Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Jonathan Bricklin of 'Little People Social Club'

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Exclusive Interview: Jonathan Bricklin of 'Little People Social Club' · The BSB Podcast

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  today we're talking with Jonathan Bricklin,
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  an entrepreneur and visionary behind an incredibly unique new concept,
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  Little People Social Club, designed to be a place where little people can connect,
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  socialize, have fun, and simply enjoy themselves in a space created with them
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  in mind.
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  LPSC is about so much more than a night out.
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  It's about community inclusion and rethinking what a social space can be.
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  Thank you so much for being here today,
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  Jonathan, and talking with me.
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  It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much,
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  Brian. it's fun listening to
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  Hearing it out loud is is kinda fun.
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  I mean it's truly such a unique project.
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  It's such it's such so really cool that you're you're bringing this you're working
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  really hard ~ at work here in New York City ~ to bring it to life.
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  But what was the moment when this idea for Little People Social Club really
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  f kind of first came to life?
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  Well,
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  in in like the most literal sense,
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  it really ~ i it it it came like full steam ran me over about
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  six months ago. ~
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  Okay.
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  that being said, about twenty five years ago,
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  I'm actually struggling to figure out how long ago I was in college,
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  but a long time ago. I think it's even longer than that,
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  believe it not. Yeah, I know.
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  We don't need to carbon date ourselves.
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  No.
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  It's crazy to say
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  that out loud as well.
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  I made a film, a short film at the time when I was in college,
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  called A Short Story and I thought it was so funny.
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  It was it was an abstract, kind of surreal film,
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  and I'm quite proud of it. But I got to work with a few little people
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  at the time and that was amazing.
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  ~ you know, I was pretty young and I just was enamored and thought it was cool,
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  and they were really cool. and so that laid dormant for the last however many years
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  it is. And so I think that has a has a slight connection to this.
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  now in between making the short film in college and now.
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  I started a chain of ping pong clubs in New York City back in 2009.
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  And we're going strong and have nine locations and it's a great business.
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  ~ and so I've learned
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  That's incredible.
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  that business, ~ which I never expected,
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  but ~ the hospitality, ~ food and beverage,
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  and then ping pong really specifically.
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  ~ so now this is, you know, a new chapter for me in evolution,
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  I think, of what I've learned in most of the projects that I've been involved with
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  for my life.
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  So I'm excited. I mean, at the same time,
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  I will be the first to admit that this idea could seem or sound,
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  you know, really stupid. ~ initially,
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  when I was like, I'm doing this,
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  this is happening. the the common reaction was,
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  well, there's not enough little people to support the the bar,
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  the social club as a business.
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  Like, that's not gonna work. but even before I really articulated it,
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  I didn't envision it as a place just for little people.
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  I just thought, wow, it would be amazing if the entire environment
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  was designed for little people from that perspective,
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  yet be designed intelligently enough that it could accommodate any size person
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  and it would be fun for everybody.
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  ~ and so that's really what the concept is.
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  The twist is it's open to everybody,
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  but the the
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  fun
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  part is that it's really designed for little people.
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  And so I ha I'm not a little person,
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  ~ but I have a partner who is a little person and she's incredible.
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  ~ she has the best name you ever heard in your life.
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  It's Fats Timbo. And Fats Timbo is she's an advocate for little people.
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  She's a comedian and author and ~ creator.
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  She's really, really, really successful and super cool and has a great point
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  of view. ~ I was really lucky
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  get to meet her and and now work with her on this because without her it's
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  not it's not. I couldn't do it.
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  It wouldn't work.
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  How did your partnership with Fat Timbo really come together?
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  Well, so this is I I I feel it's really interesting.
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  Like I've been using Chat GPT a lot for the last couple of years,
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  ~ more in the last year probably.
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  and I just was like,
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  what's like who is the most prominent,
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  most popular, most, you know, ideal partner?
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  And lo and behold, Chat GPT led me to Fats Timbo.
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  It led me to a lot of people ~ in business that I've worked with in
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  the last couple of years.
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  And I love telling people that I met them like because of ChatGPT Everyone's really
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  flattered. ~ so that's cool. But ~ yeah,
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  ChatGPT is amazing. It's amazing.
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  it's it's it's so cool that you're able to connect with somebody who
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  it sounds like the two of you really are working to build something that
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  is inclusionary for all, but also really catering to a population
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  who maybe aren't having a social club that easily reflects who they are
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  or what what they're looking for.
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  Yeah, it's very sincere. There's no question about that.
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  Like there's no ~ there's not a joke in here.
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  ~ I personally am passionate about leveraging
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  a really unique social club, ~ as a concept similar to ping pong,
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  ~ different, but ~ as a as like a gimmick almost,
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  the hook. as just the beginning.
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  And so like really have a social club of I mean,
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  people are what make
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  variety of people and the the type of people are what make a party
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  or a social environment fun. It's all about the people.
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  Like excuse me, great lighting and music and alcohol and everything
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  can contribute to that greatly.
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  But ~ it's always about the people.
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  And so ~ using little people as a jumping off point
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  ~ to to establish that this is a y something totally different and unique.
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  And ~ I feel like it sets the the tone.
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  ~ we'll see. It's all about execution and it's a very fine line.
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  And I did realize that there would be a lot of potentially negative feelings about
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  this project. I don't know why,
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  but I just like I mean, people have echoed that to me.
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  But ~ so far I actually haven't heard any criticism,
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  to be honest. So we'll see. That'll probably change.
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  I mean, I it's interesting that there'd be people criticizing this when sounds like
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  you are truly trying to just like
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  Okay.
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  you said, it's so sincere. You're trying to recognize and cater to people
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  who are overlooked easily. You know,
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  as a psychologist, I understand that there are populations that
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  do not get represented as well as they should.
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  And so for you to be able to do that and say,
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  like, hey, like, let's have a space where we can all come together,
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  regardless if you're a little person or not,
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  but we can all come together with kind with a design in mind that that is for
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  A certain individual, that's that's awesome.
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  Well,
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  thank you for saying that. I think so too.
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  ~ I think it's gonna be really,
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  really special. And ~ the the the idea is to ~ have a really multifaceted type
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  of social club. So parlor games.
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  ~ I my background is in ping pong,
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  so I'm ~ kind of an expert in parlor games.
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  So we're gonna have all of the classic par parlor games and maybe some
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  of the not classics. and then we're gonna have a ~ cinema,
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  a disco tech.
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  And I'm hoping a ~ like a puppet theater.
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  Originally I thought a real theater,
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  a small one, but it's a lot of space.
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  ~ and I think a puppet theater could be pretty creative and fun.
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  ~ it's a little it feels a little diminutive kind of can with little people.
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  So I am always a little shy to talk about that.
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  But I think a puppet theater would be really cool.
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  We'll see if we end up having one.
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  and so all of those different facets.
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  The disco for me, I think, is gonna be the most fun.
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  And like in New York City,
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  There's there's plenty of places to dance.
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  Not not too many. There's enough.
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  but there's always room to really like carve out a place as like
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  a really great place to go and dance.
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  And so ~ a really cool disco floor i in this place is gonna be really important.
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  do you go about deciding kind of what goes into making a club such as this?
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  'Cause like you said you mentioned there's so many things,
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  the cinema, per perhaps a puppet theater,
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  the discotheque, like how do you decide like what's is important or what
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  you want to bring to this club?
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  It's ~ it's totally a creative,
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  intuitive, you know,
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  it's it's ~ like all the creativity that I have personally,
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  ~ you know, a lot of it's terrible,
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  some of it's maybe good. ~ so really filtering that.
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  ~ getting to work with Fats Timbo is is is essential,
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  ~ 'cause she's been able to keep me like in check and really make sure that
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  we don't deviate from what, you know,
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  a really sincere purpose is.
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  ~ so you know, to answer your question,
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  I would say fats. Timbo is the is the is how we stay online.
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  I have like a billion ideas left and right and kind of figuring out which ones
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  are the good ones and getting rid of the bad ones is is is critical.
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  ~ but I love to imagine this whole business as an art project in some ways.
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  I wouldn't want to say that to our investors,
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  but ~ it definitely is is an artful kind of
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  ~ experience that I want to create.
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  I don't know if you've ever ~ come upon Meowwolf.
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  Do you know those those guys or that that place?
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  I do, yeah. I actually got to interview somebody from them.
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  ~ really? Cool. Well I
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  Yeah.
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  made a a trip to Santa Fe to check out Meowwolf back in I think 2000
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  and like seventeen maybe like a long time ago.
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  Okay.
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  And ~ it was the drive was from ~ Las Vegas,
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  not from New York. But ~ anyway
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  ~ I love the I love the whole thing a lot.
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  And they've expanded ~ tremendously since then and they're great.
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  ~ so I was a I was influenced,
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  inspired by what they were doing ~ with creating really imaginative environments
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  and ~ I feel like there's not enough of that.
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  So that's ~ definitely gonna be a piece of this.
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  Sounds it's becoming like in your head almost like a cultural space.
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  Like this is not just a social club.
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  This is a space that can reflect lots of different ideas and identities,
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  with the focus still being on little people having a social club.
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  Totally. Yeah. Like curation is is gonna be the whole like key to success.
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  Like having great events and, you know,
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  literary events with reading, you know,
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  or a play, reading a play and s guest speakers and I love the like churn
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  of the I guess nineteenth, twentieth century discovery kind
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  of like still discovering pyramids and things in like Peru.
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  and
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  So there's I wanna infuse as much like old society members club,
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  ~ kind of in a sill not a silly way,
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  but in a like a reference, like reference,
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  an homage maybe. but like and that's an ex explorers and adventurers
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  and ~ artists. ~ they definitely make ~ a cool,
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  a fun environment, like good social environment.
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  You know, you had mentioned too about making ping pong clubs and y specifically,
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  you know, you created spin, which is quite influential in the area.
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  What would you say that has creating spin has helped
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  Yeah.
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  you approaching little people social clubs?
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  Well, when we opened Spin in two thousand nine,
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  I knew that we would need to sell alcohol to pay the rent.
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  Like I knew I wasn't counting on Ping Pong being the the the financial driver.
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  Sure.
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  It was purely the the point was for Ping Pong,
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  but I knew, you know, like logically that I wasn't probably gonna pay the rent,
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  especially in New York City. and so in the course of the last I mean,
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  we've been open since two thousand nine,
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  so it's seventeen years, eighteen years almost maybe.
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  ~
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  And you know, I've learned the hospitality business,
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  also private events is a big part of our business.
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  And so this place will be designed to accommodate really great events.
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  ~ I'm actually excited to steal Elvis's billiards room
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  from Graceland and ~
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  Okay.
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  recreate it with some slight variations ~ as one of our private rooms
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  in the club. ~ so that would that'll be cool
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  That's so cool.
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  if
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  pull
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  that off. But ~ yeah, private events is really important.
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  I hope that the billionaire,
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  very, very rich New Yorkers ~ have wanna rent the place out on like,
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  you know, Saturday morning for their kids' birthday parties and stuff.
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  That would be cool too. I would like that.
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  Absolutely. I mean, that that makes sense though.
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  Like to have the infrastructure you have to be able to sell the space in a way.
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  You definitely have to sell the space.
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  And so like I'm offering founding memberships right now and have a really cool thing
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  with memberships planned, ~ different types of memberships.
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  ~ but also need to make money i in other ways,
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  'cause just as a pure members club,
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  it's probably not enough to make it work.
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  But ~ events, which is what I learned in ping pong and spinning.
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  So it's
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  It's I think we'll I think we'll have a the space is gonna be so fun.
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  I mean, part of the reason I'm doing it was just to create a space that drop drops
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  people's jaws and they're just like in awe of how unusual
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  and how meticulously designed and created ~ the whole place is and how
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  fun and so like when we our very early days of hosting ping pong parties
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  out of our apartment, ~ people would come and it was a really eclectic scene
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  and we had three ping pong tables in our apartment and
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  It's the weirdest characters. And people were just like,
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  only in New York would you find something like this.
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  And I always loved that that expression or whatever,
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  like only in New York here. And ~ so that stuck stuck with me for a long time.
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  So like, you know, like I want this to be a ~ only in New York when
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  you find this madness.
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  Right, that's kind of what drives the unique experience.
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  Mm.
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  Like nobody else in nowhere else in the world can you find an experience quite like
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  this.
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  Exactly. And and the the truth is there's great cities that have really more maybe
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  Never only in Berlin, I'm sure happens all the time.
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  So, you know, when you're kind of going forth and creating
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  a space specifically designed for little people,
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  how do you balance with making sure that it still feels very welcome
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  and open to everybody?
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  Yeah,
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  well my problem is making sure I don't go too far designing it for other people too.
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  Like you know, average
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  Match.
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  height people or
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  Differentiate, I guess. along those lines,
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  I'm I'm I'm I'm toying with the idea and I according to ChatGPT,
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  it's legal, but I I kinda wanna charge ~ based on height to get in.
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  So the the thought is that we're gonna offer week long memberships.
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  So you're either a member or not,
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  you can come as a member. But if you're a tourist or you just were curious,
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  you want to see, so then you could come and you would ~ be able to get
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  a week long membership.
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  Which would be like five or seven days.
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  And ~ so that membership,
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  I was thinking like if you're,
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  you know, over six feet tall would be the maximum price.
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  And if you're somehow, you know,
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  in the middle, it's a little bit cheaper or something.
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  The inspiration for that is the Soho House,
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  which is probably the most popular like members club.
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  ~ they have a price discount for age for twenty seven,
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  I think is the age. So it's cheaper if you're younger.
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  ~ so I thought why not hide and like why not
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  It's legal. It's not discriminatory,
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  apparently. I don't know.
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  so what do you kind of hope that like little people social club changes about
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  the way maybe businesses or public spaces think about designing environments
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  for little people?
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  Well, that's a cool question. I I love it.
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  ~ you know, like realistically,
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  I never thought about it and ~ I wouldn't imagine anything.
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  But if you're posing the question,
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  I love the idea of it ~ giving people permission unconsciously
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  or consciously when they're in it to be like,
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  holy cow, like if this clown can open this business,
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  then you know, like w anything goes.
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  Like there's really no
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  There's no limits to ~ what's possible.
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  So that would be awesome. That would be the greatest.
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  ~ I would love that. People like I mean,
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  I told you I do want people's jaws to drop,
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  you know, as many as possible.
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  by, you know, just maybe the the main bar image,
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  'cause it'd be a massive bar but with a very low counter.
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  and ~ but I I think at the end of the day it would be really cool
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  if it inspired people to just pursue whatever crazy idea they have.
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  Because
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  I I definitely learned a long time ago,
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  the ping phon was definitely a part of it was just to really not think about
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  the financial side of the project,
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  the business, the creative idea,
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  whatever it is. ~ just, you know,
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  if you love it then do it and see what happens.
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  I mean, that's a great sentiment.
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  There's so many things, so many great ideals out there and people should pursue
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  their their ideals and their dreams and see what happens.
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  And even if it sounds crazy, you never know what's gonna end up coming out of it.
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  Totally.
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  Well, thank you so much for being here,
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  Jonathan. It's been such a pleasure talking with you and also learning more about
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  Little People's Social Club. We are so excited for this to arrive in New York.
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  But thank you for coming on here and chatting about it.
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  I greatly appreciate your time and nice to meet you and ~ thank you.
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  To learn more about Little People Social Club and the work that Jonathan is doing,
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  check out the website Little People Social Club.com and check it out.
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  Thank you so much.