Sarah Lucey says a decade of the rosary every night, loves nothing more than sitting down with a cup of tea and an episode of Eastenders after work and desperately wants to move home so she can finally assemble a flock of dogs and sheep. She even has the names picked out. She’s also the Director of Talent at LIV nightclub in Miami, formerly the ballroom of the famed Fontainebleau hotel, which played host to stars like Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe in the 50s and 60s. LIV made $44 million last year. If you and 9 friends want a table, you’ll have to stump up about $10,000. Sarah joined Ryan on The Ryan Tubridy Show this morning to tell him more about going from a farm in Mallow to the “Queen of Clubs”.
What do you get for your $10,000, should you pay it? “Booze”, essentially. And the chance “to be around celebrities”. Sarah explained that she is aware of how “grotesque” the situation may seem to others but it exists because “people want it”.
“I know it sounds really cheesy but it’s the business I’m in.”
Sarah deals with any artists who come under the category of “theatrical or performing arts”, meaning the DJs, singers and dancers who perform at the club. She also takes care of celebrities who come to party. But she has her own definition of “celebrity”.
“A celebrity in my household would have been Roy Keane. I’d probably go weak at the knees if I saw Roy Keane or Martin O’Neill but like, in terms of helicopters flying around and people crying in the streets like banshees…Kim and Kanye, Beyoncé, Drake…they’re all in [the club] all the time.”
Sarah believes that business was always “in her blood”. Her family runs Lucey’s butcher in Mallow and it was the focus of her academic studies. After a stint doing Commerce at UCC and on to Smurfit Business School, Sarah researched where she should go for work and landed on Miami, Las Vegas or Ibiza. She booked a one-way ticket to Miami and proceeded on a “relentless” campaign to land a job, despite having no local connections.
“I knew I wanted to sell something that people wanted to buy…I need to sell something that people will bite my hand off [for]“.
It’s fair to say people are biting. As well as things are going, Sarah has one goal in mind.
“People need to trust you. Even if this guy is spending $100,000 a client…and he could be arrogant and he could be a showman, I’ll go up to him and say ‘Listen, let’s just solve the problem’. My goal, Ryan, is to get home to bed…I just want to get the job done and go home.”
Listen back to the full interview with Sarah Lucey on The Ryan Tubridy Show here.