The show started out real slow, as you can imagine. We made a couple of signs; one for out at the street, one to hang on the building by the back door (which is a main entrance to the parking lot). I also made flyers for her to put up and quarter sheet flyers to hand out. I've been on every web site I could think of where folks can leave comments about business establishments and mentioned the karaoke night. No charge to her for any of this. One night I saw her using the quarter-page flyers as scratch paper.
I haven't made any more for her.Since our regular bar has karaoke on the same night we do, I didn't want to put the word out there, but we started mentioning it to some of our closer friends.
The first issue was payment. We told her that we wanted $100 a night (which is a really good deal for her) but we would start at $75. Since the business was new to her we didn't want a karaoke night to be a hardship. This was also supposed to be for a three hour show since the deli closes at 8:00.
So the first issue was payment. She "couldn't" pay us the night of the show because she had to see what her sales were before she knew whether to pay us the $75 or the $100. But, even on nights that sales were great she never went above $100 of course.
Then she decided she wanted to pay us every other week and we were okay with that.This lasted for about three months then I'd had enough. I tend to be very nice and non-confrontational, but my patience had worn out. I told her that the karaoke show was part of her overhead, period. I also suggested she look around and see what other KJ's, who brought in their own equipment, were charging. It was significantly more than what hubby and I charge. Bottom line, she has to pay us $100 a week, regardless of what the deli makes. (She's not the brightest light bulb in the pack ... she had mentioned to me that karaoke nights were her best nights.)
I also told her we wanted the check on the night of the show, every other week. Prior we would have to wait until the next day and call her. If the deli was busy we would couldn't pick up the check until later. Sometimes it was as late as Sunday before we could get paid for the Thursday show.
On top of everything else, we also have to pay full price for our meals and drinks. Our show starts at 5:00 and runs pretty much as long as people are there singing. The latest we have closed down is 12:30, but we usually close it up around 9:30. Unless hubby gets off work early enough for us to eat at home or elsewhere, we are stuck buying our meal there. She was even charging us $1.95 each for our drinks when we had our own glass there. A couple of times I have taken ice water from home in my "jug" and she still tried to charge me for a drink.
She has an obnoxious five-year-old brat who is almost always there. He runs around, especially if there is another child in the deli. Lately he has started screaming while people are singing. He used to grab our song slips and pencils and draw on them. Granted, it's not much but it's still money out of my pocket that he is wasting. We now have them up by us instead of on the tables with the books.
There is a meet-up karaoke group in the area. I contacted them and invited them out to the show. Some of their members were becoming regulars until one night the brat decided to "play fight" with the organizer of the group. The organizer was laughing and playing with the child, but that was the last night any of them were at the show. I've had a couple other people tell me that "he" is the reason they don't like to come to the show. The franchise has a web site where people can make comments about the different stores. I'm about ready to make a few email addresses and start complaining about the brat.
She wanted to start a Friday night show as well because some folks said it would work better for them. I told her were agreeable to that and would charge half-price for the first month. At the end of the month she could determine whether to keep Fridays or not. So, we were there for two Fridays. When we got our check it didn't include any payment for Friday. When I asked her about it she said that I had told her I wouldn't charge for Fridays. Wrong! Then, in her intelligence, she went on to say that the deli couldn't afford to pay for another karaoke night. I felt obligated to finish up the Fridays but on the last night I told her that we would not continue the Friday show unless we were paid $100 a night, and $50 more if it went past 10:00. She chose to go back to just one night a week.
For the last few weeks she hasn't had the karaoke sign out. Hubby has been putting it out when we got there but I told him not to last week. My contention is that we are getting paid regardless. If she wants the show to grow she can at least put the damn sign out. Doesn't the establishment usually pay for advertising the show? So far, all of our regulars have come in because of the sign or are people that Matt and I know. She has not been personally responsible for bringing anyone in.
Last Thursday night she had to leave early because "it had been a busy day and she was hurting". The real reason, in my opinion, was because she had some friends in and they had all been drinking all night. She was more than a little tipsy! Hubby asked her for the check and she said to come back Friday. When he called her Friday she wasn't in a very good mood (hangover?) and was really short with the hubby, but we were able to go get the check. We went to the bank to deposit it, and discovered she had put the wrong date on the check so we couldn't deposit it until today.
Hubby was pissed, to say the least, and is ready to pull the equipment. She knows we are there every Thursday, and she knows we are paid every other Thursday. Is it too much to ask that she have a check ready to hand to us when we are packing up? We always have to ask for the check, and it is never ready beforehand.
My attitude right now is to milk this as long as we can, or until we leave the area, which might be within a couple of months. I hate to walk out on our regulars. I feel a loyalty to them, not the deli owner. Not only that, it's a good venue for me to practice new songs and sing some slower songs that wouldn't go over well at the bar. Also, since I lost my job the extra income is rather nice. At least it pays for my smokes.
Thank you for allowing me to vent. I feel much better!
This is bar owner.....
Get used to it because it pertains to everyone of them. Trust me...
), has local bands come in and airs pay-per-view fights with a cover.
