Karaoke Forums

I've been working at a new venue the last few weeks on Tuesdays & Fridays from 9pm to1am.  My Friday nights have been SO-SO hit or miss but the Tuesday nights have been AWFUL !  - I get a about 3 or 4 singers and they leave to go home about 11:30pm.   My rotations are fair, selection, sound and equipment are above average and the venue is big with 2 pool tables , plenty of TV's and is clean and the bartender is ok but they don't serve food.  So besides changing the hours to 8pm -12pm I'm at a loss on what to do to get business in.  They do advertise on the light marquee out front and signs inside the bar and outside the bar show KARAOKE on Tuesdays.  

Is it JUST THAT TIME OF YEAR ?  How are your nights going ? Busy - SO SO ?
Is TUESDAY just a BAD BAD day to host Karaoke ? or is two days at one venue just too much?

You hit the nail on the head there. Mondays and Tuesdays are not party nights. People in general don't go out those nights! Never have been and never will be. Changing to a 8/12 will not bring in more people, but will allow you to go home earlier  I had some oppertunities to get Tuesday night gig's but turned them down. There's nothing as bad as a 3 or 4 rotation "crowd", dying of in the early hours of the night.

Some ideas I had to bring in more people ( not necessarily singers)  but was to advertise an OPEN MIC night on Tuesdays allowing some people to come down and hook into my system and do 10-15 minute sets of whatever from 2pc bands to stand up comedians ? I then can  Karaoke in between them setting up..just a thought  :thinkin: - The more I'm thinking is that TUESDAYS is not an ideal night for most to go out.  My last gig Thursdays was a decent night ..maybe I'll request switching to Thursdays.  The town I'm in is a BEACH town but unfortunately
the bar is located way at the end where there is no boardwalk -so it doesnt get any walk by exposure. ..Just talking out loud  (lol) -- Handing out flyers does that still work anymore?

Probably just a bad night for it.  I've been thinking for months about going to a weeknight karaoke show, but it just doesn't work.  They usually don't start until 9:00 pm and I'm not going to be able to swing that because I can't leave my wife with my two small kids late at night when she has to get up early in the morning to go to work.  If the show started earlier it might help some, but even then it would be difficult for me to make it.  Now if it started at 6:00 pm, or even 7:00, it would start to look more doable, but I imagine the typical person wouldn't come out so early.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.

Weeknights are tough, but they are doable...I've managed to build decent shows on Wednesday through Saturday nights.  It's hard and it takes time.  You may have to really cut a deal with the bar for a month or two until things take off.  The main question I had was what is the karaoke atmosphere like in your area?  Is there a lot of karaoke going oon or are yu the only thing going?  If the latter is the case, then you'll have to be patient as people learn to become comfortable doing karaoke.  

However, when you say that even your Fridays are so-so that leads me to think that maybe that ain't the place to be trying to work a karaoke show if you know what I mean.  Fridays and Saturdays should pretty much take care of themselves, it's the other nights that may need some extra work.  

Just as a side note, you mention in your post that you runa fair rotation. I thought that was funny seeing as you say you only have 3-4 singers!  Must be tough to keep straight!  LOL

Seriously though, stick with it and keep trying.  Sooner or later your hard work will pay off.  If not at that bar, maybe somewhere else.

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Spreading the karaoke gospel

Well I'm not a KJ so I don't know anything about this.  But the discussion does make me wonder how you KJ's get paid.

:-David

the only way you can really make Tues and Wed pay off are contests (ick), or the OTHER five days of the week are doable too. when regs start to complain bitterly about the long rotations on the weekend, inform them of the OTHER days of the week that are open.

Big Mike
Let me clarify - I've been KJ'ing for years  and this place just happens to be a new venue for me.  I have a reputation with the areas karaoke regulars of having one of the better shows around.  So  when I say I run a fair rotation  I really mean I know HOW to run a fair rotation..  Unfortunately the 3 or 4 singers I've been getting on the Tuesdays isn't much of a challange.  The bar is in the  midst of "changing " its clientele.  I've heard horror storys in the past of FIGHTS / DRUGS / ETC.  They have a dance floor WITH LIGHTS hanging speakers and the works for a real CLUB atmosphere plus a dj booth and a house system if I decided to use it.  The old customer base was a YOUNG AND WILD HIP HOP CROWD . The owners are trying to change over to a more subdued crowd, so maybe I'll have to be patient.  The bar is in a beach town FULL OF BARS AND CLUBS, Many of them have karaooke on one day or another --SO maybe the town is just Saturated.  Fridays have been picking up but with it being the SUMMER the bars by the beach with outside type TIKI bars have all the crowds?  
KNIGHT - The contest thing seems the way to go so I will look into that a little more
and try to get some feedback from the owner etc.  Thanks for all the suggestions

Tuesdays aren't necessarily bad but takes a bit of work to get them going.  We do our Tuesdays on commission basis and now averaging $180/night  some weeks are better than some but we now have a core group so for about an extra $720-800/month isn't bad.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I've had great success with weeknight shows...and abysmal failure.  Don't ask me what the difference was cuz I have no clue.

I have filled an 800 capacity club on Wednesday nights and had lines at the door at a 600 capacity club on Tuesday.

If I had the answer to why some week night shows flourish and the same set up at another club tanks....I'd be rich.

I ain't rich.

It sounds as if you are having to fight a reputation coming in and hopefully working together with the managment/owner you will be able to "grow" the type of crowd you want.

I am knocking on wood as I write this.... We have a very successful Tuesday night show.  We started out on the side of the club with the stage, large dance floor, lights, house speakers in addition to ours and widely dispersed tables and ended up on the other side of the club between the pool tables, dart boards and closely spaced tables.... Go figure... Our patrons seem to like the closeness rather than the "club" atmosphere.  The other side of the club does well on weekends with bands tho!

We will think good thoughts and hope your Tuesday night show picks up.....

Susie

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you do it in the car,
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Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

I work in a beach town also, and have a full house of about 100-125 every Wednesday night. The place I work also sounds similar to your place: 3 nice pool tables, 4 dart boards, dance floor, etc.. HOWEVER, I'm still stuck with the young and wild hip hop crowd!!

I think you hit it on the head: The "more subdued" crowd doesn't stay out late on a work night!! My place doesn't even get packed until about 10:30-11:00, but the young and wild certainly keep packing in until 2:00 a.m.!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I work in a beach town also, and have a full house of about 100-125 every Wednesday night. The place I work also sounds similar to your place: 3 nice pool tables, 4 dart boards, dance floor, etc.. HOWEVER, I'm still stuck with the young and wild hip hop crowd!!

I think you hit it on the head: The "more subdued" crowd doesn't stay out late on a work night!! My place doesn't even get packed until about 10:30-11:00, but the young and wild certainly keep packing in until 2:00 a.m.!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I tried working with the owner of this bar on Tuesdays and 1 day even offered to call it quits halfway thru the night for half pay of course as  there was only 3 people in the bar--So I took $75 for 2-1.2 hours work. The next week It was slow again maybe 10 people in the bar , but I worked a full night until 1:00AM.  The guys hands me $75  (now mind you our orginal agreed amount was $125) .  I didn't really notice the shortage as I put the money in my pocket and counted it when I got home.  But no problem as it was slow and I still had Fridays in which  "we" were trying to build up.  The next Friday the bar has a COORS LIGHT PROMOTION scheduled  in which I was promoting on my Tuesdays & Fridays karaoke nights.
That Tuesday I was told that another DJ would be in on Friday as they wanted more of a club atmosphere for the promotion.  Then the following Friday I was called and told that they were cancelling karaoke for "that night" ....  Needless to say I won't be back to this place.  I was 'suppose" to work last night (TUESDAY) but because of the way this guy handled his business , I decided not to go in  - Didn't call or anything.  So I guess now I'm, unemployed from the KJ business ..until I find another venue ... ....Sorry for the long story

My Tuesdays nights are incredible. Last night the rotation was 30 people long we did a total of 57 songs and it really made me work. The bar is just a small local bar and we had 100+ people in the place all night. It's like that every Tuesday night. I'll make sure to take pictures next week.

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[font=Comic Sans MS]Wow Rub it in why don't ya!  :wave:

LMR[/font][/quote]

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GIRL POWER!!!!!

JAM where in Jersey are you? This time of year there is plenty going on you just have to be in the right place.

That place was obviously not the place to be ...at least on Tuesdays.

Like previously mentioned , the place had a bad reputation and my opinion could have been a reason for the poor Tuesday showing.  I've checked and the weekends haven't been much better. So I'm going to "chalk" this up to bad mangement at the bar.  I've been looking for a new gig , but to be honest I'm going to steer clear of Tuesdays  LMAO  I like Wed or Thursdays as a MID WEEK gig.