It depends on the environment. Small college town, no trouble? Sure, I can see you there. All you need a shirt and a pulse. No special qualifications.
Big city? No experience? No.
Size does matter and I don’t care who tells you otherwise. Size does not make you a target. Intimidation (appropriately and applied with discrimination) is better than physical force. At 210, I’m sorry, neither you or anyone else is intimidating even if most patrons are smaller; you’re just that guy that they start thinking they can take after a few drinks. I, and any other good sized security guy can tell you that they’ve intimidated people into compliance with their physical presence and demeanor. It’s the ability to non-verbally communicate that failure to comply will have a bad result for them and having the physical presence where that non-verbal message is not in question.
That said, the job is actually more social and psychological than anything. Understand how to talk with people and get what you want with gentle persuasion and a reasonable demeanor, and that’s 90% of the job. But there is a part of the job where you need to be ready to throw down, without hesitation. Some places more than others. I’ve worked places that you fought every weekend (NOT worth the money) and others where you’d have no trouble except every few weeks. I’ve worked everything from a NYC mega-club to a Philadelphia hip-hop club, to a middle of PA dive club, to executive protection (mostly).
The point is, whether you’re qualified to work somewhere depends entirely on the environment and its clientele. Don’t expect good pay for the environment you describe, in which case I’d ask you…why do you want to be a bouncer if they pay isn’t good?
Let me put it into economic perspective:
Let’s say you make $10 and hour and you have a 5 hour shift. That’s $50 a night (if they pay under the table) or $100 a weekend (let’s leave weekdays out of it for simplicity sake). Let’s say the nature of the establishment requires you to be physical 1 night of the month. Pretty reasonable? Well, “getting physical” means you’re at risk of getting injured or worse and I don’t care who the hell you are or how tough you are. So, for $400 a month, you may have to fight once a month. If you were a real fighter, and I was your agent, and you fought for $400 a fight, you should fire me. If you put $400 in my hands right now to walk across the street and fight someone for no other reason than my employment required it, I’d find a new job.
But now I’m back full circle about experience (and environment). If you have size, and you have experience and a gift with people, you rarely have to fight. I worked the Philadelphia club I referred to and the guys on staff were always in the middle of some ridiculous physical shit. I on the other hand, broke up as many problems (mostly prevented) and NEVER had to strike a patron. Who did the most fighting? The smallest guy on the staff.
Size counts. Experience counts. End rambling reply
Sorry.