Karaoke Forums

I was wondering , whats a good way to handle people who get mad because they have to wait in rotation for an hour or more. I would think this would be first grade stuff, wait your turn , be polite, but its amazing how many people come up and ask if its "my turn yet", "did you forget about me" ect. I did a show last night in a small club everyone that stayed in rotation sang atleast 3 songs show is 10-2. Im not real efficient yet but I do get things rolling pretty smooth from one singer to the next.
Any thoughts on how I can overcome this proplem and also how I might be able to speed my rotation up.

Thanks

_________________
Happy Sound Entertainment

I calmly point out.....first come.....then show them the list of HOW many are ALREADY in front of them. Pretty much stops it then and there.
'

_________________

It's really quite simple. Let the crowd know what's going on. Make announcements saying things like. "Wow are we jumpin' tonight" Or "It's kinda busy tonight folks so please stick around I promise I'll get you on". Now if people are still buggin you and being obnoxiuos then say something like, now imagine this in a joking way, "well you were going to be up next but now you're gonna have to wait a little longer." I won't make them wait any longer than they were supposed to but that might help get the message across to stop bugging you. Now you gotta remember that they are coming to see and support your show so try to be as nice as possible even if they are getting on your nerves. Don't allow them to be abusive. I once had a guy tell me off because he thought he was waiting to long, I mean F bombs, so he didn't sing at all. I'm gonna stop now because I could go on about this topic and audience management all day.

Pk does some of the same announcements I use. Had 32 singers last night & only 2 whiners. I had one guy wanting his girlfriend to sing for the first time about 10 minutes before I shut down - almost an hour after I cut-off all slips. He tried giving me a $20, I said no, then he pulled out a $50, I said no. He was actually impressed with that, said thanks anyway, and that they'd be back earlier next time & set the $50 on my counter.
Have you thought about starting the show at 9 & say stopping at 1 or 1:30 (or 2 if you still have a strong crowd that late), this would get people that wanted to sing more time to get a couple songs in before a bigger crowd gets there - don't dicker about price to the manager (I don't know what you are getting, none of my business)?? Make sure you have a cut-off time for all slips at a point where you still can get everyone up for their last song. You can ALWAYS get more slips IF needed later.
Do you run 2 players or just 1? 2 players will allow you to cue up the next song after you get your current singer dialed in. In so doing that will also give you anywhere from 4-6 more songs per night because you don't have the down time between songs thus speeding up the rotation - but you do have to fluent about it. 4-6 may not seem like a big deal, but in terms of a singer getting one more song, it makes all the difference in the world.

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

tell them private shows start at $500, and you'd be more than happy to come over to their house and set up.

For the most part I don't have many problems with people complaining about rotation. I do have one who has come up and acused me of skipping her in rotation. In every case she was in the wrong. Last night she decided to try it again and this time I told her that if she keeps it up I will sikp her in rotation and that was final. Like it or not.

I will accept that I am human and can and have made mistakes. But in some cases enough is enough.

I also use a dry wet board.....so when you come in.....you can see HOW many are already up.....that helps to on really busy nights.

_________________

Managing rotation can be a little tricky if you're used to rotations of 10 people and suddenly have to manage 50.

There are all sorts of ways to manage rotation. Bring up a stack and I build the rotation myself (adding in one of your slips as I start each rotation) or by using the sing 1 bring 1 mentality. Every rotation is a little different and there are subtleties to managing every venue.

As for cry babies. I keep track of the rotations (stacking the slips to the side as I put them on) and keep the remaining slips laid out for the current rotation. They ask, I look at the table and say 'x# of songs'. They say I skipped them I look back trough the slips quickly and say 'You sang x# of people ago, we're averaging xx# in rotation, you should be up in about x# of people.' They realize I'm on top of the rotation and they leave. If they ask how long that will be I tell them each song averages 3-4 minutes so 10 people is 30-40 minutes.

If you're fair, and stay on top of the facts of your ratation then there is little to complain about. When the place is standing room only it's obvious there will be a wait between each time you sing.

Keeping them informed is important as well. I tend to annouce the next couple singers so they can be prepared to come right up. I pre-que all songs so they grab a mic and I hit play. They have the amount of time for the splash screen to prepare before they start singing. I also keep the patrons aware of when I stop taking slips, that I try to get in as many people as I can each night, when the next show is if they didn't get a chance to sing, etc. If the wait is running over an hour then I warm them when they bring up a slip - 'I'll get you up as soon as I can but the list is averaging 25 people so it will be about an hour.' Sometimes they say 'Can I get that back then? I don't want to wait that long.' I ask them to leave the slip in and enjoy the other singers and the time will pass quicker than they might expect.

If I'm getting the same person in for a number of duets I tell them that person has already sang and they'll have to wait x# of rotations or they need to choose a different duet partner or sing alone.

Doing this I rarely get a complaint. Only complaint I ever had was someone I called a half dozen times and they complained at the end of the night that I never called them. I had a dozen people saying they heard me call them but he was drunk and wanted to argue.

I can understand how KJ's would feel about people bugging them about skipping a turn or whatever....but how about the KJ's who actually do skip a persons turn, i have seen a few occasions where someone has been moved up in the rotation either by that person getting to sing in a duet/group song or having the KJ saying something like..."well John Doe has to leave so he gets to sing now"...as a singer who waits patiently for his or her turn, it can be a little frustrating seeing someone moved ahead of them especially during a long rotation.
I know a number of KJ's who are pretty fair about keeping the rotation in order, however there are a few who aren't paying attention to who's next.
We're all there to have a good time, we just want the rotation to be fair.

HOLY CROW!! $500?? Dayum, Matt... you is expensive!

_________________

[quote="Davy K"]but how about the KJ's who actually do skip a persons turn, i have seen a few occasions where someone has been moved up in the rotation either by that person getting to sing in a duet/group song or having the KJ saying something like..."well John Doe has to leave so he gets to sing now"quote]

Oh. you bet I would say something about it and then I would leave and never go back to one of his shows again. I stopped by Knightshows website and found an awsome page titled "Bump me up!", go check it out.

I have a copy of it and when the question is asked "can you move me up?" I hand them that page and if it comes back filled out completly and with the correct amont of money I will then make an anouncement to the bar explaining why Joe Blow must be moved up and that there is a free round to the singers if it is alright with them to let him move up.

Funny thing..... No one has filled it out yet.... Thank Knightshow

I've seen this happen a couple of different ways with a couple of different KJ's -- we dont' have too many around my neck of the woods so you take what you get. The first time it happened I have to admit it kind of drove me crazy -- one guy would always get to sing 2 or more songs during his turn, then the rest of us would get 1 song. The guy wasn't anyone special - in fact I'm a friend of the KJ.

Then a few weeks ago with another KJ in a different bar, there was a girl that would constantly get up and invite herself to sing with whomever was at the mike - on top of her singing her own songs plus a few duets here/there. It ended up that the KJ completely lost track of the rotation & I was skipped a couple of times & other's noticed before I did I guess. At the time I didn't really care so I let it go. Figured it's not worth it to be a baby about it.

! Yeah, a buddy of mine sent that to me. I edited it a bit, and thought it would be perfect for an online site! ! Just print it up and bring it to me. A buddy of mine DID fill it out one time, and had all kinds of other comments. I was CRYIN'!

most times, the "has to leave" bit is a crock... but even those that aren't lyin'... sorry, do you bump your way to the front of the line in a grocerty store, because you have to get home so quickly? Do you bump your way to the front of the line in an amusement park?

NEVER in any other industry have I seen adults act so childish. It's simple... wait your turn. If you have to leave, I'll see you later!

Wow! Great advice. I use a laptop with hoster and I still screw it up.So maybe I need to evaluate how I handle my lists maybe some of the cry babies are ligit. I try to be fair but Im sure ive skipped some or missed them in a round. I think my biggest problem is enforcing my rules.
I alllow some people to get by without a slip I just add them. I also let some turn in more than one slip at a time this screws me up ,I know.

_________________
Happy Sound Entertainment

On our first night at our current location we had a guy ask if I would allow a pregnant gal move up in rotation because she shouldn't be their. Of course I said "NO". We have there for three months now and she has been to every show. Two night a week Wednesday and Fridays.

Here is the best part. It Friday night 2:00

Baby has droped

She is in labor 5 to 10 minutes apart

And she is singing.........


Maybe I should have let her move up in rotation


Right after the show a friend of hers came and took her right to the Hospital. She called us Saturday moring to let us know she hasn't delivered yet. Haven't heard anything else.

She better deliver soon so she can come Wednesday night.

You defnintely need to enforce your rules. I'll bet you're skipping more people than you realize. Remember, not everybody who feels like they're being skipped or sees other people getting extra turns is going to complain. But you can bet your (@$%&#!) that a lot of your patrons are noticing it.

I've been to many places with crappy rotations, I rarely say anything, I just scratch them off of my mental list of good places to go. There is nothing more annoying than seeing certain people obviously getting more than their fair share of turns. And it's the KJ's fault when it happens.

I have one crybaby who comes in frequently. He's always drunk (or stoned) before he gets there, and often brings new "friends" who are almost as obnoxious. Never the same friends twice...I think they're ashamed to be seen with him more than once.

He forgets to put a slip in, then finally will put one in and beg and whine to go up next. One of his friends last week got pissy with me because she wanted to sing a capella, and I told her that was fine as long as she put in a slip requesting to get up and limited it to a couple of minutes. She never turned in a slip for that (although she had slips for karaoke songs), and at the end of the night she was cussing me out for not calling her up for the a capella piece. I reminded her that I needed a slip from her for that, and she said...get this..."you don't have that in your song book!" I finally pointed at the owner and told her to talk to him if she was unhappy. She didn't. I wanted to tell her how sorry I was that she had such a crappy time (it was obvious she had a blast all night).

I take request slips and formulate a basic, SINGLE rotation. If a person turns in more than one slip, the first slip goes into the rotation and the rest stand up on my mixer between knobs in separate stacks by singer's name. When they've sung their song in the first rotation, I take their next slip and put it to the back of my single rotation stack. When a new singer comes in, if I've already gone through the first rotation I'll just slip them in a couple of songs down to avoid the impression that they just handed me a slip and I'm calling them up immediately.

It works out well for me. The patrons seem pretty pleased overall, and many have commented on the fair rotation. My biggest problem is figuring out how to deal with duets, but so far there haven't been any complaints, except from the aforementioned whiner who will see a group and invite himself to join it on stage.

_________________
~Cindy
Karaoke. Because it's a lot cheaper than therapy.

While I was on vacation in Pensacola a couple weeks ago I was at a show and having a pretty good time. When I asked how long before I was up (it seemed a pretty long time) I was told I was up in 3 singers (after a lot of shuffling of slips) and he then said 'I'm doing the best I can. I'm having to make my friends wait a long time to sing.' To be honest, that pissed me off. His friends came in late in the evening so they should have to wait. His rotations weren't smooth and we never knew who was up next.

I went to another show later and his rotations were pretty smooth, he annouced the rotation for the next couple singers, and the only thing I wondered about was his handling of duets because one person sang in two duets, back to back. It was an isolated issue and I wasn't going to push it because everything else was going pretty smoothly.

I'm of the opinion that if you you can't say at a moments notice (glance at a board/list/whatever after asking the person's name) when someone is up next then you probably need to work on your rotation. If you look like you're having problems with rotation the patrons will question it and that in and of itself is a problem.

eventide, that's why I stack my request slips, and why some have a rule of "sing one/bring one". Less stuff to manipulate. Easy to see rotation.

As for the acapella gal, it was her problem. She should have asked you during the course of the night... "when's my acapella song coming up?" Rather than wait for the end of the night.

ans as for the "my friends will have to wait" bit, oh GIVE me a break. If someone can't do a "line"-type rotation, I'm usually outta there.