Dream Jobs - King of Clubs

Charles Khabouth, Canada’s undisputed club king, is the brain and personality behind the Guvernment complex, Lux and the Ultra Supper Club, just to name a few.

From working three full-time jobs in the ‘80s to building a self-made empire in the fashion and entertainment industry, ‘Charles’ as he is known by everyone, is the epitome of self made success.

Khabouth’s work can be found everywhere. He’s an investor in the Pantages Suites Hotel, owns Yorkville’s swanky Hugo Boss Red Label, and is currently in the midst of a multi-million deal with the Niagara Fallsview Casino for his newest nightclub - Dragonfly.

However, life hasn’t always been this successful or lucrative for Khabouth. When he moved to Canada from Beirut in the ‘70s with his family, he was 21 years old and penniless. He struggled to balance work full-time at a convenience store, a recruitment agency and as a carpet cleaner. Yet, he still managed to dream big.
 
One day, he came across a club for sale on St. Joseph Street. Sensing an opportunity, he scrounged up $31,000 in collateral from his car, purchased the club and renamed it Club Z.

“I was a hardcore club-goer being single and 20. I liked fashion, dancing and music. I started going to clubs but it was very limited. So I decided to open a club - it was a crazy idea,” he says.

At the time, clubbing wasn’t the huge industry in Toronto that it is today. Khabouth says running Club Z the first few months was very difficult.

“I had no budget for anything. It was very tough. I didn’t have any money for promotions. I had to get creative and do work for myself. Creativity and working 24 hours a day was really making it go,” he says.

He made his own flyers and did his own promotions, barely getting by. But everything changed over Halloween weekend thanks to a massive tiger.

“The club was going okay for a few months and Halloween was coming up. I knew a guy who had a 650-pound tiger. I made a deal with him. I would feed the tiger for a month if he let me use it. So I cleared out my office and got steel bars made to keep the tiger inside.”

His office was in the front of the club, so people walking by the large window could see the tiger roaming around. People were running to the payphones to tell their friends and family what they saw. The stunt worked and that night Club Z was booming.

The next morning, Khabouth had difficulty heading over to his club. The roads nearby were blocked off by a crowd of people, police, the media and the Humane Society. The tiger, sitting in the office over night, “broke the glass, ripped the curtains and had a paw hanging out.”

“The police blocked off two city blocks because they thought the tiger was going to take off. There were snipers, the press and camera crew everywhere.”

The next day, the front page of all the newspapers ran the tiger’s photo and story. The Toronto Star’s headline read: “How Much Is That Tiger in the Window?” Khabouth thought his career was over but instead “it definitely helped bring a lot of attention to the club.”

Club Z ended up being a huge success and at 23 years old, Khabouth achieved one of his lifelong dreams.

Khabouth continues to buy and renovate clubs and restaurants in Toronto and elsewhere. His biggest accomplishment to date is the Guvernment nightclub, a 16,000 square-foot dance hall where some of the world’s most popular DJs spin on a weekly basis.

UC411.com sat down with Khabouth to get advice for breaking into the nightclub and entertainment industry.
 
How did you make Club Z stand out from other clubs when you first started?
“We focused on the music. We would get into the car and drive to Montreal, Detroit, Buffalo and New York. We would take three or four days to drive. We tried to find music like House - you couldn’t find that here.”

What’s a typically day for you?
“I don’t have any days that are a carbon-copy of another day. I deal with contractors to promoters to staff to clients. Meetings take me away a lot from what I like to do, which is the creative aspect. On a light day, I work from 8:30a.m-11:30p.m, around 15 hours. On Saturdays, I work until 7:30a.m in the morning. I pull in around 70 hours a week. I think I’d work 100 hours if I could. On Sundays, I spend it with my kids at home. One night a week, I make sure to put the kids to bed.”

You don’t have a formal education. Do you think you need one for your line of work?
“I think education is a great thing. You can get something out of it. If I went to college, I think it would have helped me. I self-taught myself to move forward. In my opinion, at the end of the day, you can work the ground up in what I do. But in some professions you can’t. I don’t want to go to a doctor or surgeon who is self-taught,” he says, laughing.

If you could go back to college or university what programs would you take?
“I think business courses definitely help you with anything you are doing. It will always help you throughout life because they aren’t as specific (as other courses). You have more options if you take business than art or history.”

What advice do you have for people wanting to break into the industry?
“I have two to three advices that work for me. Research, consistency and really hard work are important. They are no ifs or buts. It is really hard work. Try to be creative as much as possible, stay away from the norm. It is the creative mind that gets people back. And there is no such thing as luck. Luck plays such a small role.”

What do you look for when hiring your staff?
“I hire staff that is intense. When they come to work, they really come to work. I like people who are intense because that means they are interested in learning. You can’t teach that.”

Fame and money are two perks in your job but that don’t interest you. What gives you satisfaction?
“In the last five years, I consider myself like someone who is retired. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have to do anything from a business sense if I don’t want to. I do what I want. That makes me really very comfortable. All the staff I have I like. I’m surrounded by people I want to be with…With my work, it is really nice to see a product finished and to see people interested in it. That gives me self-satisfaction.”

Any last advice?
“Try to be creative as much as possible. Stay away from the norm.