Joseph Leaves Entertainment Commission

Longtime nightlife figure Audrey Joseph has stepped down from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, the oversight body for the permitting of bars and nightclubs and other issues.

"I've been on the entertainment commission since its inception in July 2003, and it's just time to relinquish my seat to somebody else," said Joseph, a lesbian who currently serves as the panel's vice president. Her term was set to expire in July 2019. "Fresh blood is always good. It's just time, and I want to spend most of my time concentrating on the venue that I am developing right now."

That current project is the drill court at the Armory, the historic, castle-like building at 1800 Mission Street that's owned by the Kink.com porn company. Joseph, who works as the Armory's events director, said she's transforming the drill court into "what I hope will be the premiere entertainment venue in San Francisco."

Her last day on the commission was Tuesday, December 20. The panel marked the occasion with a holiday get-together that doubled as Joseph's retirement party.

Joseph said she was "grateful" to serve on the panel and to have had the support of Mayor Ed Lee, as well as former Mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom.

"We did some amazing things," she said of her work with fellow commissioners. "We passed legislation to help protect entertainment and create legitimate entertainment spaces, and we solidified regulations. Entertainment is markedly more safe and more fun these days than it was back when we started. We helped entertainment through the recession of 2008. I'm very proud of all the work I did, and extremely proud of Jocelyn Kane," the commission's executive director.

In an email to the Bay Area Reporter , Kane said, "For the last 13 years as a member of the entertainment commission, Audrey has demonstrated bold leadership and inspired us all with an insightful and passionate approach. She is truly a force of nature and will be greatly missed."

Kane noted that Joseph served as the commission's president in 2004, 2007, and 2008, and said she had been "a fierce advocate for artists and creative professionals, promoting responsible nightlife and a commitment to upholding standards of safety and equity for all entertainment professionals."

Additionally, she said, Joseph "was responsible for creating the founding rules, regulations, and processes of the commission alongside the other founding members. Audrey brought a wealth of knowledge from her experience working in the entertainment and nightlife industry and served as a mentor to incoming commissioners."

Heklina, the local drag star who co-owns the Oasis cabaret and nightclub at 298 11th Street, said of Joseph, "She's definitely a ballbuster and a hard-ass," but there's "a heart of gold underneath that gruff exterior."

"She was on the entertainment commission when we went before the board to get our after-hours license. She really believed in us," said Heklina, also known as Stefan Grygelko.

Long history

A longtime promoter who was responsible for Club Universe, a weekly gay dance club that took place from the 1990s into the early 2000s, Joseph also worked for years as the main stage producer for the San Francisco LGBT Pride celebration.

She suspects that when people first heard of the entertainment commission, on which she held the industry representative seat, they thought, "What does that mean? They're not serious."

But now, she said, city officials and residents "realize that we were serious about establishing best practices and helping to reinvigorate the industry. I think we actually achieved all those things."

Along with a thriving nightlife have come new, high-price condominiums. Joseph said surviving the construction boom is the biggest issue facing the industry.

"Entertainment is being squeezed," she said, pointing to the live music venue Bottom of the Hill at 1233 17th Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood as an example.

"If you look at it, it's being surrounded on all sides" by residential construction, Joseph said. Finding the space where residential and entertainment spaces can coexist will be the commission's "greatest challenge."

Joseph doesn't know who will succeed her on the commission.

"It's the mayor's choice," she said. "I did suggest a number of people send in their resumes." (Spokespeople for Lee didn't respond to an email from the B.A.R.)

"I hope we find someone who not only has a good knowledge of sound and sound attenuation but also of venue operations. ... That's what I did, mostly. I made sure we had great operators and they controlled their sound," Joseph said.

Joseph, who was diagnosed in 2014 with ovarian cancer, said she's doing "much better. I am cancer free."

She declined to share her age, saying, "I'm not telling you that. You've got to be kidding. ... I'm 100. I've certainly lived a life of 100 years, that's for sure."