Meet the scenester: Chris Paul

Chris Paul may roll with a celebrity crowd, look like a male model, and throw parties at places that have included Green Door and Cinespace, but the promoter is anything but your Hollywood stereotype. You won’t find him lunching at Fred Segal with his entourage, nor will you spot him shopping at Ed Hardy for polo shirts. In fact, he spends most of his days contributing to blahmerica.com, a blog that takes a critical look at pop culture, media, Republicans and religion.

How’s this for another contradiction: He says he “despises small talk [and] banal conversations,” skills most promoters depend on. And while most promoters seem to get off on misspellings (e.g. R U xxxcited 4 2nite?!), such “unintelligent neglect of the English language” drives Paul nuts. (The rant on his MySpace page is hilarious!) Ready for another head-scratcher? He’s not into club music. Not only do Tool and Deftones top his list of favorite bands, but he also used to be in the hardcore scene. “I don't give a f-ck about dancing,” he says. “And I don't want to hear hip-hop.”

And yet this guy is one of the hottest promoters in L.A. Do you love it?

I hope you'll take this as a compliment, but you don't seem like a promoter.
I do take that as a compliment, actually.

How did you become a promoter?
When Sideways opened, Kevin Todd asked me to do a night there with him because I had thrown these huge parties at my house in the Valley with tons of notable young actors. He was like, “Shit, man. If you can do this at your house, you can do this at a club and get paid for it.”

How did you know all those people?
I happen to be lucky enough to live out here with my best friend from childhood. He's continually becoming a pretty successful actor.

Mysterious…Who is it, Brad Pitt?
It's Ashton Holmes. We've been friends since we were 2. Out of the 10 years since high school, we've probably lived together for six of them. He and Shane [West] used to have the same manager, so Shane and I also developed a really good friendship.

Do you have an embarrassing childhood stories about Ashton?
I definitely got drunk with him for the first time. I think it was wine coolers.

Did you guys move out here together?
Actually, no. I moved out here first with my friend Brad, who I went to college with. He’s Laura Prepon's older brother—she’s from "That ’70s Show." We were fraternity brothers in college.

Was it a culture shock to go from quiet upstate New York to life in the fast lane in L.A.?
I would go out with Shane so much. There were times when we would go nine, 10 days in a row. Like just being out all over the place with bottles of Jack Daniel's. It was a mess, but I just met so many people and had such a blast.

And now they’re all at your parties. How’d you get involved with Green Door?
Johnny Zander runs it, and then there's me, Michael Bellisario, Jason Scoppa and Alexi Yulish who have been there since the beginning. We work as a team, but we've always had our own focus nights. It makes it easy because [for example] the door policy stays consistent.

What’s your focus night?
I do British Invasion on Thursday nights. I work with two Brits on the night: Oliver Trevena and Zen Freeman.

You also throw Camerata, an art and music night at Cinespace on Sundays with the Devil's Orchestra and painter Chris Cuseo.
Art and music have always been my inspirations for everything. I came in [to promoting the party] through Chris Cuseo; he’s a fantastic painter who has this really intense, dark vibe that comes out of him. And he knew of the Devil's Orchestra, which is a three-piece band. They've written this rock symphony that they're doing in conjunction with an animation film. It’s like a modern-day rock “Fantasia.”

How would you describe Camerata to people who haven’t been?
Cuseo actually paints live while the Devil's Orchestra plays; it’s part of this whole visual experience. The band also has visuals going on behind them, some of which are going to become the movie. And there’s usually art for sale on the patio. We've been able to consistently put 400 to 500 people in that room every Sunday night. It's been really, really impressive.

You obviously see a lot of celebrities. Do you ever get star-struck?
I don't get star-struck in general. If I saw Bret Easton Ellis, I'd probably piss myself. I've read all of his stuff. I've read “American Psycho” three times and “Glamorama” twice. And “Glamorama” is a book that every promoter should read. If you're a promoter and you can't enjoy that book, you don't have a brain. It's about a semi-famous actor-slash-model who's preparing for a club opening. I mean, what could be better than that?

Alexandra Le Tellier is Bars & Clubs editor for Metromix Los Angeles.