Karaoke Forums

Have you ever found yourself in a situation either as an independent DJ/KJ or a KJ employee of the venue or working as a KJ employee of a Karaoke entertainment company and had to simply give notice and walk from it? If so what circumstances? Or what WOULD cause you to step away from it?

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

The almighty dollar is always provides good persuasion!!

I always keep in touch with a few other KJs in the really good karaoke venues around town to fill in if they need me (and vise versa), and one of them told me they were quitting and the owner wanted me to have the gig (since he knew me from filling in. I went from $250 a week on Friday and Saturday nights to $350 a week in a much better bar for $350 a week on Wednesday and Saturday!! Mo money, better days, better bar...that's a hell of a reason to walk away.

The funny thing is I gave my old bar owner a two weeks notice then the next weekend he essentially "fired" me instead of just telling me they had already foudn a replacement. I think he was having abandonment issues!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

one thing about my show is it's built on principles... principles of mine, of course, but also of all the decent karaoke singers. I started this company to answer a need I saw... if the venue I was at asked me to compromise on more than a few principles that were not just mine but my customers, then if they wouldn't change their minds, I'd walk.

I did that from "Blue Eyes" a venue I used to work at up here. After fighting with their management, and owners on customer relations, who could sing (the NERVE of telling me that so and so can't sing at my gigs!!), and then dictating the price AFTER a contract was shook on... I had to throw in the towel.

What's funny is Tig is normally a bit more hot headed than I am when it comes to that stuff, and he was the voice of reason there... thanks to him we kept that gig for a few months longer than I had deemed normal! !

The only reason I have moved on is because of better money somewhere else.

Reasons I would quit:

A country crowd develops. (Rather make less money than deal with Country Singers)
Start getting to many bad singers. (time to move on).

That's about it, I'm quite happy with my karaoke gigs, that's why I only Kj 2 days a week and DJ 4, anymore would be to much work.

What's the problem with country singers?  Just don't like that kind of music, or is it something about the singers you don't like?

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

Too many County signers?....

The area we are from is farmland were country is the choice of music. And serveral of the regulars at our bar are awsome singers. I need earplugs for the rockers that come in and try to sing. But I'm not going to up and run just because of rockers in the house. Its karaoke and it's all fun.

As for the question posed in the thread.

I ran a karaoke show at a local bar for a month on wednesday nights 9 - 2. I had some singes but nothing to get excited about. The crowd was far less into karoake and didn't clap for the singers at all even with me trying to coax them over the mic. The last night I was there I started at 9 and had about 30 people in the crowd. No a single person wanted to sing. I tried buying a beer for the first singer. No one wanted to sing. This went on for an hour and I decided that was it. I went to the bar tender and told her that I was packing up. After talking with the managers wife (manager was on vacation) I decided that I would have better luck an other bar we ran karaoke on friday nights. Been there ever since. And I was only paid for one hour for that night. That sucked......

I agree with Knightshow about your ethics. I run my show the way I feel is best for me and the singers. I will not let the bar staff or owner tell me how to run my show. Right now I have a standing offer to move my show if I ever find myself in that position.

I can endure most things.  but we all have our breaking points


nothing wrong with country singers

Only reasons i would move would be:

closer to my center of operations for equal or comparable  pay
MORE MONEY - money makes the world go around, and buts discs on the table
PITA facotrs like a bar owner who keeps changing her mind on what she wants you to do, or wants to kept being slipped in all the time (1 time or 2 times OK, but not every round)

I was doing a night at a bar that had been struggling for some time.  They suffered a serious drop in business before I got there and as I knew the owners, and they offered an early quitting time (midnight), I gave them a nice price break to try and help out.  After about two months or so it was obvious that karaoke wasn't going to bring back their customers.  One night one of the partners asked if I could hold off unloading my gear, have a few drinks and wait and see if anyone showed up.  No one did.  We talked and I ended up hooking them up with someone with a portable system (VP Twister or something like that) that was more than happy to keep it stored there and just drink if no one was there for the show.  They were happy with that and so was the "KJ".  They had a fire a few months after that and never reopened.

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Sounds Great! Entertainment
Bartlett, Illinois

Nope, but I sure have thought about it a couple of times.

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Despite the internet rumor, Karaoke is not Japanese for "drunk buffoon with microphone."  However, "rotation," is Japanese for wait your damn turn!

Hey lyquiddye... And what's wrong with Country Singers???????????

As Knightshow stated, our show is built on our principles.

We quit a bar once because of the bartender.  The way we see it is many people, especially non-regulars, originally don't see a distinction between us and the bar staff; just as we are a representative of the bar, the bar staff is a representative of our company; anyway... at this new show I thought the bartender was a little "off" but couldn't quite put my finger on it, then one night I got there early to set up as Richard was working late at his day job, & I heard her telling a group of men at the bar her experiences of table dancing!  Uh oh, I thought, not quite how we thought this bar and our company were going to be represented.  Later on that evening she told a man who was "slow" (he came in each week with his friend or relative to watch the show) to f.... off when he asked her for another beer!  The guy's friend told us later on and we decided we were out of there!!  The owner had a few more bars and wanted us to work for him at other bars, even after we quit him, but we had to decline.....

BTW, I sing country songs as well as some Motown, Classic Rock etc...  For us it is more difficult when we get the rockers that basically scream their 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes but we get our fun out of their enjoyment!

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]

It may just be that I live in the South, but I remember that in the mid to late 80s when karaoke was just getting going here, the only places that did karaoke were "country" bars. I went to karaoke for quite a while through the early 90s and always remember that anyone singing rock or pop songs was a rarity no matter where I went.

Anyway, point being that at least here in the south, there was no karaoke before there was country karaoke, so maybe you owe your job to those country bars that basically pioneered (hmmm, that's an unintentional pun) the craft!!

Even in my bar of 100-125+ thugs in their early 20s, anyone that comes in over the age of 30 and MOST of the girls want to do country music, and so be it!!

I'm not a country fan myself, but country music sells more records than any other genre of music these days THROUGHOUT the country (more country music albums are sold in NYC than any other city, so it isn't just a Southern thing). Anyway, you can look all of this up, but is it not silly to say "I won't take country requests" when it is such a big segment of the industry?? Sounds like bad business to me, but I could be wrong!!

Oh, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, just getting in some fun stats!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

On the other side of the coin, My friend had to fire the KJ on the second day he owned the bar.

We've been going to the bar for years and she's been singing there for years, when he bought the bar, His wife(and partner) Asked the KJ to be a bit more professional.  When they left to get a shower and something to eat, she started telling everybody what they said to her and started calling them power hungry and so-on.  When they got back the bartender and some customers complained, so they fired her mid gig.

There are many Karoke Bars for Country singers Mine just are not one of them. I have spent many years to be known as the best Alternative and Hard Rock Karaoke in Pittsburgh.

There is nothing wrong with country, I sing a few Big and Rich songs myself.

Rock is quite big here, we get many great singers from local bands.

I like all types of music, and I welcome all singers but we try to keep our nights rock oriented, I play heavy music between singers and everyone loves it. When a new group coumes in we greet them accordingly.

I have a limited supply of country songs in my books (chartbusters 100 top 2004 hits) due to the fact I am mostly doing a one man show (character act)

However when I do Get asked to Do a KJ gig and people come up and cant find anything to sing thats safe, like a slow country Ballad.
I usually say  that there is 2500 songs in my books and if you cant find anything that you know by heart from hearing on the radio then your not trying too hard. people need to stop taking it all so darn serious.

I myself am tired of hearing "Picture" everynight or "long Black train"....... dont beat me up..... thats just my feelings.

The crowd responds best to the guy who screams out To "Strokin" even if he's off key. Or Dean Martin's "Volare"

Just a Thought

Oh I almost forgot the original question.... No I havent Walked away from a gig Yet