By Ryan Smith
FOR REDEYE
When Sean “Diddy” Combs and his new group, Dirty Money, scheduled a private party on a recent Friday night at Excalibur, the River North nightclub received a very important call.
“He said over the phone that he was Beyonce’s brother, Mathew Knowles, and that he wanted to get into the VIP area for the party,” said Tayal Patel, public relations coordinator for Ala Carte Entertainment, Excalibur’s promoter.
So waive the $600 fee for a table in the VIP section and let the dude in, right? Not so fast.
As any student of Sasha Fierce knows, Beyonce doesn’t have any brothers–it’s her father who’s named Mathew.
“We have people that pretend to be celebrities to try to get into things, but not usually fictional celebrity siblings,” Patel recently told RedEye.
With swanky New Year’s Eve bashes less than a week away, Chicago’s party security teams will be on high alert for scammers eager to take part in the time-honored tradition of crashing–a practice party promoters say is as robust as ever thanks to celeb obsessions, thrill-seeking and old-fashioned greed for everything from finger food to party swag.
While Patel isn’t about to make a federal case out of one man’s failed attempt to rub elbows with Diddy and his crew at Excalibur, the feds most certainly took notice–although a little too late–last month when Michaele and Tareq Salahi found their way into a White House state dinner, he in a tux, she in a fetching red sari.
Crashing is flourishing thanks partly to the way news of exclusive events gets out these days, said Alexandra Malloy, who heads a public relations and marketing business in L.A.
“It used to be the public heard about an event after it happened,” Malloy said. “But now, bloggers are invited, and they’ll blog before, during and after. They’re tweeting and Facebooking on the spot. People can just show up and try to get in.”
And when celebrities are due to attend–many of them get paid for doing so, either in cash or merchandise–it simply adds fuel to the fire.
“We’re all so interested in celebrities now. There’s probably a direct correlation between that and an increase in party crashing,” Malloy says.
That means increased pressure on event planners to keep interlopers at bay.
“You really want to protect the integrity of an event,” says Leslie Stevens, a partner at the communications firm of LaForce+Stevens, which puts on at least two events a week in New York City. “So you really have to keep these people out.”
For Stevens and her crew, who keep photos of a few well-known crashers just like restaurants keep photos of food critics, that means being vigilant even before the event takes place. The really sneaky ones will try to get on the guest list by calling to RSVP–even when they weren’t invited in the first place.
In Chicago, crashers most often target events in open public spaces, such as Navy Pier or the museums, party experts told RedEye. And if Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson taught us anything in “Wedding Crashers,” it’s that receptions are vulnerable to infiltration.
“There’s more wedding crashers than you’d think,” said Susan Cordogan, owner of Lincoln Park-based Big City Events and Big City Bride. “A lot of bands tell their friends, ‘I’m playing at this gig, you should come.’ “
Uninvited guests can “change the chemistry of an event,” Cordogan said, so when she has to show an unwanted partier the door, she does so “in a way that’s suave and doesn’t disrupt the guests.”
The Chicago nightclubs that spoke to RedEye said they rarely have problems with crashers. Guest lists, ID checks, tickets, wristbands and security cameras all keep potential crashers at bay.
“It’s hard to be a party crasher [at a nightclub],” said Patel, who also has fended off a wannabe crasher posing as Leonardo DiCaprio.
There’s a code of discretion to crashing, but not everyone follows the unwritten rules, said Audarshia Townsend, who writes a Chicago food and drink blog at 312
diningdiva.com.
“Most people are just happy to get in and get some chicken wings,” Townsend said, but one group of Chicago crashers has become so notorious on the chic party scene that she has labeled them “The Eat and Drink Club.”
“They’re obnoxious,” she said. “If there are gift bags, they’ll take multiple bags. They eat and drink everything, and they rush out when the freebies are over.”
Not cool, Townsend said.
“Everyone has crashed a party before–I have,” she said. “But you try to blend into the background and be discreet.”
RYAN SMITH IS A REDEYE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR. AP CONTRIBUTED.
How to spot a crasher
Michaele and Tareq Salahi might have blended in well enough at a state dinner to fool President Obama and the Secret Service last month, but most party crashers stick out from regular party guests, local event planners told RedEye.
“No one wants party crashers, but we see them all the time,” said Susan Cordogan, owner of Lincoln Park-based Big City Events and Big City Bride.
How can you identify a potential freeloader at your next big bash? The experts say these four warning signs can help you sniff out a scammer. R.S.
Social extremes
Look out for the guests who are either a little too friendly or totally antisocial, advised Sarah Vargo, founder of Chicago-based public relations and event planning company Maven. “[Crashers are] either trying too hard or not at all and just looking around and not really mingling or interacting with guests,” she said.
Curious fashion choices
A guest’s outfit should match the occasion, Cordogan said. “Most parties will state a certain kind of attire that is expected,” she said, “and since most crashers do it spur of the moment, they won’t be prepared to look like everyone else.”
Early retreats
Many private parties assign seating or dole out nameplates for each guest at dinner, which is the party crasher’s signal to jet. “They know they don’t belong, so they leave before the sit-down dinners,” said Audarshia Townsend, who blogs about Chicago’s party scene at 312diningdiva.com.
Skipping the formalities
Crashers won’t sign the guest book or bring a gift for a personal event, according to Cordogan. “Most of the time, they’ll just walk in and go straight to the bar or buffet without saying hello to anyone,” she said.
