If you're a part of the local party scene, you probably already know her name. You may be among the few who realized who you were looking at as you watched the thin, buxom visage stride from shadow to shadow around the dance floor, but never on it. Even if you don't go out, you've probably heard of her parties sometime in the last two years. They come up regularly in the mainstream press. They begin waves of copy-cat events throughout the Valley. She is Miss Jen Deveroux, and at the moment she is Queen of the Scene.I say "at the moment," because nothing so etherial can last very long, and that's fine with Deveroux. With a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Loyola University and more than half-way through pre-med, throwing trendy DJ parties has been more of an inspired diversion than a calling.
Deveroux moved to the Valley from Chicago in 2000 to be on her own and go to school. "In 2007, I had a job as an aesthetician in a clinic, working with reconstructive surgery patients and doing chemical peals and stuff like that, and after eight or nine months, it just got so boring." A friend of Deveroux's, Jas Tynan, introduced her to local powerhouse DJ William Reed, who was an established local act, and the boredom was cured.
"I approached William Reed and asked if he'd teach me how to DJ, and he basically blew me off." He did recommend to Tynan that she help promote a night called Old School Thursdays at Club E-4, and Deveroux found she had a knack for creating energy AWAY from the turntable.
Still, says Deveroux, she found a lot lacking in the local party scene. "Most of these parties put a lady on the cover and they give it some lame name and then that's all they do. It's generic at almost every venue. There are one or two exceptions, but basically all the parties, quote unquote, are the same." Jen wanted more of the diversity and dynamism, some of the "cool" she had seen at parties in L.A.. She set about building a party from scratch.
She lined up Reed and another local DJ, Jared Allen, to share mixing duties. Both men had amassed a healthy following at other venues. In order to provide a diversion from the steady music, she approached various artists and performers who would rotate into the party. Not only would they be selling their art during the shows, but in many cases they would also be creating on-site. Next, they needed a venue."We wanted something with its own character that wasn't just an ordinary club. Most big cities have these great old hotels and that's always where the best parties are," she says. "Los Angeles has the Roosevelt on Hollywood Boulevard, and The Standard; San Francisco has tons of them. When I saw the San Carlos, I fell in love with it!"
That's how I met her. I was managing the Hotel San Carlos at the time. It was early April, 2008, and I was looking ahead to a long Summer with no revenue coming into our food and beverage operation. Our restaurant staff already wasn't making much money in tips, and soon they would be making even less. We couldn't count on locals to make up for the absent tourists, either. The hotel had just celebrated its eighty-fifth year in the center of Downtown Phoenix and aside from old-timers, very few people in town even new it existed.
Looking out the window at the outdoor pool deck, I thought there must be a way to entice people to come enjoy the pool and, more importantly, buy booze! A mere day later my phone rang, and Jen Deveroux made her proposal for a weekly pool party. Perfect!
Looking out the window at the outdoor pool deck, I thought there must be a way to entice people to come enjoy the pool and, more importantly, buy booze! A mere day later my phone rang, and Jen Deveroux made her proposal for a weekly pool party. Perfect!
Thus started Adult Swim, the event that put Jen Deveroux AND the San Carlos on the map. Not only did it attract scenesters from all over the Valley, but students, artists, business people and people who didn't even know what a "party scene" was. The event grew to capacity quickly and it wasn't long before hotels Valley-wide were trying to jump on the bandwagon. Still, Adult Swim was the hottest, hippest party in the Valley that season. By the next Summer, the party had outgrown the San Carlos and moved to the Wyndham, which could handle the capacity.
Since then, Jen Deveroux has been a minor celebrity in town. She has launched numerous parties with greater or lesser success, but her reputation for creating a cool event has remained intact and sought after by business people wanting to bolster flagging interest in their clubs and bars.
Her current hit is a party called "Harlot," which inhabits both the Red Room and Peire Lachaise lounges at the Mondrian Scottsdale Friday nights. While there are no bathing suits, the vibe is much the same as Adult Swim. People are laughing, dancing, having a great time. A girl dressed as a living anime character is putting paint to canvas at an easel on one side of the room. On center stage, a contortionist from the performing troop Scandalesque draws whoops of applause for adopting superhuman positions. In the far corner, DJs William Reed and Tricky T are behind their laptops cueing up the next transition of songs.
And in walks Jen in a smart black blazer, skin tight jeans and straight, shoulder-length hair. She looks professional, thin and shapely. She's difficult to get a beed on from across the room because she is everywhere. Two feet through the door, and she's stopped by an admirer. Another joins. She laughs, answers a question or two and excuses herself, only to take a few more steps and then stop to answer text messages. Then it's across the floor and over to Reed, over to the bar to check on liquor sales and out to the patio because someone out there is partying a bit too hard. Over the course of the next hour, she has been downstairs twice to check on the party there, conferred with hotel management three times about sound levels, rowdy attendees and an animated DJ, and given small bits of personal time to about a dozen friends, most of whom she never knew just two months ago and won't see or speak to again until next Friday.
Go to the Mondrian any other night of the week outside of tourist season and it's dead; but on Harlot Fridays, the place rocks and the bars make bank.
There are a couple of reasons why Jen Deveroux's success in the Phoenix party scene is deeply ironic. Private by nature, she is decidedly not promiscuous. She marvels at the level of hooking up she hears about through the party grapevine, but is only interested in it for its soap opera qualities. She only drinks alcohol on rare occasions, and never to excess. Although she can appreciate the thumping beats of the party music, she admits that her secret favorite parties are the ones with live indie bands - a crowd that wouldn't normally be caught dead at a place so chi chi as the Mondrian Snottsdale.
A quick scratch of the surface, however, suggests she may have a genetic predisposition to successful wheeling and dealing on the periphery of the stage.
The name Anthony Pellicano would be familiar to anyone watching the nightly entertainment news magazines a few years ago. Pellicano, once known as "Private Investigator to the Stars," did detective work for the likes of Michael Jackson, Steven Seagal, Michael Ovitz and Chris Rock, among many others.
Possibly not content to just sit back and let clients come to him, Pellicano is alleged to have drummed up business by actually purchasing incriminating information and charging would-be clients big money to keep the information a secret under the pretext of "managing" it for them. What Pellicano may have considered a bold and innovative business idea, eventually resulted in racketeering charges, and later a conviction for other prodigious transgressions.
He's a real go-getter, that Anthony Pellicano; much like Jen Deveroux. Also like Jen, he is creative and energetic and driven. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. Jen Deveroux knows him perhaps best of all.
Pellicano is Jen's father.
(Cue the Darth Vader theme.)
Jen loves and once trusted her father. The revelations of his misdeeds and the reality of his subsequent downfall put Jen through the mill. The move to the Valley was a much needed escape from a more fucked up reality - one she now has in perspective and no longer needs to feel threatened by. The creativity she has exercised here and the success she has had has enabled her to lay claim to her own identity. She is in control of her life and her destiny and is determined to keep it that way.
Even though we admire one another because of our past collaboration, Jen was slightly apprehensive at being interviewed for this piece. I knew I'd have to be somewhat cautious, and ease into it gradually.
Her current hit is a party called "Harlot," which inhabits both the Red Room and Peire Lachaise lounges at the Mondrian Scottsdale Friday nights. While there are no bathing suits, the vibe is much the same as Adult Swim. People are laughing, dancing, having a great time. A girl dressed as a living anime character is putting paint to canvas at an easel on one side of the room. On center stage, a contortionist from the performing troop Scandalesque draws whoops of applause for adopting superhuman positions. In the far corner, DJs William Reed and Tricky T are behind their laptops cueing up the next transition of songs.
And in walks Jen in a smart black blazer, skin tight jeans and straight, shoulder-length hair. She looks professional, thin and shapely. She's difficult to get a beed on from across the room because she is everywhere. Two feet through the door, and she's stopped by an admirer. Another joins. She laughs, answers a question or two and excuses herself, only to take a few more steps and then stop to answer text messages. Then it's across the floor and over to Reed, over to the bar to check on liquor sales and out to the patio because someone out there is partying a bit too hard. Over the course of the next hour, she has been downstairs twice to check on the party there, conferred with hotel management three times about sound levels, rowdy attendees and an animated DJ, and given small bits of personal time to about a dozen friends, most of whom she never knew just two months ago and won't see or speak to again until next Friday.Go to the Mondrian any other night of the week outside of tourist season and it's dead; but on Harlot Fridays, the place rocks and the bars make bank.
There are a couple of reasons why Jen Deveroux's success in the Phoenix party scene is deeply ironic. Private by nature, she is decidedly not promiscuous. She marvels at the level of hooking up she hears about through the party grapevine, but is only interested in it for its soap opera qualities. She only drinks alcohol on rare occasions, and never to excess. Although she can appreciate the thumping beats of the party music, she admits that her secret favorite parties are the ones with live indie bands - a crowd that wouldn't normally be caught dead at a place so chi chi as the Mondrian Snottsdale.
A quick scratch of the surface, however, suggests she may have a genetic predisposition to successful wheeling and dealing on the periphery of the stage.
The name Anthony Pellicano would be familiar to anyone watching the nightly entertainment news magazines a few years ago. Pellicano, once known as "Private Investigator to the Stars," did detective work for the likes of Michael Jackson, Steven Seagal, Michael Ovitz and Chris Rock, among many others.
Possibly not content to just sit back and let clients come to him, Pellicano is alleged to have drummed up business by actually purchasing incriminating information and charging would-be clients big money to keep the information a secret under the pretext of "managing" it for them. What Pellicano may have considered a bold and innovative business idea, eventually resulted in racketeering charges, and later a conviction for other prodigious transgressions.
He's a real go-getter, that Anthony Pellicano; much like Jen Deveroux. Also like Jen, he is creative and energetic and driven. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. Jen Deveroux knows him perhaps best of all.
Pellicano is Jen's father.
(Cue the Darth Vader theme.)
Jen loves and once trusted her father. The revelations of his misdeeds and the reality of his subsequent downfall put Jen through the mill. The move to the Valley was a much needed escape from a more fucked up reality - one she now has in perspective and no longer needs to feel threatened by. The creativity she has exercised here and the success she has had has enabled her to lay claim to her own identity. She is in control of her life and her destiny and is determined to keep it that way.
Even though we admire one another because of our past collaboration, Jen was slightly apprehensive at being interviewed for this piece. I knew I'd have to be somewhat cautious, and ease into it gradually.
Java: Some people say the party scene is where you go to find tomorrow's homeless people today. Basically it's for losers. What do you say to that?
Answer: I'd say they don't know what they're talking about. I'd also say you're an ass!
Wow, a simple question, and she was already being so sensitive!
Java: Why do people go to a "Jen Deveroux party?"
Answer: I'd say they don't know what they're talking about. I'd also say you're an ass!
Wow, a simple question, and she was already being so sensitive!
Java: Why do people go to a "Jen Deveroux party?"
JD: Well, all these parties have their own sort of characters. For Adult Swim, people came to see vast amounts of other people who are cool, artsy, tatted up, in bathing suits. Also because the Hotel San Carlos was just the only place in town where you could get the really hip kind of vibe. So that all came together. And yeah, there was a bunch of people who were looking to get laid. I mean, come on, let's be honest.
...and even now at Harlot, you still have most of that, minus the swimming pool. The Mondrian has its own cool vibe, plus we give them a lot to look at. We get people who wanna hear good music and from the best DJs. And we always get a real variety of people. We get artists, intellects, wealthy people, people on a budget because it IS a free party...
...one thing I want to have at all of my parties is that cool mix. I don't want it to be just a meat market or just for girls or just for rich people. Just for cool people. Haha - You know who you are!
Java: So how do you achieve that?
...and even now at Harlot, you still have most of that, minus the swimming pool. The Mondrian has its own cool vibe, plus we give them a lot to look at. We get people who wanna hear good music and from the best DJs. And we always get a real variety of people. We get artists, intellects, wealthy people, people on a budget because it IS a free party...
...one thing I want to have at all of my parties is that cool mix. I don't want it to be just a meat market or just for girls or just for rich people. Just for cool people. Haha - You know who you are!
Java: So how do you achieve that?
JD: Through branding. Through the look of the flyers, the promotion, marketing, musicians, the DJs involved. I try to imagine stuff that's totally different than what's going on. With Harlot I'm trying to use the physical entertainment, the contortionists and performers with live painting with DJs and integrate it into a hip night that would be attractive to a lot of the population. You don't really go to a club here and see that type of performance. You see go-go dancers, but not someone breathing fire or hanging from the ceiling. It might be more common in L.A., but it's not here.
Java: What changed after your success with Adult Swim?
JD: It was amazing! For one thing I got a lot of name recognition. We were featured in The Arizona Republic, New Times, on television. I think it gave me credibility right away. People who had clubs started seeking me out to see if I could do something for them. I think it made everything else possible, really.
Java: Unless a party is really successful, there's not a lot of money to go around. Why wouldn't the DJs just do this themselves and cut out the middle-man?
JD: It's funny because back ten years ago, most DJs were hired just as a DJ, but now they've merged into promoters, too. Some DJs are o.k, with it, but most aren't. I mean, I actually used to hear that a lot from some of my DJs, like "why should you get a cut when it's all about the music, and I play the music." That works until one of the hotel managers wants to pull them out of their sets to talk about room capacity or until one of the DJs friends does something stupid to get themselves ejected. The truth is these DJs are performers. They can't do what they do if they're also juggling the other performers, the guests, the parking, the receipts... Some of our DJs are absolutely wild, too, and that's part of their popularity. From the venue's standpoint, they always know where to find me and I'll solve their problems and keep the party going. From the DJs standpoint, they don't have to worry about anything but the music. Ha - I'm VITAL!
But so are they. I love my boys! William Reed, Jared Alan, Sean Watson and Tricky T. They're the best, and I couldn't do it without them.
Java: Was there a party you did that just didn't work and that baffled you?
JD: Yes! Royal Filth! That was downtown (Phoenix) at Rose and Crown. I thought the concept was very intriguing. It was a really attractive place and it was outdoors. Ultimately, though, there are a lot of thing going on on Saturdays that targeted the same people - other really well-established parties - and that's probably what did us in.
Java: You're in great shape! What's your routine?
JD: Well, I run six to seven miles, four times a week. Twice a week, I do yoga at Bikram Yoga of Phoenix. They're actually the only place in town I'll go for Yoga. I've been Vegetarian since I was fifteen. I'm one of twelve brothers and sisters, and I'm the only vegetarian. I started that because I became aware of the torture that animals go through when they are in our food chain, but I also loved the health benefits I got from it.
Java: How old are you?
JD: 37
Java: You're not going to be mysterious about that? You know, that makes you the oldest girl at most of your parties.
JD: No, I'm not going to be mysterious, I think that's great! I'm very proud of my age.
Java: What are your parties going to be like ten years from now?
JD: Ha! I'm not going to be doing this ten years from now!
Java: Back to medicine?
JD: Maybe. I really love that, and I love helping people. I'm thinking about some other things too, though. I've met a lot of really talented people over the last couple of years. I think I could do a good job representing them.
Java: O.K., now just a couple of quick questions "for classification purposes:" First, boxers or wrestlers?
JD: What? Boxers, because they're extremely disciplined as far as their workouts and I admire that. There's also something about two dudes rolling around on the floor. I mean not that there's anything wrong with that...
Java: O.K., Rough or smooth?
JD: Rough or smooth? Rough, definitely! Wait - What are we talking about? Did you go to school for this?
Java: What's coming up, party-wise?
JD: Harlot's still the big thing right now - it's getting bigger every week! What we've got planned for Valentines Day, though, is going to blow everyone away. It's a French Revolution themed masquerade night - We're calling it Let Them Eat Cake. We're having a fashion show with six or seven designers, contortionists, aerialists, fire eaters, clairvoyants. No admission without a costume. People should hit me up on Facebook to keep up to date.
Java: What changed after your success with Adult Swim?
JD: It was amazing! For one thing I got a lot of name recognition. We were featured in The Arizona Republic, New Times, on television. I think it gave me credibility right away. People who had clubs started seeking me out to see if I could do something for them. I think it made everything else possible, really.
Java: Unless a party is really successful, there's not a lot of money to go around. Why wouldn't the DJs just do this themselves and cut out the middle-man?
JD: It's funny because back ten years ago, most DJs were hired just as a DJ, but now they've merged into promoters, too. Some DJs are o.k, with it, but most aren't. I mean, I actually used to hear that a lot from some of my DJs, like "why should you get a cut when it's all about the music, and I play the music." That works until one of the hotel managers wants to pull them out of their sets to talk about room capacity or until one of the DJs friends does something stupid to get themselves ejected. The truth is these DJs are performers. They can't do what they do if they're also juggling the other performers, the guests, the parking, the receipts... Some of our DJs are absolutely wild, too, and that's part of their popularity. From the venue's standpoint, they always know where to find me and I'll solve their problems and keep the party going. From the DJs standpoint, they don't have to worry about anything but the music. Ha - I'm VITAL!
But so are they. I love my boys! William Reed, Jared Alan, Sean Watson and Tricky T. They're the best, and I couldn't do it without them.
Java: Was there a party you did that just didn't work and that baffled you?
JD: Yes! Royal Filth! That was downtown (Phoenix) at Rose and Crown. I thought the concept was very intriguing. It was a really attractive place and it was outdoors. Ultimately, though, there are a lot of thing going on on Saturdays that targeted the same people - other really well-established parties - and that's probably what did us in.
Java: You're in great shape! What's your routine?
JD: Well, I run six to seven miles, four times a week. Twice a week, I do yoga at Bikram Yoga of Phoenix. They're actually the only place in town I'll go for Yoga. I've been Vegetarian since I was fifteen. I'm one of twelve brothers and sisters, and I'm the only vegetarian. I started that because I became aware of the torture that animals go through when they are in our food chain, but I also loved the health benefits I got from it.
Java: How old are you?
JD: 37
Java: You're not going to be mysterious about that? You know, that makes you the oldest girl at most of your parties.
JD: No, I'm not going to be mysterious, I think that's great! I'm very proud of my age.
Java: What are your parties going to be like ten years from now?
JD: Ha! I'm not going to be doing this ten years from now!
Java: Back to medicine?
JD: Maybe. I really love that, and I love helping people. I'm thinking about some other things too, though. I've met a lot of really talented people over the last couple of years. I think I could do a good job representing them.
Java: O.K., now just a couple of quick questions "for classification purposes:" First, boxers or wrestlers?
JD: What? Boxers, because they're extremely disciplined as far as their workouts and I admire that. There's also something about two dudes rolling around on the floor. I mean not that there's anything wrong with that...
Java: O.K., Rough or smooth?
JD: Rough or smooth? Rough, definitely! Wait - What are we talking about? Did you go to school for this?
Java: What's coming up, party-wise?
JD: Harlot's still the big thing right now - it's getting bigger every week! What we've got planned for Valentines Day, though, is going to blow everyone away. It's a French Revolution themed masquerade night - We're calling it Let Them Eat Cake. We're having a fashion show with six or seven designers, contortionists, aerialists, fire eaters, clairvoyants. No admission without a costume. People should hit me up on Facebook to keep up to date.
You can see more pics from Harlot and other of Jen Deveroux's parties, along with a whole bunch of random stuff in the JAVA set at my Flickr site.
Also, pick up a copy of JAZA Magazine around Phoenix and Tempe. Among the places that carry them is Zia Records, Buffalo Exchange, Urban Grocery, Tempe Camera.
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