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Side note, but is this actually a job? Or just a fig leaf for payments? Like, what does a "club promoter" actually do? I can imagine a few legitimate things (put up flyers, social media programs, etc.), but I have a weird and baseless hunch none of what I'm thinking is what this fellow was doing.
Contrary to the other responses, the job can extend to include many of the responsibilities of management of a club. It can be a real, full time job.
The promoter can be the one to book/organize/run logistics for live acts and DJs, control the guest list, be head host, run all of marketing, head of sales, ect.
I think a lot of adults who work professionally in nightclub management and operations (almost all of them, really) start as promoters. Being able to consistently get people to show up is the single central requirement when starting a club, and traditional lenders (even those who are willing to lend to restaurants and bars) balk at clubs because of their compliance issues, almost universal ties to drugs and organized crime, extreme failure rate and high likelihood of being defrauded even if the business is profitable. The investors are therefore almost always other club owners or investors, or dumb rich kids (ie club goers).
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Yes, your job is essentially to get hot women into the club so men come in and buy drinks. Clubs work a bit on a network effect. Nobody wants to go to a club that is empty, everyone wants a “popping” club
Fun little marketing anecdote about this. There's a new-ish bar/club in my city, walked by a few times after it opened and there was originally never more than one or two people waiting to get in on Saturday nights, if any.
A few weeks ago, they put up a big sign on the outside window about how you could use some app to pay extra to skip the long lines, along with some stanchions. Next thing you know, the place is packed and there's always a huge line to get in. Nice piece of social engineering.
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In Ireland and the UK it's often a part-time job for university students, they'll go around campus selling tickets for events and earn commission. I haven't seen any suggestion that this wasn't his real job. I'm not ruling out the possibility that he may have been supplementing his income by selling drugs, but many club promoters earn their money entirely legitimately.
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