THE HOLLYWOOD AUDITION

Ya see, I did not know at the time how shrewd and aggressive (euphemisms) Jamie was. First of all, I walked in at 10:00 p.m. at closing. I had to wait till 10:45 p.m. until he came out. The first thing he says to Dennis when he comes out is, "Damn, he's still here?" I replied, "How are you doing, Jamie?" He walks right past me and grabs my proposal and starts flippin' thru it and then throws it down. He says, "Alright, what the hell is this?" As I tried to go through the proposal in order, he's justa flippin' thru it to the end, going from place to place, really trying to disrupt any type of flow I was trying to build. As I'm talking to him, he's acting like he doesn't hear me and starts talking to other staff that are there and is also talking on the phone. So then he starts really trying to grill me. He's throwing challenges at me left and right.

But I was prepared. I already had the answers to all his questions and concerns in my proposal. There was no logical reason he could say no, unless he just didn't want to do it. Unfortunately for me, his main concern was that he didn't want to be known as a club. Kolumbia is supposed to be a fine dining restaurant. None of the club patrons in the past would come back for the restaurant part. So this was the main obstacle for me. I had a solution to it in my proposal, to offer a $35 gift certificate to the person with the highest bar tab; and also to keep the kitchen open till midnight.

So it all came down to whether or not he believed it would work, and if he believed that I would make money for him. He told me he would get back to me. Of course he didn't. I was used to that by now, but I kept calling. Every time I would call, they would tell me they were still thinking about it, but really I think they were just brushing me off.

I knew that Usher was coming to town at the end of the month (this was in May by the way), and I also knew that Jamie (Stachowski) had daughters. I told my friend, who is Usher's mom's assistant, to sell me 6 tix for the show. I also had gotten my hands on some passes for the 1st screening of the movie Ray with Jamie Foxx, who was actually there since it was only the second screening ever of this movie.

So I went by the restaurant and I told Dennis, "Hey, I got some Usher tickets for Jamie if he wants to take his daughters, and I got some movie screening passes for you also." He was like, "Oh thanks...I'll get back to you about whether or not Jamie wants the tickets." Of course, they never get back to me once again. I called Jamie twice. On the second time, Dennis tells me that Jamie is taking his daughters back to college on the night of the show so no thanks. In the meantime, Dennis lets his two tickets go to waste. He never shows up.