My Life As: A Street Team Flyer Guy
It’s Friday night in Silver Lake, and Das Bunker—the long-running Los Angeles industrial dance party—is about to start. Danny Astle’s job here, however, is already done, as he has spread the word by passing out flyers for this event across the city. Even though he’s technically off-duty tonight, Astle is here with a short stack of flyers on him, this batch for his own upcoming party.
Astle, also known as Template, is a DJ and promoter who throws underground electronic events around town. When he’s not working on his own parties, he street-teams for Das Bunker and the nearby venue Complex, which is co-owned by Das Bunker promoter John Giovanazzi. As a street team member, Astle’s primary duty is hitting up parties throughout the city and leaving flyers on car windows or passing them out in front of venues. He got into street-teaming back in 2009, as he became interested in doing more than just going to parties. By 2012, he was working on his own projects. It was an event he got via Complex that led to his most recent gig on the streets.
How often do you go out and flyer?
It depends on the season and what’s going on for the promoter. For example, this Das Bunker dance night is in March. They have the Das Bunker Covenant show at Avalon in April and then Star Wars [an annual theme party] in May, so it’s such a busy time for them. It’s a busy time for me, too. There’s so much more work for me. They’ll normally have me going out every weekend—Friday, Saturday and, usually, Sunday. Usually on Fridays and Saturdays, especially Saturdays, it will be more than one hit in the night, various bars throughout Hollywood, Koreatown, and downtown.
What is a typical Saturday night flyering like for you?
It’s a split between flyering cars and doing club or bar exit handouts. At a place like the Echo, where it might end kind of early, or it’s people coming and going at different points of the night and there is a really big main parking lot there, you just do all the cars there. Normally, handouts there won’t work as effectively as leaving flyers on cars.
Somewhere like Hollywood, people are scattered so much, as far as cars parked everywhere. Doing cars there is a lot harder, so we have to target a more specific spot and do the handouts at the exit. On Saturday nights, especially, I’ll get three or four different calls.
Is there ever drama when you’re flyering?
No, except maybe during the summer, when I do the bigger festivals like FYF or Hard Fest, and I have to do to those parking structures near the Coliseum or the L.A. State Historic Park. A cop will drive by to see what I’m doing, but not really be sure that I’m necessarily leaving flyers. He just sees me going from car to car, then stops and looks at my bag and makes sure that I’m not breaking into cars and stealing things. Then I have to start explaining that I’m just doing my job.
You’ve actually been stopped by the cops for that?
Oh yeah, plenty of times, but I’ve never gotten in trouble. In all the years that I’ve done this, the biggest slap on the wrist I’ve gotten was “get the hell out of here.” Sometimes they’ll get a little freaked out when they see what I’m doing and kind of want to punk me a little, like, “Hey, let me check you out—just want to make sure you’re not sketchy.” Then they just let me keep doing what I’m doing.
Cops tend to be more cool. Sometimes parking attendants will just trip out, especially outside of big events if it’s a private lot. Sometimes in parking structures, you’ll get away; you sneak past the parking attendant in the front check-in gate. He doesn’t see you go by, and you do the entire parking structure. Then, as you’re leaving, he’s like, “Hey, what are you doing?” and you just kind of play dumb. The little, private dirt lots that are kind of like a mom and pop or brother and sister running the show—if they see you, they’ll actually yell and cuss at you: “Hey, get the f— out of here!” They’ll pick it up and throw it back at you sometimes.
How do people respond when you’re standing outside with flyers?
It depends where I’m at. If it’s a bar like Bar Sin[ister] or Dragonfly, somewhere that’s really kind of a funkier, optimistic crowd, there are a lot of accepting people. A lot of people are really excited to get flyers and ask questions. I actually engage with people a lot more.
When I have to go to promote at something more geared toward the deep house club vibe, for some reason those people are less accepting of getting flyers. They just don’t have the time of day, or they’re too cool. They always have some really smartass thing to say… “Why are you out here doing this? Do you get paid to do this?”—trying to offend me or make me feel like I’m so stupid. I don’t know why it’s this audience that only wants to go to what they already know about and aren’t willing to give other things a chance, compared to this other audience in L.A.—other clubgoers and underground thrill-seekers and weirdos who are so excited to get flyers, even if they don’t know what it is.
What’s the weirdest thing that happened while you were flyering?
Last January, there was a cosplay club at a venue called Ohm at Hollywood and Highland, on the high level. John was like, “This is going to be weird, and this is going to go a little later, but if you stay until closing time, I’ll pay you a little extra.”
It was the weirdest, most bizarre, insane crowd that I’ve seen. A lot of the Hollywood Blvd. street performers that dress up as different movie characters were attending the club. There was a really old version of Walter White, just super wasted. He took a flyer and put it in his pants—in his crotch—and said, “Thanks, man,” and tucked it in.
What’s the hardest time that someone has given you for passing out flyers?
At that cosplay party, some guy in a Ghostbuster outfit looked at the flyer for one second and just threw it back in my face and said, “I don’t want that shit.” It literally hit my face. I was like, “Okay, you are an asshole.” I always have to remind myself that I’m promoting outside of a bar or a party or a rave or a club where people are on substances and doing things and getting jacked up. I can’t hold it against them for coming out with some bogus attitude. Sometimes, it may be just the booze talking. I don’t let it get to me too much. Sometimes people will apologize, and I’m always like, “I don’t take it personally.”
What is it like to flyer at big events where there are a lot of other people out there flyering?
It’s a little overwhelming to step further out of your comfort zone and actually yell, because there are so many people talking and exiting the place. You have to yell out the name of the party or artist’s name or whatever. Whatever your little spiel is, you have to just say it loud and keep repeating it. It becomes a technique. You have to find your groove. When it’s a mass amount of people exiting at once, there have been times where I’ve been like, “Holy shit”—overwhelmed. You have to suck it up and do it.
What do you like about doing street team?
Being part of the growth and support of something I believe in. It feels good, like feeling some sort of dignity out of it. Everybody is too cool in L.A., and I’m trying to break that eggshell a little bit and help spread the versatile, underground movement. There are so many different music genres and clubs and promoters and underground parties going on. The majority of the public doesn’t even know about it. It’s not that people wouldn’t like it; they’re just not that aware of it. The more people putting it out there, the better.
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