New Year’s Eve star, no head shots needed

Only one, maybe two times in the last 18 years, has Louis Sachs not been the guy serving drinks to revelers on New Year’s Eve.

Sachs is a bartender, the kind of seasoned professional who despite his youthful looks has seen the scene everywhere -- New York, New Orleans, Honolulu and nearly every neighborhood across Los Angeles.

He’ll be working the bar at the Factory in West Hollywood on Friday night, where for a decade he’s been a regular presence. The nightclub is expecting 1,500 people -- gay, straight, you name it -- to dance to ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s music in three rooms.

New Year’s Eve may be amateur night for shut-ins, but for bartenders, it’s one of the year’s highlights.

“It’s like being a rock star,” says Sachs, 35. “You get that same kind of rush. The people are no longer patrons. It’s like an audience.”

Behind the bar, Sachs sets up his space to maximize flow and eye contact. “It almost becomes like a dance back there for me. Like ballet,” he says.

He lives a healthy lifestyle and keeps fit (sometimes he works shirtless) to maintain stamina through shifts that can stretch for 12 hours. Though he’s not against having an on-the-job drink, the momentum of the place carries him through the night.

“The excitement of being there, there’s nothing like it -- the energy, the adrenaline, the music,” he says. “I’ve gone in there on other nights dead tired and come out of there exhilarated.”

Once he gets into the groove, he’s a drink-making, tip-building machine. Sachs still holds the record at the Factory, where in a 2 1/2 -hour span, he rang up $6,000 in sales of drinks that cost an average of $5. On New Year’s Eve, bartenders can expect to make $500 to $1,000.

And, no, he doesn’t mind at all that he’s working and the customers are celebrating.

“I’m getting paid to be out. I’m having fun with my clientele,” says Sachs, a gregarious, natural-born salesman of Panamanian-Ukrainian descent. “I’m known as a very friendly bartender. That includes dancing behind the bar, getting everyone going.”

Though he’s happy to be a professional barkeep, sometimes people think he’s just waiting for his big show-biz break.

“People ask if I’m an actor,” he says. “No. I’m a bartender. This is my act. The world is my stage.”

*

The Factory

Where: 661 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood

When: Doors open at 8 p.m. Friday

Price: $20; $25 at the door. Drinks, $7 and up.

Info: (310) 659-4551