Karaoke Forums

I have banned 2 people.

One was because he was always drunk when on the stage, but that was only half the the problem. the other half of the problem was that I could never find him when it was his turn to sing, and when I passed him up he would give a big line of of crap. He NEVER bought anything!

Second one was because he was constantly (5-10 times a night) asking me if I had certain songs, and I would tell him to look in my books first. He would insist that I look it up for him without ever looking himself. HE COULD READ AND WRITE. He would yell out what he wanted so loudly that he would disrupt the singers. I got to a point where it wasn't worth the aggravation so I told him he couldn't sing. One week later I quit doing the gig and he came back to the "new host" and shortly afterwards got into a bar fight and is now banned from the restaurant.

I don't understand that. Few other hosts even use the scroller on their program. Which boggles my simple mind. Three or even 5 singers ahead helps cut those complaints right out.

I've only kicked one guy out one time (he billed himself as "Tripod" if that gives you any hint about his usual state of intoxication) - I haven't actually banned him - but he was up in my face all night long - getting between me and my equipment, bugging me while I was trying to adjust singers, etc. because he kept wanting to know "...I wanna sing - Umm What's that, that song, ah you know that song that goes like, umm I can't remember, etc." I suggested he have his lady friend help him research the song and come back with it on a slip of paper when she figured it out, but he said he was too intoxicated to write and well he didn't think she'd know the song. This went on and on till I finally reluctantly asked the bar to remove him that night.

He's never come back and funny thing, I kind of miss him - he was an interesting character and I guess he usually meant well in his own way -- he offered for me to come over to his place and partake of medical marijuana, etc. which I'm sure he meant as a very kind offer ....

I've only had one singer since I've started that me and the bouncer escorted out the side door and tossed like a sack of potatoes. Actually, two. The first was an absolute jerk who kept incessantly screaming for me to play an Lil' Wayne song.
I told him we were right in the middle of doing karaoke but he just kept screaming and yelling obscenities at me and kept getting up in my face threatening me. I once again politely told him to find a song in the books and I would put him in rotation. What he did next completely caught me off guard and I'm still pi$$ed off now thinking about it. This idiot walked right up to me and grabbed my laptop and closed it right in the middle of my show. After the initial shock wore off, I immediately grabbed the arm he closed my laptop with and pulled it behind his back and started escorting him towards the door. Bouncer meets me right at the door and we literally toss him out on his keester.
He was barred for thirty days and has never really given me any hassle since.
Second guy was a very tall german man who would not stop hitting on my wife and her friends. He seemed very harmless at first but things got escalated rather quickly. Somehow he got the idea of starting a butt grabbing contest during my show. Everytime a girl would start singing something triggered in his mind to come up and grab her butt and squeeze it.
It ended rather abruptly with him being removed from the establishment rather quickly.
I ban drunk folks all the time from singing on my rig. If you come up to me bobbin' and weavin' and slurrin' your words then I'm probably not gonna let you sing

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

Well, since last posting, I've added another upstanding gentleman to my list.

Last week, during a fairly slow (by comparison) karaoke night, an extremely drunk gentleman continually came up and danced with all of the female singers. Most of them played along, so there was no need for intervention on my part; however, when one petite girl wouldn't warm up to him, he persisted, snaking his arms around her from behind and trying to sing over her shoulder into her mic.

I immediately jumped into action without actually initiating physical contact with the guy, putting an arm around the young lady (a longtime regular) and guiding her closer to me. She suggested giving the guy his own mic during a musical break so he wouldn't have a reason to get close, and he refused it, edging closer to her. I told him firmly that he can't do that, and he stepped back. At that point, I informed the manager that he should probably be asked to leave.

He was not asked to leave, and as I was enjoying a post-show smoke, he got into it with another (male) patron who had apparently suggested that he not go around touching every woman he sees -- sound advice, to be sure, and since the advice-giver was another regular of mine (and stone cold sober to boot), I have no reason to believe that this patron was in any way irrational or aggressive towards him.

What spilled outside was that regular attempting to walk to his car while the drunken aggressor shoved him and yelled in his face. My regular never once lost his cool, simply asking the guy to back off; the drunk was shouting things like "you don't know me" and "let's do this" at him. Feeling the need to intervene, I stepped in between them and calmly suggested that cooler heads prevail; this caused the drunk to turn on me, claim that I was being my regular's "b*tch" by attempting to prevent violence, and get aggressive with me.

I'm not a fighter. It has nothing to do with the ability to win or lose a fight -- quite frankly, I'd just as soon not find out and save the trouble. But it seemed inevitable, so I removed my glasses, sighed, and prepared for the assault that this guy seemed hell-bent on delivering, mentally planning to simply punch him in the junk if I got overpowered. Fortunately, at that very moment, three police cruisers pulled into the parking lot.

Long story short, he left in handcuffs. And both myself and the establishment made it clear to him that he is never to step foot in this particular place of business or anywhere that I'm working ever again; turns out, it's probably not going to be much of an issue, as he has a lengthy criminal record that includes kidnapping and, go figure, assault, and various people are bringing charges against him.

Not fun, to put it mildly.

Could also mean an attempted assault charge by the Law Dawgz... some jurisdictions are needing cash really bad and this a good way for them to score some...

Yes. You can't run a 'raoke show as long as my partner & I did (9 years) without having to blacklist a few. Belligerence or bullying = banned.
The worst episode had to be when a drunk was staggering around the bar attempting to get patrons to sing "Friends In Low Places" with him. Before he got to the end of the song, he knocked a girl's tooth loose by popping her in the mouth with the mic and then took a sharp right cross to his mug when he encountered someone who really didn't want to be bothered while drinking. He was banned after the brawl was settled.
Then again, we learned to never give the cordless mics to drunks. Mic cords are like dog leashes for inebriated singers.