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I have been working as an independant KJ (not an agency guy) for about a year now. From time to time, I have reason to go out of town for vacation, get real sick, etc., but can not seem to get anyone to fill in for my Saturday KJ show. I tried, one time, to get another KJ I knew to fill in for me on a Saturday, and once I came back my bar owner told me that they approached him afterward and tried to take my job!!  Good thing the owner really likes me and takes good care of me!!! Beyond finding someone you absolutely positively trust to fill in (which I have no one that fits that category), how do you other KJs get the occational day off??

The show must go on!!

My son does it for me if i need him too...which isn't too often. He's great...and now my daughter is old enough to do it with him if my hubby cant.

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I have 2 other hosts that work with me, if I need a night off, one of them can usually work for me.

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I book my shows quarterly, and during the summer quarter and part of the fall I take one weekend a month off to go camping.  I have a friend who is a KJ and I ask him if he's interested in covering, if not I just tell the venues that I will be unavailable on those dates.  It's never really been a problem.  

Just for reference, I have Wednesday night shows that rotate among 3 different venues, a Thursday and Friday night show at the same place each week, and then my Saturdays revolve between three or four different places.  Basically the places that have had me the longest get first choice of available dates and then it trickles on down.

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If you are a KJ who works alone, then it's just a matter of who you can trust. I have never had this problem in the past. I have several KJs (who I am friends with as well), who have filled in for me when needed, and vice versa.

I have only had an issue once. I worked at a place, where I needed someone to fill in for me for a 3 month period. I informed this couple that there was a possibility that the Management might decide to hire them on in my place. This ended up being the case (it has nothing to do with back-stabbing or undercutting... long story). The only problem that I had with this couple, was that they didn't have the Professional Courtesy to inform me when they had been offered the job. I found out on my own (from Management), about 2 weeks before I was supposed to start back there again (when I had stopped by the place to let the Management know I'd be available again).

I only do one show a week, and I'm very lucky in that the guy that does the other two shows happens to be my brother.  Usually not a problem if I need a night off, and in fact we usually just swap Friday for Saturday, so I don't lose the money.  In fact, he's working for me this week, since I'm getting on a plane to Vegas in 42 hours, 41 minutes.  

Of course, this has it's disadvantages, too.  There's one weekend in August when we both go out of town together, so we have a former KJ do the shows.  We also went to NYC for Christmas with our parents, but wouldn't have been able to do that if Xmas hadn't been on Saturday, so neither of us had weekend shows.

If I need to take a day off for personal reasons I usually ask the other DJ who works at the bar to cover for me .... It's not KARAOKE ..But at least the Bar is covered for music.  I make sure I  tell my regulars of my day off via email or by word of  mouth at other shows.  Finding someone you can trust is difficult. fortunately I have a decent relationship with the DJ at the bar and we cover for each other from time to time

I've been lucky and not had to do this because most of my shows are seasonal.  I am about to move to a new town and while singing at the show I talked with the KJ about what nights they're not working, etc. because the population is small enough that it really won't support two karaoke shows on the same night (about 500 people).  When I told her I was wanting to work around them so we wouldn't compete she came up a short time later and offered me a chance to fill in for them on a night her and her husband need off in July.

All in all, when you work with the other KJ's in the area that are at about the same level as you there are ways to work out an occasional night off.  When I go to Tennessee this October I'll ask them to cover my show while I'm gone.  You won't always find people you can do this with, but when you do it's nice to know you'll be able to plan a night off if you need it.

Well I've come across the same problem too so i created a Association of 7 KJs ( each with their own company ) to be the first to be offered the fill in jobs. Seeing as all of us will need a night off here and there. It is understood by each KJ that eventually one of us will be filling in for eachother at a job. So mutual Respect for each persons gig is maintained. also so if you don't want to lose the benefits of the "association" or Have the word passed around that you solicit jobs behind KJ's backs it keeps us inline. I find now that we have the ability to take a night off with out the worries of the integrity of KJ filling in. We all tend to take more nights off to be with family or vacation. I didn't just pick anyone to be in the group either i went for the seasoned KJ/DJ someone who had no rep of undercutting or didn't bounce from job to job Monthly. We have even passed on jobs to one another in the group if we were already Booked. So it seems to be a win win situation for us.
Djpauly

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