Karaoke Forums

Karaoke is supposed to be all about having fun but we do all have our bad regular singers at our favorite places. When the worse singer at your place gets up and does his or her songs, what do you do to take your mind off the pain or temporarily escape? Any tales to tell on the subject of bad but sometimes well intentioned singers? LOL

preface by saying Karaoke is about having fun ...WHOO now that being said

I HAD a regular singer who used  to come week after week who when she sang sounded like alley cats in heat ...no kidding --God awful ear piercing --People use to walk out of the bar and go to the bar across the street .  SomeONE ACTUAL ONE DAY threw a shoe at her while she was singing. Being a Good KJ I had the person who threw the shoe thrown out of the bar and of course I  would never PERSONALLY make fun at anyone singing. IT IS ABOUT HAVING FUN .   But the truth be told...
Some singers do sound bad .

That is a sad but good story!  Geez.  LOL  I will put that preface in -- good point!

There was one girl at the place I used to go to that no longer exists...

WHENEVER her turn came up, it was time to go pay rent on my beer, at least, if I couldn't find something I HAD to run to the car for...

She was cute as a button...I mean GORGEOUS...but as tone-deaf as William Hung...and thought she was the cat's pajamas, instead of a cat.  :fright:

The only other person who makes me cringe is a semi-regular at the little place in Grand Prairie...he's actually a really good singer...but every so often, he yells "WHAT" at the top of his lungs into the mic...like he has Tourette's or something...

There is this one guy, Chris. They call him "little Chris" . Apparently his friends call him Oompa Loompa. He often sings Creep by Radiohead (which I love) and makes me want to cry... he is completely and utterly tone deaf. The one talent he does have is that he can do a mean Cartman impression... do you think we could get him to sing Come Sail Away though? NO of course not... he would rather just go methodically through the karaoke book and butcher songs we love. Actually my boyfriend overheard him talking to someone one night, saying he looks for songs he knows are going to irritate people and that's how he picks his choices. If he was singing cause he actually loved to sing it wouldn't bug me, but he has admitted he does it to pi$$ people off. Last night he came at the start of the night and stayed right til the end, so I had to hear him sing like 5 songs... I said to the guy at the next table, let's hope he doesn't find any of the meatloaf songs. I don't have a coping technique, I don't even smoke so I am like a deer in headlights when he gets on the stage  LMAO

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

I think after being a Kj for so many years I have learned to tune it out.
It is kind of like when a mother doesn't seem to notice her kids are making a lot of noise playing. My mind wonders to other things.

People ask me from time to time how I can listen night after night to bad singers. I don't know it doesn't seem to bother me. Now if someone has an annoying personality, badgers me and can't sing that is something different. I haven't found a way to tolerate that.

I had a guy come up and wanted to sing a 10 min. song. Okay it was a slow night and he was new, no problem. But through the whole song he badgered me that it wasn't the right rendition and it sucked to sing. He continued to gripe and groan pushing me up against my amp where I couldn't get away from him.
10 minutes of this and he couldn't sing. I finally looked him straight in the face and said you don't have to sing it. When he was done he asked me if I had any songs that were in the right beat and sounded like they were supposed to. Now I'm ticked!
I had a scowl on my face and said of course not, so don't bother to sing them. Can you believe he put in for another song. Geez

I guess the karaoke technique of being rude right back doesn't work.  LMAO

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I usually have a cigarette when someone bad is up.

Get the crowd to sing along. I'll do that if someone doesn't know the song and is
falling fast.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I cut them out of the mains and just keep them up in the monitors, that way they can still hear themselves without driving the audience crazy.  
I have one guy, bit of a d**k, terrible singer to boot. He'll bring up a tune, and I'll tell him, 'this one's pretty tough, you're actually going to have to sing this one, think you can handle it?' Note: when I say this, I always smile, but I never lose eye contact, just so they know the intent of my question...
I have another one, good guy, terrible singer, always picks out some of the hardest stuff in the book, says he's looking for a challenge. This went on a couple of times, then I came up with trick. Compliment, never criticize. I picked out a 'anybody can sing tune' for him, and said, 'hey man, I've heard you sing, and I think this tune would be right up your alley. Trust me on this one'. Well it's always something like 'Friends in Low Places' or 'Sweet Home Alabama', something simple that most of the time folks are gonna sing along with anyway. After he's finished, I always ask, 'now wasn't that a bit better' and of course he's says yes, cos he's no longer concentrating on his singing, he's still got a karaoke high from the other folks joining in with him.

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I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

Drinking is always a coping option.

But I think bad singers are just part of the game.  The worst I ever heard was a young man who has downs syndrome and who came up to sing "The Rose" one of my favorite songs ever.  But this was a neighborhood place and everybody knew him  When he was done, and it was torturous, everyone applauded and he felt like a million bucks.  I suspect he doesn't have a lot of "wins" in his life and I was glad that he felt good about participating.  

I wish that I had thought about using James' technique of cutting him out of the mains.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

We got this regular kid where I work who is almost always there when I arrive before 5 and stays usually until we close. Nice kid, but one of those "poser" wannabe types who can't decide whether he's a hard rocker or a rapper. Anyways, the guy couldn't sing if life depended on it; kinda sometimes sounds like Adam Sandler when he played Little Nicky... except louder .

One day him and a few other regulars were there early, and while he was killing us with a particulary bad rendition we were all joking around about what we could do to stop him. So I went back up to the booth and started giving him the "chipmunk" voice off the Hangover setting of the Midiverb 4, and then alternated to the Astroids setting. Hilarious! He gave this "what the h&*%" look, and then started laughing and kept going. Told him over the mic that it sounded like Alvin, Simon, & Theodore were trying to blow up the Death Star, and we all had a laugh. He now sometimes REQUESTS that I do that on an occasional song, 'cause he thinks it's cool!

You can't have that kind of fun with all the bad singers, but weirdly enough, it does make his songs more interesting and kinda cool.

I love bad singers who KNOW they can't sing, but try to do their best and have fun with it anyway. It's the bad ones who think they're the greatest, and take it too seriously, that drive me nuts.

like babs, i too tune them out.

like man in black, i also readjust their vocals.

they use to call me the magician because i could just about anyone sound good.

i had one lady (i use that term loosely) who use to do bobby mcgee.  it was the only song she ever sang.  needless to say she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

one night she did a different song, and knowing her "vocal scream" i adjusted her settings.  not even halfway through the song the owner came running up to the kj booth holding his ears, said "i thought you were a magician".  i said "i am a magician, but i'm not God!"  he left me alone after that.

the idea of getting the audience involved in a song is probably one of the greatest "cheats" you can do.  it makes the "awful" singer get into the song and the audience participate at the same time and everyone has a great time.

another cheat is to say the disk is scratched (or something like that).  usually the person will make faces, grunt and say "oh well" and go away.

i don't drink when i'm doing my show so my coping mechanism is setting up the next singers.  it is all about fun and i do my darndest to make sure everyone does have fun.

my biggest peave is those that will sit in their seats criticizing singers but they don't have the cajones to get up their themselves.

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[scroll]we're men, manly men, we're men in tights[/scroll]

It's all part of karaoke.    You just have to look like you're really getting into it and treat them as they deserve.   They are paying customers.   They are almost always the most loyal people.    Fair rotation, I don't care about your talent level.    Not everyone can be on my level.  

I only hear the beginning and the ending of songs, because I'm loading the next song and pulling and putting away discs.

In there mind, they are famous already.    :yes:

I was the Badsinger

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I was a KJ then, and when a bad singer that I know come up to sing, I mute the mic, and press R. We use multiplex disc.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

 LOL  Almost forgot about your old username. As long as you're havin' fun, I'd be more than happy to listen to you sing!

Karaoke: You're never as good as you think.. and you're never as bad as you think. (Most of the time, at least )

Once the singer has the mic, I would be getting ready for the next singer.  The disc is loaded and then I usually will, time willing, mingle with the crowd.  I make it a point when ever I can to acknowledge someone who has come back.  I would have given the mic to the next singer, and as I go back to table, I then do my thankyou's.  I think it is very important to remember a face.  Then they do come back.  i don;t care if they are good or not.  But as the song winds down, I may be on my way back to press a button, or lready back.  When the bad singer as you cll it, brings the mic back, I just simply say "great job". "Do you have another song in?"
You know, we can't all be artists.  And the point made earlier, is just that, "It is supposed to be for fun!"
If you really think about it, usually the bad singera are with a group of people who DID come out or fun.  They will be back if they know, and you made them feel like they had a good time.  Keep the crowd who keeps you!!!!!!!!!!  :whistle:
So that should answer the question!  If they are bad, and I don't care if they are, I do have other things to do.  But ignoring them and my crowd is not one of them.

Mine too.

I am not bothered much by bad singers unless they are shrill, then I adjust the mics so they are no longer shrill.

Rude and mean people are what bother me.

I have actually been fed up enough with one that that I actually told him to come outside with me to discuss something. He didn't, probably a good thing for me too. I apologized to the bar owner the next day and he didn't care that I had even done it. This guy was not on the owner's most favorite's list. I apologized to the jerk a few months later, just because I was finally over it.

I'm no bad-ass but some people don't deserve the mass required to make them.

If you have what it takes, equipment wise, then yes, you can adjust the bad ones to drown out the awful screaming sounds.  But you also have to know what to do, to do that.  With the right equipment you can control a screaming, loud, obnoxious singer.  You have the capability to make  that singer less obnoxious.
Know what you have and how to run it!

It's all about having fun...I will support anyone who wants to get up and sing and have fun...even if they are god awful.  I won't lie to them about their ability, but I will support them.  Hey I have been known to massacre a song or two in my day ...but I love to sing  I'm also lucky enough that I can pretty much tune out for the most part if I have to  :wink:



These are the ones who really tick me off!  

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[glow=violet] **Sing like nobody's listening...live like there's no tomorrow**[/glow]