Karaoke Forums

A few weeks ago I was filling in for my kj who had some out of town business to take care of. Saturday night at the bowling alley and it's pretty busy. It's around midnight when this girl came up and asked to here a song. I explain to her that I would be happy to play her request after a few more new singers get through the rotation. I can see #1 she's drunk and #2 she's upset she has to wait.

She storms back over to the ten or so people she is with and is either pouting or talking smack about the karaoke host (me) when I hear the bar manager wants to speak with me. I walk to the bar, about 30 feet away and talk to the manager about something unrelated. Not even 5 seconds later My computer is going crazy playing like 4 different songs at one time and sounding really bad almost to the point of distortion. I look back immediately towards my set up and this same girl is at my computer pressing any and all keys with a big grin on her face.

As i run back to my equipment the girl runs away from my rig and goes back to her table. I have to shut the computer down and restart it because of what she did and I can hear her and her entourage laughing about it and I started getting super pi$$ed!!

My computer takes very little time to get back up and going so I begin to play filler tunes rather quickly while sorting out the queue. Who comes up and wants to sing? That'r right. It's the drunk girl. She requests a karaoke song and I immediately tell her that she nor her table will be singing on my equipment for the rest of the evening at any time, etc. She has attitude and asks me why and of course I tell her that my musical equipment is very valuable to me and I didnt appreciate her jeopardizing my setup by trying to screw with my computer.

She says something about not liking the song and wanted it changed so decided she would do it. I explained to her how wrong and disrespectful this childish act was and would no longer be part of it. She called me an A&&hole and off she went. Minutes later people were back to singing when a few from her table come over to me and demand I let them sing. I tell them there is no way that anyone from their table will be singing on my equipment because of the earlier incident and if they have any further questions the bar manager would be happy to speak with them

Ten minutes later another representative from their table is in my grill about singing and how I have no right to treat them this way, etc. I simply let the person singing at the time to complete her song and after getting her applause thank everyone for coming out tonight, etc. and proceed to break down. This punk starts threatening me and says him and his friends will have something to say about this. I simply walk to the bar manager and have him come over and explain why they cant sing and why I was breaking down a little early.

I will not have my equipment jeopardized at any time and it says so in all of my agreements. Thankfully, I had a friend to help me break down quickly while the bar manager played bouncer and watched us pack up.

Any of you guys stop a show early because of unruly patrons?

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

I have never ended a show early due to this, but I have killed sound mid-performance due to a singer and/or their friends messing with gear or being disrespectful. I have had a couple of occasions where a drunk person has reached over to the mixer and bumped something, usually a fader.

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-Chris

oops...... too soon.

I leave my gear on site at most venues. One venue runs a trivia show using some house PA gear. They have opened my case a few times to grab XLR cables when they can't find their own or have broken their own. I laid down the law on the pretty quickly.

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-Chris

I leave my mains, cabling, speaker stands, and floor monitor at my venue, and the venue has several other musical acts perform on other evenings. I can tell that the others "acts" have used my stuff, but no harm has ever happened...... so far.

Getting to Op's question, I have never had a singer do the slightest of "messing" with my equipment. It helps that I am in a sober, older, and a lot less "me, me, me" inclined environment. You can keep your drunk 20 somethin's.

That's why Drunk lock is on most Karaoke software and I use mine.

If some idiot tried that, they would be getting the boot and barred for life from the manager or security.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I knew this guy from England a few years back (from online that is),, ,that used to host karaoke at a pub in his area. Well, this drunk dude got all sorts of belligerent and pulled one of the karaoke speakers over and broke it.... Needless to say, the host got enraged and beat the holy crap out of the guy,, broke his jaw and gave him such a concussion that the man was in a coma for over a week. They charged the host with attempted murder and aggravated assault with intent to do bodily harm. The host lost his business, was sued for medical damages, wound up getting a divorce over it and had to go into the poor house in the end. I lost touch with him about 8 years ago, so I do not know what eventually happened..

But, the lesson here to learn is: The gear is just "stuff" and can be replaced if damaged or broken by the stupidity of anyone... But it's not worth losing your temper and/or your livelihood over "spilled milk". You should never allow yourself to be put into that situation in the first place... If you have someone who is "out of line" or "over the limit" and is causing you any sort of problems in the first place.. it is your responsibility for nipping it in the butt early and having the people who are creating the situation sent home early.

Yet another reason why I now only do private events and have ditched the bars. Not worth dealing with drunks...for 1/2 the pay.

No one has ever gone as far as messing with my "show" computer or P.A. other than someone who may rotate a speaker to face away from them if they are sitting close. I've had the leaners who bend cheap mic stands, but I purchased two Atlas stands a couple of years ago and they are still in great shape.

For some reason, twice in the last 30 days, one singer in a group has decided to drop/throw the mic down onto the stage. The first guy owned up to it and gave me cash on the spot for the damaged mic. The second guy (last Friday), tried to dodge into the crowd but he was 86'd at my request by the bouncer. Thing is, he didn't damage the mic and if he'd apologized he probably could have stayed.

What thoughts do you have on the cuppers? I made a sign a while back (I think Chris Avis uses it in his books) that shows the right and wrong way to hold a mic. I've been thinking that I should figure out a way to attach a "grip-strap" to the body of the mic so that the natural method of holding the mic would be to slip your hand into the grip, kind of like on a camera body. I also thought, maybe half joking, about having a really horrible sounding buzz, crackle, wah-wah sound-effect handy for when anyone does cup the mic, I can feed that sound into the mix until they stop.

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Never the same show twice!

Printed in every book.....

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-Chris

Best to have a mic on a stand, therefore if anyone drinks or smokes on stage they haven't got to hold the mic as well.

I have tried over and over, but frankly it's a losing battle. I just pot them down. Rarely someone will ask why, and if so I tell them that cupping the mic makes them sound horrible and increases feedback & distortion. Most, don't even notice. Remember, everyone else can see them cupping the mic too (and hear the distortion) so its a reflection on them...not you.

The problem is exacerbated by stars doing it, either to look cool or out of ignorance.

Snoop Dogg understands.


Eminem does not.

Mt. Karaoke, I have seen photos of a country star who has a mic with what looks like brass knuckles attached to the body. He slips his fingers through the holes while holding the mic. I tried to look up what it might be as I thought that would be handy for keeping drunks from dropping mics along with guiding them into holding it correctly. But so far I haven't found it and I can't remember who the singer was.

As far as equimpment violators, a visiting host once jumped up on the stage and started adjusting the knobs on my mixer while his girlfriend was singing. But he had it all backwards. He insisted the mids knob was the sweep and turned her mids to 7 o'clock and she sounded like she was down inside a box. I think he was just a bit too happy that night as he has never done that since. If he would have asked I would have said, "Sure, show me something," but he just barged right in.

There have also been a few who have started looking up songs on my computer. There is no karaoke on it yet (just bumper music and master song list) so it doesn't interrupt the show other than it can get in my way. They usually have a drink in their hand so they have to be carefuly escorted away to avoid accidents.

Yes, Brantley Gilbert :



Bet even he's not holding it right

Also, that would end up being used as a weapon and I'd probably be liable.

I was thinking along these lines:

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Never the same show twice!

If someone jumped behind the bar and started making themselves a drink, how long do you think they would last in the establishment?

You are no different. If someone, ANYONE, touched my gear as you described above, I would have them kicked out IMMEDIATELY. No questions...

Happened to me ONCE..... people still talk about the outcome..... never a second time

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
Unknown
"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
Lee McGuffey

i had one lady see her boyfriend or husband flirting with some girl while she was singing...so instead of continuing the song or yelling at him over the mic, the mic went flying across the bar to the wall just next to the guys head. thank god it was the Sennheisers.

also had two guys walk by me after i told them it would be about an hour and a half wait (46 singers that round) and threw a heaping handfull of pepper at me right over the board. thankfully it was my Yamaha so kept going for 3 more years.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Never had it happen yet, but have had a lot of people (hosts) tell me how they would like it - usually too much effects in which I will add to their monitor only!

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

Had one of my best regulars start messing with mixer settings while I was in the bathroom and filler was playing last Saturday. I heard the volume drop and this chick started talking over my mic while I was in the restroom, and I came out and LIT HER UP. I've been 1,000,000% nice to this lady for years now, and she turned white as a ghost and looked like she was going to cry...she'd definitely never seen me like that before. I think she got the message.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

It sucks when people get so wasted they think they can mess with somebody's stuff. I was livid. You bust your (@$%&#!) for folks and this is your reward. This bowling alley gig is pretty rough to begin with so while I'm super upset about what happened it's not a complete shocker.

I rarely leave my work station but assumed stepping away for one minute would be ok. Bad idea. I've had only one other incident that comes close to this and I personally escorted that idiot out the side door of the venue.

I guess these random incidents of stupidity are part of the job description of an karaoke host.

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified