{"id":22052,"date":"2013-08-22T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T04:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=22052"},"modified":"2013-08-22T01:17:18","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T05:17:18","slug":"new-york-style-icon-nightclub-legend-haoui-montaug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/new-york-style-icon-nightclub-legend-haoui-montaug\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Style Icon: Nightclub Legend Haoui Montaug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every so often, I wind up scouring the Internet for information on the New York City club people whom I worshiped from afar in the 1970s and 1980s — people like Anya Phillips<\/a>,\u00a0 Sally Randall<\/a>, Dianne Brill<\/a> and Dean Johnson of Dean and the Weenies<\/a>. Recently, I stumbled across the name Haoui “Howie” Montaug.<\/p>\n

\"haouimontag\"<\/a>

Polaroid of Haoui Montaug taken by Mark Wigan in 1986. Click to see Wigan’s 1986-1987 club photos.<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s funny that I instantly<\/em> remembered that Montaug was the doorman at Danceteria, Studio 54, and Palladium. I never went to Danceteria or Studio 54, though of course I wanted to. I did go to Palladium but I’m sure I didn’t encounter Haoui or I would never have gotten in<\/a>! (Reportedly, Montaug once made Mick Jagger pay the $6 entrance fee at Studio 54<\/a>.) Another Palladium doorman took pity on me and my laughable fake ID. He would even give me a few tickets for free drinks. And get this — I wouldn’t use all of them because I wanted to save them as souvenirs. Earlier this year, I found a bunch (probably from 1986 or 1987) safely tucked away in a scrapbook. That’s how excited I was to be at that place! OMG! I want to go back and hug the young and extremely desperate me because I feel a little sorry for her.<\/p>\n

\"palladium\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, I knew about Haoui Montaug because I studied Details magazine like I was going to be tested on it<\/a>. Nowadays, Details is a men’s magazine owned by Conde Nast, but it originally was an independent that covered everything about the downtown scene: art, music, fashion, clubs and so on. Haoui was constantly in Details, and not just because of who he kept out of or let into which hot club. He also wrote for the magazine. I’m not sure if “The Doorman Poem” I found was published in Details or one of the other hip magazines he wrote for. The poem starts:<\/p>\n

\n

“Excuse me excuse me<\/em>
\n Who is in charge here<\/em>
\n I mean who has the guest list<\/em>
\n I must be on it<\/em>
\n I am personal friends with just about <\/em>
\n anybody you ever heard of”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The more clubs change, the more things stay the same at the door, eh? Click here<\/a> to read the rest.<\/p>\n

Haoui was much more than a doorman. One of his other projects was a cabaret revue called “No Entiendes.” The essay collection On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century<\/a><\/em> by C. Carr called No Entiendes a “mutant Gong Show<\/em>” and said, “No Entiendes revels in the bad. All kinds of bad<\/a>.” But it also hosted now-iconic acts including Madonna<\/a> and the Beastie Boys at the beginning of their careers. The video of Madonna performing her first-ever single “Everybody” at “No Entiendes” in November 1982 is on YouTube. Check out how blase the audience members are while the performance is being introduced. By the end, they’re going wild.<\/p>\n