Karaoke Forums

Well, I got my Wednesday night back. I used to be one of the higher paid KJs in town at $175 a night, and I'll still be making $175 for Saturday night, but will now make $125 (about average around here) for Wednesday nights. Not a total loss. The night was starting to slow down, so I'm not particularly unhappy with this arangement.

But, one door closes, one door opens.....

I have started a band project with a professional band that lost their singer. Not only could this bring in a little extra income, but the bassist happens to be a wedding booking agent for a living, so I have spoken with him about hookin me up with more wedding gigs and he's down. Not a bad deal!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Great,
good things happen to the Patient.......Grasshopper

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

great news, topher!  glad things are lookig up for you!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Congratulations!!

I'm a firm believer in "what goes around, comes around"... Sometimes we just have to sit and wait it out!

Susie

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You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
and be a star!!!!

Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

Congrats see if your good they come crawlin' back. P.S. ifit gets busy in the summer demand your old price back. Worked for me once.

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

That's awesome! I hope some of your good luck rubs off on me.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

You go, Girl!

That's awesome news.  Good luck to you.

Great!  I'm very happy for you.    :hi5:  :hug:  :oh yeah:  :need hug:  :wave:

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I love being a mom!

Even though they put me in a REALLY tough spot....they told everyone last Wednesday that karaoke had been cancelled on Wednesdays so I only had a few singers for my first week back (exactly 6 singers).

It was especially frustrating because the guy started putting all these rules on me that were kinda limiting the creativity of my show.

Here were his new rules for me:

#1: I am not allowed to sing besides the first song of the night. I have never sang when the rotation is long and even during a short rotation will only sing if someone specifically asks me to for a good reason. When there are 20-30 minutes at a time with no one singing, like last night, I would typically sing a song every few filler dance songs to remind peeps karaoke is going, but was not allowed to do that last night.

#2: He wants the volume turned WAY down. I think this ruined my night last night more than anything. I like my karaoke and DJ dance music to be the focus of the bar, not just another thing going on in the background. My sound is clean and when I am allowed the chance to engage the entire audience, I always get everyone involved either in the singing or the dance filler music. I think karaoke should be legitimately treated as live music, and you wouldn't hear your local rock band playing softly to "not bother those that didn't want to listen." So last night when I was forced to keep the volume low there are now 6 singers and their 10 friends engaged in the show instead of the 50 some-odd people in the bar being engaged.

The other thing that p**sed me off was that there was one period of about 35 minutes with no signers. A buddy of mine who plays in a pretty big local band was in the audience and I had my guitar in the car so I asked if he wanted to do a few songs. He did and the entire audience was actually finally paying attention for the first time all night. In the middle of the guy's first song the manager pulls me aside and yells at me for allowing this, saying "this isn't f**kin open mic night, get him off the stage."

I swear this guy doesn't know the first thing about entertainment. I almost walked out last night, and if it weren't for my Saturday gig, I would have pretty early.

Dunno if I have it in me to promote the kinda show this guy is making me put on. He seems to want karaoke to be teh primary draw for Wednesday nights, but then wants it to be in the background of the bar activity, which jsut won't work.

I may just go back to my own style and let him fire me if he wants to. Not sure i have much to lose at this point.

Anyone else have overbearing managers who seem to think any schmuck coudl run karaoke??

In fact, at one point I had 4-5 people dancing to one of my filler songs so I let it run instead of getting the next singer up (had like 2 singers in at this point). He again yells at me and says "the stereo can play music for em for free...you are getting paid to do karaoke, so do it." Since when could a stereo do the job of a good DJ??

ERGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Sounds to me like it's HIS show & not YOURS anymore.  

Saturday or not, i'd be outta there.  There are always other places.  He probably hired you back because the owner or something else forced his hand.  Now he's going to make YOU pay for it.

However if there are no singers, the host would normally sing & since he's not letting you sing or play music, then what?  Not worth his crap.  I can see a manager setting a couple of guidelines that may be in the bars best interest, but literally telling you what you can & can't do is complete crap!

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

TopherM, get out of there. This manager (clearly a self inflicted name) has no idea of entertainment. Decide for yourself
#1. If you can not live without the Wednesday income, then suck it up and quit complaining.
#2. If you can live without the Wednesday income, then get out, find something else.

Is this the same person who works on your Saturday night show. If not then I would talk to the Saturday manager to get in touch with the owner and relay this message , "If the same manager is working on Wed. night then I will have to pass on doing my Karaoke show because he doesn't allow me to do me show properly and my customers will not come anymore because he has put them off" and walk away. Sorry but NO bar owner/manager tells me how to run my show. That's my opinion.

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

gotta agree with Lonman on this one.  i'da walked out after that.  NO ONE tlels me how to run my show.  if you want me there, let me do my thing and make you money.  if not, then take a hike and find someone else to fill your bar.  this clown needs to find someone else to give a headache to.  you can find other gigs that don't mess with you as much!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Wow.  That's bad.

If it were me I'd have two options I'll share with you.

1.  Tell the manager to stick it, than contact the owner, tell him how you were treated, and that you will not play in his establishment until the manager has been removed.  There's plenty of other places out there.

2.  Obviously the manager is trying to push you out.  Make his life a living hell.  Start out the night at the volume he wants, and slowly creep the volume up higher and higher throughout the night.  Do your own songs when singers die down, but fill out a request sheet so that when he complains you can show him the slip saying all you did is put in a slip for yourself to perform a karaoke song.  Get HUGE audience interaction, asking them to yell if they are having a good time, than telling them to yell louder.  Get the audience dancing, and go yourself onto the dance floor to join them.  If he actually works up the courage to fire you in the middle of a show, you'll already have the audience on your side.  Get on the mic and tell them although it's been a great night for everyone, it seems the manager of the establishment don't like his patrons having a good time and thus has terminated your services, but on your way out you'd like to hear a "(Manager's name)'s an a$$hole!" chant.  Be sure to annouce you will be running karaoke at a competing bar before you leave too.