Saturday, December 1st, 2008
Hello, I'm a Dj at a local bar, and I had a situation occur.

Late Saturday night I noticed a regular that comes in once a month or so, who has been loud and obnoxious a few times before- (or unstable) when he didn’t get his requested song played in a certain time-frame any given night.
A few other patrons that frequent the bar, Angie and Patty, were sitting next to him (not by choice, just circumstance). From my purview, I could see him getting more and more belligerent and obnoxious as the night went on, as well as by the uncomfortable looks the other patrons were giving him. I could see that he already polished a pitcher by himself and stagger up to fetch another pitcher.
So…..I took it upon myself to signal to the bartender to cut him off, (using mock sign-language right behind him) – expressing myself the best way I could without letting the obnoxious drunk know I gave the suggestion.
I go back to my DJ booth to get back into my groove….lo and behold, out of nowhere; the now very angry obnoxious drunk is in my face with a twisted brow asking “Did you tell the bartender to cut me off???”
Being there was no security guard that night and most of the patrons were heading to the front of the bar, I tried to play it off like it wasn’t me, and took the “Lets try and figure this out” (BS approach) and walked with him to the bartenders (Sadie and Katey) and immediately the angry drunk was asking the bartenders to confirm what was told to him - that it was ‘the DJ’ who said to cut him off. I tried to use whatever body language and facial expressions I could muster when talking to the bartenders, trying to play it off as a misunderstanding; to get myself off the hook and out of the way of present danger of an angry drunk who could easily walk to the back of the bar and destroy my laptop, DJ equipment, or wait for me with a baseball bat in the parking lot- or worse - when I leave for the night.
Later that night, the head bartender (Sadie) took me aside and said that it was crap for me to make her and the other bartender look like fools when I was asked (in front of the angry drunk) if I was the one who said “He should be cut off”.

To my understanding, bartenders have the responsibility and rights to cut a patron off when they believe they have had too much, are becoming a danger to themselves or another person. Giving the bartender a signal to cut him off was from my better judgment, as a tip, not an order.

Should the bartender not have told the angry drunk that it was “my call” to cut him off, or should I have been “the man” and have taken full responsibility?

The two girls, Angie and Patty told the bartender that the angry drunk was harassing them when she was passing by, and the bartender replied “He has been cut off”.