Fraternity president: Author 'has no class'

Author Tucker Max's book signing was moved to Kilroy's Sports bar from Sigma Chi Wednesday night, but confusion persists over who initiated the change of venue.\n"This relocation was requested by the associates of Tucker Max who wanted to get things set up early at Kilroy's Sports and begin their night at Indiana earlier than we had planned," said Ty Ferraro, social chair for Sigma Chi, in an e-mail.\nFerraro also said before the event that Sigma Chi would be providing rides to the bar from their fraternity house.\nMatt Crawford, a member of Sigma Chi, said the fraternity decided to ask Max to take his book signing elsewhere and did not invite him to IU. \n"After the president looked at (Max's) Web site to see what he stood for, that's when we asked him to move the event to Sports," he said.\nSigma Chi President Jerome Hayden confirmed this in an e-mail.\n"Ultimately, we made a values-based decision to not hold the book signing at the Sigma Chi house," he said. "To have our fraternity's name associated with the kind of things Tucker Max does would be a detriment to our image .\n"In my personal opinion, (Max) has no class."\nCrawford said his fraternity did not originally invite Max, but asked him to come to their house after seeing Max was coming to the IU chapter of Pi Kappa Phi. \nMax contested this, and said he was invited to IU by members of Sigma Chi.\n"Why would I invite myself?" Max said in an e-mail. "I had other options at IU -- they invited me."\nDressed in a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans, the author of the book "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" met with fans at the bar, signing books, unfazed by the move.\nWith him were the two organizers of the event, Sigma Chi members Nick Bassett and Jacob Phillips, along with two people who have been featured in several of Max's stories, KungFuMike and SoylentGreen, who asked that their real names be withheld.\n"There's a reason why we have nicknames in the stories," said KungFuMike. "We don't want to get in trouble for past encounters."\nThese past encounters have included alleged destruction, he said.\nThe event was sparsely attended, and the line for Max never was longer than three or five people.\n"I wish more dudes would've showed up," Max said.\nMax runs www.tuckermax.com, a Web site that has links to stories detailing his adventures he has deemed "inappropriate" and "unsafe," as well as a message board where viewers debate the merits of Max's tales.\nMax is currently on tour promoting his book, which contains 27 stories from his life, some of which weren't published until now. Some titles include "The night we almost died," "Tucker ruptures his appendix" and "This'll just hurt a little."\nMatt Heston was one of Max's fans who was turned away from Sports because he was under age. \n"I followed his Web site for about a year now," said Heston. "Sometimes the stuff he puts up there is kind of raunchy, but it's still funny. I think it's all in good fun and he gives off a message of self-confidence."\nMax remained positive, conversing with patrons at the bar. Between drinks, Max shared stories and listened to stories from others.\nHowever, when fans came up to his table, Max's eyes fixated on them. He asked many of the women who approached his table if they had boyfriends and if they would "hook up" with him.\nOne woman brought him a plastic container of blueberry muffins, which he shared with others. Most visitors, though, simply wanted a signed book and picture.\nWhen asked about how many books had been sold, KungFuMike said numbers were lower than they had been at other stops.\n"This isn't even an average stop," he said. "This is below average for us."\nMax echoed that sentiment, saying some tour stops had been better attended than his stop at Kilroy's Sports.