Meet Hailed Hollywood Promoter: Social Savant Sean Dickerson
- Story by Shirley Ju
"Sean’s night doesn’t end until the lights come on at 2am. After ensuring the evening was exactly what it was supposed to be, he goes home and wakes up only to do it all over again the next day."
If you live in Los Angeles and you’re headed to the club, chances are you need a Hollywood promoter plug. Insert Sean Dickerson, who has made a name for himself in the city of Angels as a respectable professional who carries himself well and is able to establish valuable, genuine relationships within the hospitality and entertainment industry.
And if you had a friend in town on a Sunday night, Greystone Sundays was your best bet — a brand created by MADE that Sean works for. Other accomplishments on his resume includes helping open one of the city’s most lit venues, Poppy, co-creating Penthouse Day Club, working around the clock at 1Oak, and former Supperclub Tuesdays.
Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland and moving to the West Coast with his father in high school, Sean was studying film and seeking what any other adult was in LA: a job. His ascent into the nightclub life began when he started hanging around a friend who was running a street team for clubs in Hollywood.
Sean details, “I asked him ‘how much do the guys that work for you make?’ He told me. I said, “a couple hundred bucks a night potentially in cash, for 3 or 4 hours work? Sounds better than a minimum wage job somewhere.” We started working together and that was really my entrance into nightclubs. A quite literal bottom of the business. [laughs]”
With his foot in the door, Dickerson was observant and wasted no time in absorbing his surroundings. He began to study who was successful, why they were successful, and eventually climbed his way up from there. For Sean, there was no secret or cheat code. He states, “Everything I have now is from years of building relationships and taking care of people — and being consistent with it. Every time they get invited out or come somewhere with me, they know the experience they’re gonna get. They know how well I’m gonna take care of them, they trust that.”
Which is also why they continue to come back. By word of mouth alone, this person would tell that person that when you need something, Sean was the guy to call. Soon, his reputation would speak for itself.
“It’s about consistency and understand that you are there to give these people an experience. You’re here to give the best experience that they’ve ever had. For me, that’s the only real way to last in this business.”
While the Hollywood nightlife may seem like homebase, Sean actually described himself as “more of a bar person” for most of his life, frequently going to the bars with his parents when he was “very, very underaged.” As evidenced by his current energy, he was always mature for his age and always himself as if he was a little older.
“I used to run the door at an illegal afterhours in the Los Feliz/Silverlake area years ago,” he recalls. “I was 17, 18 years old and making relationships with other people who work in the bar/nightclub industry, because they’d get off at 2am and want somewhere to go unwind for a couple hours. I was the guy controlling who was getting in. So even though I was underaged, I could go to their places and they’d still take care of me. Let me in, get me drinks.”
In October of last year, Sean began leading a brand new party called Joliette On The Balcony at Beauty & Essex in the heart of Hollywood. Deemed “the hottest party in LA right now” by the people’s vote, he confirms, “the Sunday party we do there is unlike anything else that’s going on.”
When asked what the most fulfilling part of his job is, he answers, “Probably the next day when I talk to people and they say ‘yesterday or last night was best time I’ve ever had.’ That’s for me more than the money, more than anything else. That’s what gets me to keep doing it every time out.”
But don’t get it twisted. Beyond the glitz and glamour, the work is stressful like any other job. Sean currently does five parties a week, two parties on Sunday (day and night), and still somehow manages to stay sane in between.
“There’s so many moving parts and moving pieces to doing a successful party or event, especially a successful weekly party,” he explains. “[The most difficult part is] getting everything to hit at the same time when it’s supposed to. Getting everyone to show up at one place. Getting girls there, getting tables there, making sure that the talent is on time. Making sure the DJ has the right equipment. Making sure that the sound guy is there in case the DJ equipment doesn’t work for some reason. The lights, making sure people get paid on time.”
He uses a car as a metaphor. Most people only see the car, but they don’t see what’s under the hood. From the pistons to the engine to the exhaust, it’s all the minute things that are essential in making it operate.
The majority of Sean’s day includes making phone calls, text messages, emails, double checking reservations, confirming with people — until he gets to the venue. About 30 to 45 minutes before doors open, he goes through pre-shift with the general manager and staff (waitresses, bartenders, security, etc.). He informs them who’s gonna be in the building, who’s got what tables, who’s very important, who’s very VERY important.
“It’s a vetting process of making sure the people invited are able to get in. If there are elements that have just shown up, that we know. Making sure the right people are in the room. That can be all walks of life, not just labeled to people that look a certain way. Just making sure that everybody in the room essentially is there to have a good time. No one’s there because they want to start trouble. No one’s there because they’re not gonna add to the experience.”
Sean’s night doesn’t end until the lights come on at 2am. After ensuring the evening was exactly what it was supposed to be, he goes home and wakes up only to do it all over again the next day.
But let’s not forget the memories. While Sean meets a slew of A-list celebrities on any given night, he is able to separate the good encounters from the bad. One of his most humbling experiences to date comes a few years ago, when he spend four to five days in a row with Allen Iverson.
“He ended up being one of the coolest, most down-to-earth people, to the point where he invited me and a group of friends back to his hotel in Beverly Hills to look at a rough copy of his documentary on Showtime. It was like 5am, he was just so normal. He was so comfortable in his own skin. The entire time we were out, from dinner to the club, he made me forget how big of a star he was being in his presence, because he didn’t act like it.”
It wasn’t until they were around other people and seeing how they reacted to AI was a reminder of how big of a superstar the NBA player really is.
He continues, “It was so refreshing, he just didn’t carry himself that way. There was no ego whatsoever. He was so grateful to me for taking care of him. I’m like ‘what are you talking about? You’re Allen Iverson!’ There was none of that. He’s been to parties of mine probably a half dozen times since then and it’s always been the same. He’s always been great.”
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