and your big moment has finally come. You've been growing your scrubby facial hair out for the last two weeks, and you're wearing shades to cover up your bright blue eyes, even though your fake ID says they're brown. Yes, tonight is the night you finally get into Wando's bar in Madison, and now there's only one obstacle standing in your way. His name: Jbob Immel. His job: Experienced bouncer, the guy keeping you the fuck out.
Daily Cardinal: How many years have you been a bouncer?
Jbob Immel: Since I was 19, 7 years.
DC: How many bars have you worked at?
JI: [Wando's] and the old Madhatters when it was at University Square.
DC: What would you say an average weeknight is like at Wando's? And what's a weekend night like?
JI: On the average weeknight, I'm just checking IDs. There are very rarely fights; there's very rarely anything that goes on unless there's a random really drunk person.
The weekends are different. More people are from out of town; people from all over the city are coming downtown to party and that's when there's more altercations and incidents.
DC: What is the craziest experience you've ever had as a bouncer?
JI: More recently, one of my bouncers got bit. I'm the bouncer manager so I'm in charge of all that stuff. As we're kicking the guy out, it was his birthday, he was too drunk and he took a swing at my face … he was taking the other guy down because he was attacking me again, and [the guy] bit him in the leg.
[Another time] I got kicked in the face this summer and got 16 stitches in my eye. It wasn't actually part of bouncing, we were out for the night [next to Wando's]. The four of us got jumped by 30 guys; they stabbed a guy, one of the other [Wando's] bouncers that was working that night came to break it up and he got his cheek fractured and I got kicked in the face and got 16 stitches. Lately the crowd outside has been a lot worse and more people are coming downtown just to cause trouble. The violence downtown is getting pretty crazy.
DC: How'd the fight go? Did you hold your own?
JI: We were winning battles but we couldn't win the war. At that point, you're going to get punched and kicked from every angle. You punch one of them and two would take their place. It was like ""300"" and it wasn't going good. They ran off by the time the cops came. It was a bad night.
DC: How many fake IDs do you turn away on an average weekend night?
JI: It depends; we turn away and take IDs. For years, [Wando's] has been notorious for taking a lot of fake IDs. On a random weekend night we probably take a couple and turn away a couple. We take the ones that are for sure really fake and we turn away people that we're not sure [about] rather than create a huge incident about it and possibly calling the cops.
DC: How easy is it to spot a fake ID?
JI: Well I've been doing this for six years and at this point it's pretty easy. There's a lot of really good fakes going around right now like Pennsylvania. Every now and then there's a new rise of a good fake ID that doesn't get caught for a while until the bouncers figure out how to spot it and they take all of them. Idaho's used to be really big and South Dakota's used to be really big for fake IDs. California's have always been faked. Every year it's a new fake ID, and apparently a lot of them are coming from China now. I was surprised to hear that.
DC: What's the worst fake ID you've ever seen?
JI: Some really bad ones where it's actually a fake ID and it's not even their picture. Some of them where it's clearly just a photocopied ID with just regular laminate over it where you can tell someone just made it at home or in their dorm. It's clearly a fake ID with no hologram.
When I started when I was a freshman, a girl I was in the dorms with got into a bar with an Asian guy's ID, and she was a white girl. The bouncer just said ""nice try"" and let them in.
DC: What's your favorite thing about being a bouncer?
JI: You get to work at a bar and get to hang out with your friends, but you don't have a hangover the next day and you get paid. You get to work with good people, cute girls and you get to meet so many people.
DC: Any message from Jbob to those who are trying to get past you?
JI: Wait until you're 21.
