Intern Chick

Last night we held a listening session for one of our debut artists. Usually we have events like these at a club or a bar with plenty of alcohol but this one was held at a recording studio. Since the artists are under 21, the refreshments were kept to water and soda and I think some of our attendees were a little upset about that. We got to the studio at 6 and immediately began setting up. Once again, I was instructed to work the door (I should say elevator) and I was keeping my fingers crossed it was nothing like the last event I was supposed to work the door at. I stood at the front of the studio while everyone else was in the back, laughing and munching on chicken fingers and wings. As people slowly filed in I had to mark them off (I was told that we needed a good record of who showed up) and hand them a press kit (I’d like to give myself a pat on the back that I stuffed all 100 of them in under 15 minutes!). We had a few fan contest winners that were invited and we had autographed posters to give them. Seeing their faces light up at that was priceless. I was a little upset that I had to stay by the elevator while they played the album but as the night wore on I moved myself closer to the control room and further from the elevator.

I noticed a name on the list that looked familiar. I realized that this person had randomly requested me on Facebook and after accepting his request, I then proceeded to delete him because his status updates were annoying. I was hoping he wouldn’t show up, and when my boss told me she was good friends with him, I was REALLY hoping he wouldn’t show up. I had no idea what he looked like, so when a balding middle aged man walked up to me and that name fell from his lips to my ears, I shoved a press kit at him and hoped he would continue on his way. That would be too easy. He was staring at me. He peered closer into my eyes and said, “Do I know you?? “ I told him he didn’t (that’s not a lie, the internet doesn’t count). He persisted, “You look so familiar, are you sure we haven’t met before?” By that point, I had to let him know. “Your name is familiar to me, we used to be friends on Facebook.” He mumbled something and walked away. I guess it could have been worse, right?
After the album was done playing I set up a line for people who wanted autographs from the guys and took pictures for the fans that were there. The event was mostly for press people so once the autographs were through we shuffled the artists into a different room to do 5-minute interviews with anyone that wanted something for their website/magazine. My boss’ boss told me to get down everyone’s information that did an interview so I talked to all sorts of people while they waited their turn.
Everything went well, except for one thing…

Most of the press were men, and most of the women working or attending were older. Cue shameless flirting by press with young, bubbly intern. I haven’t yet mastered a polite way to let industry men like this know that I’m here to work and furthermore, I’m not interested. It’s easy when you’re at a bar or walking around the city, you can be mean and no one will bat an eyelash. You can’t do that when you know you’ll see these people at the next event (in my case that next event would be Wednesday night!). I managed to weasel my way away each time but I know there’s an easier way to do it My boss told me to say, “I don’t date industry dudes.” I’ll have to try that out next time…