Karaoke Forums

jeff, didn't konw you were in austin, you should make the short trip to pflugerville one saturday night and see me.  

to your point, yes the larger venues such as warehouse can afford to do drink specials, but remember, fokls are also there to shoot pool, shoot darts, play snooker and occasionally they stumble in from the strip club next door.  karaoke is an added value to these customers.  places like boomerz, canary roost, hanovers, raggedy annes, and such don't really need drink specials because the people are there for karaoke.  of course if you run drink specials you will have more customers because the drinks are cheaper.  that's simple math, but it is still the KJs responsibility to bring customers through the door, not the bar owner's.

question - if there were no karaoke, but there were still drink specials, what percentage of customers would the bar lose?  
now turn it around - if there were no drink specials, but there was karaoke what percenteage would the bar lose?  

my guesstimate is that you would lose about the same in either case, meaning that some folks are there for the specials and some are there for karaoke.

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All work and no play make Homer something something

I think people get excited to go to a place that has both. They used to do it as a group when I worked at Advanced Micro Devices in Austin. Everyone would talk about it all day at work and try to get all to go. Having both is important but not all important.  I don't make it up to flu-gerville too often simply because I live in San Marcos. (South of Austin) After all these years I am still 6 classes from graduation at Texas State (formerly Southwest Texas State University.  I went up to spotlight karaoke with a friend in Cedar Park a few times. That's north of just about everything central I guess. I just hate to go to karaoke and then have to drive for an hour. That sort of sucks (in many ways including those that could be unlawful)

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Who loves ya baby?

Can we also get some feedback on other aspects such as karaoke rules and equipment?

i have seen some kj's who know how to work the crowd and some who just mumble through it.  i have been on the receiving end of getting chewed out by singers and getting kudo's.  the chewing out sucks, but most of the time they returned because i asked them to give me another shot.  this set their expectations of me and, without realizing it i think, they come back the next night and bring their friends.  i make sure to talk to them when they walk in the door.
i worked at our watering hole on and off for about 8 years as a kj (and for those of you doubters, security too!).  i remember the slowest night was tuesdays.  we had standing room only darn near every other night.  the then owner gave the kj's free reign to run the show.  she didn't mind doing that because her bottom line was what's in it for me.  she let everyone know her expectations up front.  we had a great staff and we had just as much fun as the customers.
we started the show at 8:00 pm and ended at 1:45.  that's alot of time to sing.
as far as drink specials, the bartender "invented" bar special shooters.  as the kj, we announced them but only when the crowd was fired up (either with alcohol or just being riled up in the atmosphere).  it worked great.  
i definitely agree with the good equipment.  i think a great song selection and great singers can just out and out suck with bad equipment.  and, a great system with the wrong, or cheaper, versions of songs is bad too.

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[scroll]we're men, manly men, we're men in tights[/scroll]

I think a good combo of specials..Maybe an early special to get some in that ends shortly after the singing starts and then some un announced specials through the night...Like special shooters or somethng like that.  The drinks specials will only get people in for so long, if you have a boring show, the singers won;t stay.  If the KJ don't make you sound good, they won't stay, if the music is censored, they won't stay....

We have seen this venue have as many as 50 singers a night and that was an almost everynight event.  And the people stayed because the show was great, everyone wanted to be a part of it...But the owner has put so many restrictions on the KJ's that they show has gotten pretty boring and the crowd has begun to leave...

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

The KJs have begun to leave as well.

Yeah it sucks when the KJ is so bad he leaves himself......Yes they have too many restrictions

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

let me add to sharon's remark that the club sold to a new owner maybe 10 years ago. we have seen things eliminated one by one, from shooters and shot specials to dart and pool leagues to the stall doors in the ladies' room (thankfully replaced--finally!) to decent lighting to new songs to replacing broken equipment to allowing the kjs to run the show and its conetent to...

all of these have contirubted to the crowd getting smaller, the tips getting smaller for the staff and karaoke crew, and the whole entertinament value sliding downhill.

chuck, rich, sharon and i have seen the crowds change as music changes and people's lives evolve, but every new crowd is smaller and smaller.

chuck and i visited the club on the night of the last dallas mavs/miami heat game in the finals thinking it would be a sweet night to sing a lot (on a tuesday, it would have been anyhow) and they karaoke show was delayed until after the game. a lot of clubs did this, apparently. the sad thing is, in our watering hole, only 3 people cared--chuck and i, and one other singer who pretty much has no life outside of the club. nobody else was even ther to be disappointed. that is a pretty big comedown from starting a tuesday with as many as 10 or 20 singers just waiting for you to crank it up.

okay, i am ranitng again (don't i do it well?). i guess what i am saying is that my expectations are pretty much the same as all of y'all's and they are not being met. we think we can do it, though.

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[glow=darkorchid]Musica delenit bestiam feram[/glow]

Well, as a sinner I expect a lot of things in a karaoke bar that most venues don't allow for. Like... huh? I did? Oh thanks.

I'm being told that I misread the OP. It says "As a singer" not "As a sinner" That makes a big difference. Nevermind.

Oops.

Sorry, I was being way too serious when I first posted this.

What I expect when I go Karaokeing:

** KJ/DJ who doesnt have a personality like a block of wood.
** KJ/DJ who is personable and not arrogant.
** KJ/DJ who doenst play favorites with his friends/crowd
** KJ/DJ who does thier job and doenst wander off and play video poker, talk on the cell phone, hang-out and BS with thier pals or spend the evening flirting and fooling around with his GF's/groupies.
** KJ/DJ who can actually speak on the mic and introduces people and then congratulates them on thier singing effort.......each and EVERY time no matter how bad they might of been
** Clean songbooks that arent encrusted with dried up food bits or beer-stained pages.
** Songbooks that appear like someone took some pride, time and effort to put together-in coherent order, and easily looked through
** Healthy song selection with good variety, no 8 versions of happy birthday or 5 versions of each song advertising THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of song selections.
** Good sound system, clear and clean wall of sound and mix.
** Fill music----NO DEAD AIRTIME!!! I actually enjoy some music other than just the singers. Brings some extra energy to the show.

Bottom line a professional show/product run by someone who cares about what they are doing and respects their custies enough to provide the best they can in ALL ASPECTS of their efforts.

Thats what I look for, thats what I grade a show on and thats what will keep me coming back.

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

Well I've mentioned several times that I work at a Marina/Resort, so my circumstances are probably a bit different from what you folks are use to dealing with.

The restaurant doesn't do drink specials and personally I'm glad. They are trying to appeal to the out of towners, who come in looking for something a bit more upscale and don't mind paying a bit extra for it. They really don't want it turning into the local watering hole. Example: We had a large group of local guys who came in and drank large quantities of beer. Nothing wrong with that, their money spends just as good as anyone else. The problem was, they wanted to get a little loud and act out a bit.
The MAJOR problem was, that on their way home, they wrecked their truck right at the entrance to the Marina. So that meant while the cops were at the accident, they also paid a visit to the restaurant and did a walk through. Now granted most of our guest came by boat, but nobody still wants to see uniformed officers coming through the place. It's reality vs. perception. While the actions of the officers was nothing out of the unusual, the perception was, if the cops are here, then perhaps there's been other problems.  

Now a footnote: There is only one way in and one way out of the Marina by road.

The next night we had a highschool reunion at the restaurant. Some had come by boat and were staying at the marina, some had come by car and would have to drive back home. They had a great time. But around 10pm, we get a call saying there was a checkpoint about a mile from the marina.

When I went through the checkpoint. The officer remembered me as the 'Karaoke Guy' from the night before. When I ask him about the reasons for the checkpoint, I knew the answer even before he said it. It was because of the previous nights events and the local guys who wrecked their truck. The night did end up with several arrest. None of our reunion guest were involved, nor any marina employees. It was locals again. All this is going to do is put added pressure on us and could end up being damaging to business as the word goes around. On one hand, it might not be a bad thing to let the community know that if you screw up, you may go to jail, but on the other, folks don't wanna go to a place that is high risk for them to enjoy a few drinks with their dinner. Pretty much a Catch22.

Reality-odds are alcohol is going to be abused by someone no matter where you go, it's a fact, so we have to deal with it. I also know that not all local folks are like this, but it never fails that the worst of the bunch is always the one who makes the first impression on your guest.
Perception- guest who come from out of town, want and expect to have a good time without hassles of any kind. In their minds, if they wanted to see drunk locals, they could have stayed home and saved their money.

So for me and my situation, I say thank goodness for no drink specials. In my mind if that's the carrot you have to dangle to get folks in............well I think I'll just keep that opinion to myself.

James
Maninblack

P.S. sorry didn't mean to go off on another tangent, just kinda got carried away.

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I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

What do you think about theme nights???..Elvis...all Disco...70's....etc....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

I see where this thread is goin and I agree.

Cool, I didn't want to serve alcohol anyway. Too many headaches.

If I am doing it

I have a permanently installed sound system; speakers properly mounted on the walls. ( this will give even level of sound thru out the room)

stage monitors speakers on the ceiling rather than on the floor (drunk will not have the chance to trip over them)

Kj booth off the stage ( better monitoring position)

Lighting (for stage and dance floor) fixed from either floor, pillars or ceiling.

Large screen (maybe an LCD projector) for the non singers.

Stage monitor screen, mounted from the ceiling ( use 2  or 3, positioned in such a way that the singer even when looking at the mon do not seem to look that obvious

KJ supply music and song book only.

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

this is a great point that alot of places....oops sorry crystal...a lot of places miss.  i dind't realize how important it was to have a tv the audience could see until someone pointed it out to me.  we've always had a few tvs for the audience, but one night i put them on a football game or some such other and folks let me know immediately that they wanted to be able to read along with the song!  
again, great point jian

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All work and no play make Homer something something

I like everything you say here.  I especially like the monitor for the singers up high so they don't get kicked etc...

I've always enjoyed reading along with the song, it's fun too see where people mess up or if they change the words or if the song has messed up words....For instance I sang Paraniod by Black Sabbath last night at the house and instead of the last word being coagulate it was congratulate...I sang coagulate....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Heck, let's splurge and give the singers a wireless earpiece monitor!  I think they're  expensive, but aren't you singers worth it!  :yes:  :worship:  Everybody here has listed very good and reasonable requests.  The Canby karaoke joints aren't up to all of these codes.  :(  But for the most part, we do have fun!  If you're ever here, please don't hate us 'cuz we're small town hicks!  LOL

yeah, p-ville is pretty small also, only about 25k folks.  we make do with our tin cans and strings.  as for tv, i think we are getting a black and white station soon.  oh, yeah, i almost forgot......we finally got a blinking light at the intersection!

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Black and white is plenty good enough anyway.  I think this color thing is just a passing fad. When we first got our blinking light, we weren't really sure what it was for.  People just kinda stopped and stared at it while scratching their heads.