If you’re a student at The College of William and Mary, it is common knowledge that the place to be on a Thursday night is Paul’s Deli. During the peak of the night, students can be seen lining out the door as they try to get in to listen and dance to the inside DJ’s set.
This enormous feat can be credited to the efforts of Nicholas Kaufman ’22, also known as Paul’s Thursday night DJ “The Little Big Deal.”
“Except for maybe going to fraternity parties. But the problem with those events are that they are private and not everyone can access them. And also, you know, not everyone necessarily feels comfortable or safe attending events held by different orgs… And so I really was hoping now that I had the opportunity to create a place where it didn’t matter who you were, who you know, what you look like, anything, you could just go and be there and be yourself and have fun and dance in a place that is just like safe and open and welcoming.”
“William and Mary, at least since I’ve been here, the nightlife is fun… Yes, like there’s a lot to do, but there’s never been a place before where you could just go out and dance and enjoy that kind of vibe,” Kaufman said. “Except for maybe going to fraternity parties. But the problem with those events are that they are private and not everyone can access them. And also, you know, not everyone necessarily feels comfortable or safe attending events held by different orgs… And so I really was hoping now that I had the opportunity to create a place where it didn’t matter who you were, who you know, what you look like, anything, you could just go and be there and be yourself and have fun and dance in a place that is just like safe and open and welcoming.”
With Kaufman behind the DJ stand, Paul’s has completely transformed. Large numbers of students can be found tightly packed in the bar, with the entire restaurant seeming to be cramming for more space as students pile in throughout the night. At the peak of Kaufman’s set, most of the students seem to be dancing, sweating or attempting to navigate the crowd.
Kaufman first started performing at Paul’s Sept. 23, 2021, after reaching out to multiple Williamsburg bars to let him perform. Waiting until he was 21 to do so, Kaufman says he has been wanting to play at the local restaurants since he was a freshman. After receiving multiple rejections, Paul’s allowed him to do a trial-run set.
“Finally, one week they were like ‘all right, this is your chance: next Thursday, come do it,’” Kaufman. “And I guess kinda the rest is history.”
For his first set, Kaufman said it was mostly his friends at first.
“For the first one to see just how many of my friends and people I knew come out to support… just made me feel very supported by this community that we have here and by my friends who have been there for me since this was just like a concept in my head,” Kaufman said. “And so I remember it got really crowded. The vibes were good. I still played my general style, I think, of just dance music, a lot of throwbacks, remixes and mashups of songs that people could really sing and enjoy hearing. And the night went really great. I think that it has grown since then in terms of more people, more people knowing about it, knowing about who I am and what I do. But that first one again was super special.”
Kaufman was first introduced to DJing when he was in middle school and downloaded a DJ app on his iPod to mess around with. When his mom would have friends over, Kaufman would stand in the kitchen and mix their music over small speakers.
“My whole life, I’ve kind of always been exposed to lots of different kinds of music at home with my family,” Kaufman said.
Growing up, Kaufman learned how to play the cello, guitar, saxophone, drums and the piano, though he said he’s not a master of any instrument. He’s most experienced with Caribbean steel drums, as he played for six years from middle to high school performing reggae music.
“I think that all of those things really kind of led to and contributed to my style now with the DJing and I also produce my own music,” Kaufman said. “But the thing that drives me to DJing in at least like the musical form art form of it is that DJing allows me to interact with music in a way that I think you can with any other instrument because just the fact that there are no bounds to types of music that I could play and the way that I could manipulate these songs, whether it’s by remixing, by doing a mashup, changing the speed scratching, there’s so much you could do that.”
At 15 years old, Kaufman booked his first professional gig: DJing for a preschool prom. From there, he started building a reputation around his hometown of Manalapan, New Jersey, and buying more equipment.
“When I started DJing, there was a lot of people that, you know, they would hire me and book me through the phone or email, and they would be shocked when my parents had to drop me off at these gigs. … I couldn’t even drive yet,” Kaufman said. “But I think before that first gig, definitely feeling a little bit nervous… because I knew that people were going to be there listening, and I was kind of creating the energy for that event.”
When he began his freshman year at the College, Kaufman said he started to offer to DJ for his fraternity’s party. With that, he then started performing at mixers, sorority date parties and formals.
“My brothers are extremely supportive of it,” Kaufman said regarding his Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity. “It’s a lot of fun and…. I think… when I DJ our fraternity parties it really elevated the experience for everyone.”
When COVID-19 hit his sophomore year, Kaufman continued to DJ in creative environments. His fraternity hosted a virtual music festival philanthropy event, and he would also DJ at outside events. In his hometown during the summer, Kaufman would perform for neighborhood block parties where he would DJ from his car.
“I remember the first time someone reached out to me about that because, you know, I’ll DJ anything if people want it,” he said. “And I was kind of like, this is kind of a funny idea, but I did one and people loved it and like, I did that for work through most of the summer, just playing outside at those kinds of events.”
At the College, Kaufman says he does most of his own promotion for Thirsty Thursdays, including making flyers and posting on social media. His favorite song to play for students is “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” by ABBA.
“The energy in there man is… I love it when I put that song on,” he said. “I like seeing everyone getting so excited screaming the lyrics, especially when people get, like, really loud singing it.”
Kaufman says that he believes his DJ nights have shifted the social scene for students at The College.
“I think that really ‘Thirsty Thursdays,’ (which is what you know now what you call it… At first, it was just kind of like ‘DJ Night’) has really kind of changed the way that I think the social scene here on campus and just kind of shifted the way that people, you know, think about going out and the things that people plan to do. And I think that that’s been a really positive experience, … this is kind of what I’m going to leave here when I graduate at the end of next semester. And I feel good about that.”
“I think that really ‘Thirsty Thursdays,’ (which is what you know now what you call it… At first, it was just kind of like ‘DJ Night’) has really kind of changed the way that I think the social scene here on campus and just kind of shifted the way that people, you know, think about going out and the things that people plan to do. And I think that that’s been a really positive experience, … this is kind of what I’m going to leave here when I graduate at the end of next semester. And I feel good about that.”
Outside of being The Little Big Deal, Kaufman is a business analytics major, public health minor and Monroe Scholar, with an interest in healthcare work. He currently works at The Charles Center as a peer scholarship advisor and helped pioneer the College’s e-sport team. After college, Kaufman will be moving to Arlington to work at Accenture.
Kaufman emphasized the appreciation that he has for his friend’s support and says that they have a weekly tradition before he starts his Paul’s set.
“I do like a little toast with them, like before we start playing, we dedicate each week to a different student group… like one week, we kind of rose a glass and I said, ‘Tonight we’re dancing for the kid who just failed their bio exam and is just looking to have some fun with his friends and forget about it for a little while,’” he said. “So just like stressing that this is something that is meaningful and I hope it continues after I graduate because I do believe that it really means something to the students here.”
Kaufman plans to continue to DJ after College, hopefully moving to bigger and bigger events.
“I hope it’s something that’s able to continue… We need to find another DJ,” Kaufman said at the end of the interview.
Correction (3/23): An earlier version of this article included a claim from the DJ in the lede about Paul’s increase revenue. The lede was change to ensure no misinformation. This change was not saved when the website crashed early 3/24 so was reuploaded.
Editor’s Note: The website crash on 3/24 deleted a previous editor’s note on this article. That note said that the phrasing “for all ages,” was not included in this article, nor any of the tags.
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