Karaoke Forums

For instance,  Mr. October has his show where he also performs,  Billy "OK what now" mentioned he might be interested in starting to KJ, now on a slower night Billy has a fabulous singing voice, so if not many want to participate in Karaoke, he can do that "Band in a box" type thing and sing to his backing, and be "the show"....

Should the KJ learn to DJ today ? Should the KJ today have a good singing voice and also be more of an entertainer during slower periods ?  Is advertising "DJ also providing Karaoke" a better marketing strategy ?  Advertising DJ for private venues ?   Prior to this forum, I never heard the term "KJ".... Yet most know what a "DJ" is..? KJ isn't as known a term.  Is it as respected a term in general ?

Just wondering


(In a way this might be like JamKaraoke's "Reinventing the Karaoke wheel" thread. Yet I don't think you can reinvent a fad that's on it's way out, or certainly beyond it's novelty phase. So how can the KJ supplement bar work that he might be losing these days? Does he have to diversify his skill and offer DJ type entertainment as well ?.  What can he/she offer that the less experienced can't in other areas?)   Or are these undercutters also stealing weddings ?????  Dunno

ADDED IN:

Mike mentioned "having to evolve" ?  What might it be that entertainment in lounges today needs to take into consideration ?  Is there a way to make this work assuming everyone's on pretty much a "Self help" premise.... Tough times for bars, and it'll be dog-eat-dog.

Is just being a KJ enough today ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

  Steve ma man,
  Wow....who lit you up today !!. Just kidding.
  On a more serious note, I believe that any individual that wants to entertain today, must bring with them the ability to multi-task, be it DJ/KJ or any number of equations that involve the possibility of doing, very well, more than one form of entertainment. I got my musical career started in a boys choir, 4th grade, did O HOLY NIGHT every mid-nite mass on Christmas Eve for about 6 years, plus weddings, functions, etc. Then became lead singer in a band. Went in the service for 4 years, still managed to entertain here and there, came out played guitar and sang a solo act for a while, got into DJ'ing then KJ'ing. For a while, (too old now) I'd do whatever the customer wanted because...I could, and they knew it, because most people had seen me doing one or the other or in some instance 2 or three at one gig.
Plus, don't forget the ability to interact with ALL SORTS of individuals at once and keep them for the most part happy AND entertained.
Just thought I'd throw this your way.

                              Donny "B"

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It's a wonderful life!!

Hey Donny.   It's lack of sleep.  I get this way   hehe.   Actually this was carried over from the "undercutters" thread. It started to stray from the topic of undercutters, to "What's happening in the Karaoke business today, as well as with bars, etc" It's a continuation of something we got into somewhat similar to the unscrupulous "bar owners" you were describing yesterday... This is carried over from Kurts thread. Bar's aren't as easy to KJ in as they might've been 10 years back.  Some are closing, less revenue, etc..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

you gotta diversify, maaaannnn.  diversify.   gotta be all things to all clients.  actually, just coming up with fresh ideas, be they your own or something you got from karaoke forum.  as long as the bar owners are making money, they really don't care what makes it for them.  


on a side note, since i don't want to bring up the no smoking ordinence thread again, but there's a bar moving in right next door to the bar i currently KJ in.  they are opening here because the city to the north (round rock which actually borders p-ville) and the city to the south (austin, which also borders p-ville) both have smoking bans.  i talked to the owners and they are coming here because it's the only city that allows smoking!  good for me because i got the KJ gig just by being in the right place at the right time, plus they've seen me in action next to thier club.  i asked about getting new gigs i another thread and i believe it was liquideye who said sometimes the gigs just fall into your lap.

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All work and no play make Homer something something

The smoking ban is an excellent example of just an additional ordinance putting strain on bar businesses. Here in the north "open roof" architecture isn't an option. Renovations aren't affordable. Add DUI, and other zoning laws, difficulty getting the extra hour license, cops playing cat and mouse in bar parking lot's....and all sort's of stuff....It's not the #1 business I'd opt to purchase these days.  Alot of laws making it tougher for bars (at least in CT).. You folks had a fill of this over and above any of us, with that rediculous "Pre-DUI" raid crap. At least in Isis, and Daves area.... There's descrimination towards bar businesses these days.  While I'll admit that alcohol isn't safe, legislators are really taking backhanded ways of clamping down on venues relying on the sale of it for revenue... Strangling them to a slow death. They aren't allowed within a mile of a church, school, etc..  One would think these are "Houses of ill repute"...   The local pub and brothel.... (HEY, now THAT would be a means of supplementing income)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

can you say prohibition and speak easy?  we stil ahve dry counties here.  in fact, half of some cities are dry.  you can walk into a store on the east side of the street and get a beer, but not on the west side of the street.  it's crazy!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Exactly Steve,  We are reverting back slowly to the days of prohibition here in CT..  CT has always had three dry districts....  NY always had "open container" laws in many upstate areas.... Yet it's getting more strict.  It's a pretty sick world IMO when ANY legislature OK's a situation such as the one that Austin area faced.... Raiding private property, and dragging people out of bars because they
Appear to have been drinking..... SICK SICK SICK..... "The land of the free" ?


Better be careful,  Use spellcheck,  you might get arrested at home for TUI...  Typing under the influence.... (It leads to more serious offenses)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Has anyone ever, ever have in mind, being a bar owner? Some here had over the years invested tons of money on disc and audio equipment. Why not invest it  on a bar. You will then have a permanent place to KJ. Also, you will not be dealing with a stupid bar owner. Just think, the sound/video/lighting  system will be a fix installation.
There is no need to do all those backbreaking job of setting up and pulling down. every nite.

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

I would've loved it 20 years ago Jian,  but businesses are VERY costly here, and it's a "Historical" area meaning they are MUCH stricter.... They hounded a woman a few miles down for her "Spiritual healing" sign on her door...  I thought the town zoning board was going to burn her at the stake.... It's VERY tough in my area to get zoning to allow you to open a bar....VERY tough...  They don't want bars around here. (They lead to more serious offenses)

Jian,

  That gives me an idea  :dunce:   Since this is a VERY old historic area with homes from the 1400 and 1500's... and VERY Christian based.   I'll open up a Church... and the Church "Our Lady of the Slovenly Ho" will  have ritual's of "Sex, booze, women, and song"..... It's my religious right to express myself !


(I better make room for Horses,  I suspect Keith will be up here quite a bit )

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Its the same over here, maybe stricter. What I mean is buy or be a partner of an existing bar.

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

Most bars or restaurant bars that open up in this area fold within several years.  It hasn't been a lucrative business in this area at least since the 1960's.  Even pre-DUI, and all the strict laws, restaurant bars were tough to keep affloat.

That's why I'm saying, things are likely MUCH different in Portland, or ANY city that has more activity for that matter..  There's just not much to do in CT except pay taxes and more taxes.... Businesses have been closing,  Cities are still lively however for the most part, (of course with the exception of Hartford where people are getting shot just about daily by drive-bys)  :(   Everyones afraid to go into that area now...  It's time to sell this state to the japanese. Yet I doubt they even want it !

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

"Undercutter strikes again" was actually the first half of this thread. I just didn't want to threadjack Kurts thread.  But you brought up a very good point about the "Amended indoor clean-air act", which choked out small businesses such as bars... The winter here is often 0 degree's with a windchill.  People that drink OFTEN smoke... Bars have never been places people go for "health conscious purposes"... Germs abound, sloppy behaviour continues, and when a person has hung up their coat, and on a whim feel like having a ciggy, the LAST thing they want to do is retrieve their coat, stand out in the winter wind, staring at configs of cop cars in the bar parking lot pensively watching them as they smoke....It's almost ironic.... "Safe environment that serves alcohol, and has testosterone charged young'uns hitting on anything"..... sending the women into the parking lot to smoke to maintain a safe environment.... It CAN'T work favorably for business aspects of Bars.   Booze and ciggies go together (at least they did in my day)....  and I don't smoke OR drink.... Yet I try to be somewhat reasonable... A bar is NOT the place to be banning smoking IMO..... Especially a small private venue... This shouldn't be all or none.... Let people decide if they opt to patronize a building that allows smoking.... Let waitresses decide if they want to work at a bar that allows smoking..   The reason the clean air act started was because of a waitress that got cancer, she started a class action suit charging the venue she worked at...  The purpose was giving a safe environment for employee's, free of secondhand smoke.... Of course the fact that she was a heavy smoker prior to the bar was never taken into consideration.. and I can't help but think the risks a person takes just working around alcohol, germs, and walking out into the parking lot at 3 AM pose a more realistic threat, this should be optional, we do, or don't allow smoking here.... That easy !!   and post it on the door...... It seems bizarre IMO, it ideally should be elective for the venue, and manditory to post Smoking or non-smoking; Let the patrons and employee's decide without the government sticking their nose in yet another thing we do, however sure,  if a bar decided to not allow smoking, it should be enforced in this case... I don't get it... Small bars, three-four employees off-hours,  NO SMOKING allowed with the amended cleanair act. That's what hurt, the amended act.. Not the initial act.

OK, time for me to crash, I'm out in the crab nebula someplace, and my fingers are typing without supervision.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Most know by now that my posts are very seldom serious more often than not trivial  while some go off the deep when I am in a deep depression but the next day brings a new dawn. This subject is one that occupies a lot of my dreams and meditaions. TWhen I do write seriuos post I tend to write a book but try to offer some big picture insights into problems that eveybody faces on this forum. No one can come up with a pill or magic solution to turn things around. It takes honesty. hard work, and establishing a reputation that does not come over night. The idea of turning to big brother who right now is about as corrupt as others (no names) to bust the competition and save us is immature, ludicrous, as I havnt seen solve a probem yet.  They were so busy inventing problems and was totally wasting resources on a drug war and other pet projects and are now finding out they have some real problems which threaten our way of life and very existence. So what are they doing? Pointing fingers placing blame on others and while claiming to have solutions dont have a clue... Sound familiar fellow DJ's and KJ'S?  Problems are not solved by passing more laws and putting more burdens on a legal system which has evolved into a system for the rich.. We have the biggest prison population per capita in the world Does that make you proud? It is money money money. Now if you are still reading this I will try to offer some simple insights into major problems that we face. I offer these thoughts not from ego or any other gain just to provoke some logical thinking into providing solutions God knows I aint smart enough (alone) to begin to solve some of these problems but I bet there are a whole bunch of people that could join a meeting of the minds and we could come up with a major plan..

The entertainment industry that totally depends upon more and more high tec systems has had to adapt. There were those in the movie industry that firmly believed the new talkies wouldnt last, they were just a fad. They thought vcrs. dvds and home theatre systems would be their demise. But they adapted by expanding their markets and ventured into the trades that comsumers were clamoring for. They didnt try to  save their industry with lawsiuts or lobbying congress to regulate in their favor not much anyway.

When the supply is larger than the demand the suppliers have to reduce their prices and during a depression there are cut throats and below board tactics are common.. And dont think we are not in a depression. There was a time when a single person could work 40 hours a week and support a big family. When some industries are making larger than ever profits and major corps like airlines are being bankrupted on a regular basis there is some major legal or I should say illegal problems that rape the american consumer daily.

So the issues that pertain most to our trade is not as simple as they once were. Last summer I ran into an old friend who is a Bud distributer. He told me there are two bars in town barely holding their own One was the bar that we still had as a hot karaoke spot. They opted to run my buddy out who had done shows there fri sat sun for over 5 years. He had a kid helping him part time that copied our hard drive then talked the owner into hiring him for peanuts. Needless to say the business went almost nothing the kid lasted 3 months then gave up. When the statewide smoking ban takes effect they will be in the same boat as everybody else.  My sister had small liquor store fo a few years. When you cant buy beer in large quantities like the big discount liquor stores you cant make enough profit to pay the lights and cooler electrical bills.  This nation has all but destroyed small private businesses and the small bars are at the bottom of the totem pole.. So you cant blame them for desperately cutting any cost to try to stay afloat. More and mre people are staying at home because they are tired of all the harssments and public regulations Towns are wondering why all he shoppers are driving 20 miles down the interstate to big shopping centers. When you have cameras hanging on stop lights to generate revenue by sending out tickets, kids hiding from cops, for gods sake you cant even visit with friends on the street anymore and laugh and smile without getting weird stares from passerbys. People are building bara at home They are buying up farmland and commuting to the big cities.  In the last 2 months I have made more money setting up home systems than I was with 2 regular gigs. I have one of the best systems in the state which sits idle now because I got tired of all the bs and I wont setup for less than 175- $200 Private parties are about twice that. What hurts is the last 2 years I have spent some big bucks building up a DJ library and have tailored shows to cater to private parties  which includes both DJ and KJ. A couple of weeks ago we did a grad party at a private residence. It always seems like when you setup you have no help teh tearing down you have all the help in the world. But it is nice when they say you put on a awesome show.

My later systems were put together by gleaning information from forums like this Due to Lonman and others I have a system which rates in the top 10% as far as quality and sound.. I have spent thousands on music yet I sit idle. These forums are a good indicator of trends worldwide which affects us all We need to be discussing the real issues.  Now if you read this entire post I commend thee. I very seldom get serious anymore if I am overly excited it better be because im gettin some..

 Regards,
 Karyoker Cabaret Karaoke

Karyoker,  Yeah.... The Gov't that is going to enforce No smoking laws because secondhand smoke is so dangerous, is the same Gov't that loves getting fat and happy off've the taxes from cigarette sales. Well which is it Uncle Sam ?  The defense and the prosecution ?

If smokers had a union just one fraction as strong as the NRA,  this would've been quashed.  I'm surprised a large group of smokers haven't repealed this, as some discriminatory ruling. I can't figure out why there's no smokers union fighting this.


Agreed, Karyoker.  This HAS been the last straw for the small corner bars in many areas.  "Hard Rock", and the huge chains won't suffer as much. Yet this can't help them either, adding 2+2+2+2.

There's just something really weird about visualizing a bartender handing a Martini to some guy with an already bloated liver, while he and the bar backs constantly touch food and handle money, seldom wash their hands even when going into the bathroom, all the while the place is overheated with people hacking cold & flu germs into microphones, and all over one another, while wiping out on bathroom floors slippery from urine,  and than someone lights up a cigarette and a waitress castigates the person saying "You can't smoke here Cigarette's are unhealthy",  go outside into the NYC air where the rat's wear nose-plugs, but don't dirty our pristine atmosphere  :drunk:  I must be missing something. Even decent air filtration systems aren't enough ? I can see a restaurant being smoke free, especially if children are around... Yet after a certain hour, what difference does it make ?  When the bars up and running at 11-3 AM why no smoking ?   I dunno....


JMO !!  <------

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

In my younger days for big money while home ported out of Norfolk I transported cases of cigs out of North and South carolina north for you know whom....I havnt smoked for years but when I got cigs out of a machine in Chicago or other places and you could squeeze the pack down to nothing and they wouldspring back to full width I knew who owned the club.. I didnt have to look for a tax stamp...When I quit I was harrssed by every enforcement agency on the East coast. Local and state....
As singers and patrons we need to support the little bars the mom and pop stores which is hard to do when you are in a survival mode and scraping too.For you dont know who owns the big stores.. Forign or not....I am too old to take advantage of th situation now but every kid has a home karaoke player and when they reach age they will go to the bars that have good systems...

In the previous post guess what the singers and non singerrs now patronize the bar that we moved to. Did we take legal action ?  No... We believe in karma. And our customers agree and support a real KJ and awesome system..

to oanyone who may be reading this from the authorities.......i have been drinking and usually do while i'm at the keyboard.  if you think you can, go ahead adn take my keyborad.....

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All work and no play make Homer something something

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

How come whenever I talk about this stuff, everyone thinks I'm nuts, but when everyone else talks about it it's OK.

Just wondering....

And Flipper hasnt even Chimed in yet   thought this was a thread for him ?

Speaking Of deversity Ive been asked to start D/J ing at a club and while on the beach last weekend, I was thinking of how I can spice things up and not be just another D/J..then it hit me...growing up on long Island with 2 brothers and 3 sisters...all six of us would often put on shows for our parents.

We would Crank up the old 45 Player and Lip Synk to the monkees or whatever we had. it was the most fun. (actually we still do it at Family get togethers)

Now my Idea is to get some Props and give the NON singing crowd a chance to get up on stage and show there stuff without the embarrassment of not being able to sing or keep in tune.

I asked around and got a great responce so far. most non singers said they would love to get up and act out a song and ofcourse the singers are all for it as well.

I'll let you Know how it goes.

Just a thought
Michael


Edit : had to change K/J to D/J