View article at 2night.ie Magazine December 2010 edition

One way or another, Claire Malone has spent all of her working life helping people have a good night out. After starting out at the Gaiety theatre and acting on the side, she move to L.A. in search of silver screen success and found auditions rolling in. Then music came calling. "I came back to Ireland and my plan was to save up some money to go back to L.A. - I intended to live there. I did a run of gigs with ABBA bands at the RDS and went back to the Gaiety. Then I got a call at the end of January from this guy in The Commitments. They were looking for a female singer but I said I wasn't really looking to do tribute bands - I was going back to L.A. to act," she recalls. Still, Claire went along to the audition, and got the part. "Three weeks later, I had breakfast in Dallas, lunch in Chicago and dinner in Winnipeg. That was the beginning of my proper touring, and that was my work for the last seven years."

After a frantic time - during which she supported the Black Eyed Peas, played for President Bush, and did backing vocals for Ben E. King - another change happened last year. "I was always into event management and I love planning stuff - it's fun organising things for people," Claire explains. "From entertainment, I'd become friends with a lot of people in the industry, across bars, clubs and all that, so I tended to have people asking me to get them on the guest list at places and organise tables. Last year, I was organising a night out for a friend's birthday. I got them to meet me in town at a bar, but before I got there I rang a friend there and send 'send them over a couple of shots.' They let me organise it all, so I took them to Sin and brought them up to a gentleman's club. Then I took them to Lillie's. They had a great night and, at the end of it, they were saying 'Claire, that was just fantastic. We didn't have to worry about a thing - getting into places, tables, waiting around.' Everything was just in, sorted, fantastic. The next morning, I just said 'I should do this.'"

Create Your Night was born, and Claire has since plunged herself into managing every aspect of a night out for groups of friends, co-workers or family members. "Slowly but surely, I'm getting enquiries in. I mean, the packages are great. If someone said to you that, for €20 per person, someone will meet you at your accommodation in town (and can organise your accommodation for you), bring you out to a couple of bars, make sure you're in and have a table there, then bring you to a club, and you'll get a couple of drinks, you'd be up for that. It saves so much walking around looking for a place, and there are lots of groups that can't get in because there's too many of them - some door staff just won't allow big groups in. But there are lots of places just crying out for people to come in. You know, I'd like to create things for those clubs while things are the way they are," she says. "You hear people talking about private member clubs and saying 'how do we get in?' We take care of that - your guide walks you in. You just have a good time, and we take care of all the rest."

Ringing countless bars and clubs to get great deals, before serving as the energetic host for the evening must be tough work, and we can't help asking just what makes her do it "I want people to enjoy nights out," she says simply. "When I'm out with friends, it kind of frustrates me when I don't see people having a good time. I have friends with kids, and they don't get out a lot. When they do, I want them to have a good night so I do my best to organise things. I know the company is the main thing - you can go to a crap bar with no atmosphere, but you can be with a really great group of friends - but, if I can make it better by bringing people to nice places and organising things for us, then that's great."

It's clear, then, that Claire is doing for groups of people what she'd already do for friends - which makes her pretty qualified to judge what makes a great night. "A good group of people, and the atmosphere in a place. I really like to have a table when i go into a bar or club. Guys don't really care but, for girls, standing around in heels all night does their heads in. They want to put their jacket down, they want to put their bags away. I like to have a nice table, somewhere to go back to when you go for a dance or a cigarette or whatever. Table service is great - nobody likes queuing at a bar," she adds. "I want to be looked after on a night out. When you're spending good money, everyone should be treated well."

Her prescription of relaxing and feeling looked after raises an obvious question - how hard is it do in Dublin clubs? "I'm ok because I'm comfortable anywhere. But I remember, years ago, that I was incredibly uncomfortable going into places. I felt really awkward and embarrassed standing in a bar. It just wasn't comfortable being out there. There are younger groups who go out, and they might be slightly uneasy about other people around them or, depending on the kind of place, what kind of people there are. They might be nervous about themselves, or their bag. Don't get me wrong, I do go in and have shit nights, depending on what happened. You can't have a great night all  the time. I try though!" she laughs.

One thing that doesn't appeal, though is tacky gimmicks and animals. Speaking in the wake of a wallaby's ill-fated appearance on a Dublin dancefloor, Claire reveals that some party-goers are more than happy to pull similarly daft stunts. "I was MCing a party, a 21st a few months ago. They brought two huge snakes - maybe 18 feet - and a small alligator. I swear, people just walked around with an alligator on their shoulder. It was crazy. People just go 'wow', and then they walk away, so what's the point? The snakes, well, people do that as part of shows, but that poor alligator was just sitting in his pool of water, you give him a bit of meat and he won't do a thing. I ran straight out of that party," she says. "I've been at a few parties where snakes were there, but the alligator was only once. I'm not into it, to be honest. It's good when you have fire-eaters outside or that kind of thing at the opening of a party, but the animal thing doesn't work for me."

At the moment, then, she's sticking to the fundamentals of finding great bars and making sure people are pampered - while also working on recording some modern soul music of her own. However, Claire insists that her new venture is her main focus.

"Create Your Night is something I think Dublin needs. You get pub crawls with a group of strangers that meet in the city centre, which is great for tourists and that, where they all meet each other and hang out. I'm not offering that - I'm doing something a little more upscale, but at a cheap price."

View article at 2night.ie Magazine December 2010 edition