Karaoke Forums

The Yankee great had an interesting way with words... and I've decided to steal one of his lines, suitably modified.

"Nobody goes to my Karaoke shows anymore. They're too crowded."

Hmmmm... must be doing something right.

_________________
Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Come on Earl nobody said that there would be no attendance for a contest. In Physics there is a simple fact for every action there is an opposite but equal reaction. You can take the action of having a contest, just be prepared for the negative reaction there will be after the event. You are a host and you know full well everything that what you do at a show is evaluated by the patrons on a continual basis. It is maintained by some hosts that there is no down side to a contest. If that were the case all hosts would be in favor of doing them. Most of the hosts I know, that understand the dynamics of building and holding together a following, feel that contests are counterproductive. Maybe you have found some magic way to avoid the after contest blues of your singers. If you have please share it with the rest of us. Knowing human nature I would suspect that your patrons are the same as everyone else, they put their pants on one leg at a time. There is going to be hurt feelings and bruised egos after a karaoke contest. At least that has been my experience and I was in the business for a long time.

My post had nothing to do with contests, but rather that our regular shows are thriving despite the fact that I tend to sing in each rotation (but never more than any of my patrons).

However, since you brought it up, the contest we are currently running is doing very well thanks. We've completed the first two preliminary rounds on Feb 7 & 14, and will be holding the finals this Friday. In both preliminaries we've had to bring in extra chairs from the banquet hall side of the club to accommodate the audience, which is just my way of saying, we're packing them in.

It should be noted that we do not hold our contests on regular karaoke nights... they are completely separate entities. In fact, only about 20% (if that) of our "regulars" tend to register... The rest are a combination of first-timers, semi-pro contest enterers, divas (male & female), some who have never entered the doors of our club before, and so on... Over the years, several have gone on to become karaoke regulars with us.

We promote our contests as "the best free show in town"... never charge an entry fee, and never have an admission charge, although we do encourage voluntary donations for the local food bank.

We have been running contests this way for eight years, and I can honestly say that I can only think of one individual who decided to quit coming out to our shows because of her experience with a contest... She couldn't seem to accept the fact that she was not the best singer in town.

To employ an old cliché... the proof is in the pudding, and in our case the pudding is the number of warm bodies we attract for both our regular karaoke evenings, and our contests...

So, although I appreciate that you may have had less than optimum results with contests in which you've been involved, the opposite is true with us.... hence my Yogi Berra quote.

As an aside... I came here to the Karaoke Scene forums in the expectation that I would not only learn from the members here, but to also contribute from my experience. Unfortunately, there are those here who insist that ... for instance... hosts should NEVER sing... contests NEVER work... when I know those statements to be patently untrue... They continue to present their sometimes mis-guided "opinions" as facts... thus ruining what credibility they may have had with me.

In other words, don't tell me something doesn't work, when I know for a fact that it does... Opinions are simply that... opinions. They are not necessarily facts, and should not be presented as such. Just you've had a bad experience with something, does not mean that everyone will.

When either our contests, or the fact that I take my turn in the rotation start to negatively affect our venue's bottom line, I'll be the first to suggest changes... But, as long as we're making our service club's board of directors happy, our singers are happy, and our audiences are happy, we'll continue doing what we're doing...

_________________
Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

My post had nothing to do with contests, but rather that our regular shows are thriving despite the fact that I tend to sing in each rotation (but never more than any of my patrons).

However, since you brought it up, the contest we are currently running is doing very well thanks. We've completed the first two preliminary rounds on Feb 7 & 14, and will be holding the finals this Friday. In both preliminaries we've had to bring in extra chairs from the banquet hall side of the club to accommodate the audience, which is just my way of saying, we're packing them in.

It should be noted that we do not hold our contests on regular karaoke nights... they are completely separate entities. In fact, only about 20% (if that) of our "regulars" tend to register... The rest are a combination of first-timers, semi-pro contest enterers, divas (male & female), some who have never entered the doors of our club before, and so on... Over the years, several have gone on to become karaoke regulars with us.

We promote our contests as "the best free show in town"... never charge an entry fee, and never have an admission charge, although we do encourage voluntary donations for the local food bank.

We have been running contests this way for eight years, and I can honestly say that I can only think of one individual who decided to quit coming out to our shows because of her experience with a contest... She couldn't seem to accept the fact that she was not the best singer in town.

To employ an old cliché... the proof is in the pudding, and in our case the pudding is the number of warm bodies we attract for both our regular karaoke evenings, and our contests...

So, although I appreciate that you may have had less than optimum results with contests in which you've been involved, the opposite is true with us.... hence my Yogi Berra quote.

As an aside... I came here to the Karaoke Scene forums in the expectation that I would not only learn from the members here, but to also contribute from my experience. Unfortunately, there are those here who insist that ... for instance... hosts should NEVER sing... contests NEVER work... when I know those statements to be patently untrue... They continue to present their sometimes mis-guided "opinions" as facts... thus ruining what credibility they may have had with me.

In other words, don't tell me something doesn't work, when I know for a fact that it does... Opinions are simply that... opinions. They are not necessarily facts, and should not be presented as such. Just because you've had a bad experience with something, does not mean that everyone will.

When either our contests, or the fact that I take my turn in the rotation start to negatively affect our venue's bottom line, I'll be the first to suggest changes... But, as long as we're making our service club's board of directors happy, our singers are happy, and our audiences are happy, we'll continue doing what we're doing...

_________________
Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Oops! I hit the wrong button... sorry for the double post.

_________________
Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

We just held our finals last night for our normal/recurring 6 week contest. PAcked house as usual with regular. Our next one starts March 10th. We've been doing this particular contest every 6 weeks (with a 2 week break between finals and start) for the last 2 years now. A lot of the same people keep entering and coming back nightly - they said it's fun for them - win or lose! We had a not so great singer take 2nd place because of his stage presence (had the entire place going) and got some of the most applause once his name was called - go figure.

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

Earl, I've been involved with karaoke for the past 21 years and I can remember back in the 90's it was pretty much a given to have the host in the rotation like everybody else. Nobody seemed to whine about this back then. The ABUSES of the host singing privilege, like hosts singing every 3 songs in a 15 singer rotation (I've seen this), are what IMHO started this idea that a host should not sing at his own show that some adhere to.

From what I've read of your posts, it looks like to me that you are what I would call a REAL host. The fact that you remain in the rotation doesn't make you less of a host, well at least to me.

You obviously must be doing something right.

I worked for a gal that did just this. Or she would sing directly after a good singer. Talk about huge ego. She was one of the worst in that respect.
A host adding themselves to the end of a round is not harming anything. Is it my preference of hosting - no, would I grumble if I was at a show and seen the host singing once every round - no! Only if they were singing more than anyone else.

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

I personally would grumble if the host was either a terrible singer, sang an un-entertaining song, or sang an 8 minute song each round. The hosts that talk too much wastes time and people will leave but not say anything. And may never return.

If a host will sing they should sing a FUN song and include their audiences, or at least TO them, and not for their own selfish purposes imho. Otherwise it's wasting a turn a paying customer could've used.

Earl, happy what you're doing works for you. I'm sure you're very entertaining when you sing! As the majority here agrees, do what works for your shows.

You have to play to the crowd, I didn't ask people to sing duets with me unless I was taking my turn. There were times when female singers asked me to do a duet with them, since their husband or boyfriend wouldn't or couldn't. I always did because I felt it was part of doing my job. Nobody ever complained they realized it was that singers block of time in the rotation.

Yeah, don't you just hate those kind of people?!

_________________
Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Yeah, don't you just hate those kind of people?! [/quote]

Nope... I don't allow myself to 'hate' anyone. I may not like what someone does or says, but that's certainly not hate.

_________________
Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]