The Karaoke Forum

As I said this is very rare! and I went and asked my singers what they thought. must have missed that part??? and it was 1 song,no more. I am very strict with my rotation and I know most of my singers as I am out in the crowd most of the night at my shows. Bribe I think not. This is how I make my living not a hobby. If someone wants to pay me almost half of what I make for the whole night for one song and no one in the crowd has a problom with it, Ill do it again! I had one night I was shutting down,guy comes up and wants to sing 2 more songs, I tell him Im shutting down. Then he says I'll pay you $40. Lets do the math $40 6 min. x 10=$400 per Hr. wish I could make that all night!! I can stay open for 6 more min. Oh and getting back to brain dead dosn't anyone bring new singers Into their rotation somewere near the top?? so if i can get 1 guy his song in for his buddies before they leave and make $100.00. He's happy,bar owners happy 10 people, minimum 2-3 drinks each plus shots(they would have left sooner if they thought he wasn't gong to sing)Im happy.........Just a side note everyone had sung multible songs,this was a new singer walking in.

Let me be clear here, I'm not judging anyone for how they chose to handle these situation, merely communicating to you what my practice and beliefs are in terms of this. Everyone has their own motivations, their own situations and such.

Since I do have the luxury that this is a hobby for me (in the sense that I don't rely on it to make a living), I can be a more idealistic about how I handle this stuff. I have a day job that pays me quite well and I do this for spending cash and the enjoyment of doing the job well. So my motivations are different.

I do favors for folks (extend the show or whatever as long as it's not unfair to others) but I chose not to accept money or even allow it to appear that I've accepted money for those favors. That's my choice and others choose differently. I have my ideals and I stick to them, others have their ideals and they operate within them. It's not a judgement, it's a statement of fact. I don't expect other people to stick to my ideals nor do I expect to be judged for not sticking to theirs..

I agree, at all.

I like to appear to be as normally human as everyone else. I know there are situations that may arise. Babysitter issues, car trouble, etc. So there may be times when a good regular customer needs a little favor. Doesn't mean my rotation isn't fair. Doesn't mean I take bribes. Part of doing business with the public. Karaoke hosting is a constantly fluid process. Something is always happening to change what's going on or supposed to happen next. We have to make these adjustments as best we can. It's part of our profession. Taking care of loyal singers is part of that.

If braindead walks in off the street as a perfect stranger and starts demanding he does this and that and wants it now......he can pound salt. Now if he starts waving $100 around he is starting to get my attention. This is where I'm happy to take this jerks money just to get him out of my face. And if paying $100 to sing next floats his boat, I'll row.

Regular steady singers keep us going and a small favor once in a while isn't going to kill my business. If someone would get mad about it, I'll remember them if they ever need a favor. It works both ways.

I do not blatantly move my rotation around to suit anyone. A few carefully placed slips can go a long way. Sometimes it works in my favor. It appears like I did a big favor when actually it worked to my advantage and they "think" I did something wonderful. My reputation is in tact and they love me for being so wondeful. They come back and tell there friends about the nice KJ.

A guy threw $20 on the table and said he wanted to sing another song. He just sang and I had 25 singers. He wanted to be next. I said he can't be next I have too many singers. He said that's for me to sing next. I said no it's to pay me to play late so you get your last song sung. I threw the money back at him. He was so mad he said keep it anyway. Big shot politician (in his small mind) with money to burn. Do you think I really need you or want you as a steady singer with that attitude? WRONG.

I have had people from time to time ask to be moved up in the rotation due to having to leave because of babysitter issues, etc. I will usually move them up as close as I can to the time that they say they have to leave by (i.e., someone has to leave by 11 PM, so I bring them up around 10:50 or so). BUT, I watch them afterwards and make sure that they really do leave when they say they have to!

The places that I KJ at are restaurants as well as bars, so from time to time there may be some kids (under 21) that want to sing. As the place stops serving food at 10:30, I will bring the kids up at around 10 or so if it looks like their turn won't be coming up before 10:30. I will announce this to the crowd and have never had any complaints...after all, the kids will only do one song and be outta there!

I welcome any thoughts and/or suggestions regarding the rotation, by the way

I have no problem sliding the kids in. The only real problem would be if there were 20 kids that had to be out and they all wanted to sing. That might P.O. some regulars and some of the listeners too.

I have done Christmas parties for kids and if one kid hears Frosty they all want to sing it.... back to back to back WOW

Usually there are no more than 2 or 3 kids that want to sing, so that has never been a problem. I do see what you mean, though, with 20+ kids...wow!

Marlena wrote:that would not fly here

Seems like Canadians are a different breed. No offense.

I don't move people up irregarless of how much they want to tip. I actually don't even take tips, I charge my venues enough money to where I don't need tips. If someone asks for my tip jar I ask them to instead tip their waitress or bartender because they are the ones working their tails off for them.

I post my rules in all of the books, by the request slips and right by me so people know how I run my show. If you ask to be bumped up more than likely you will be moved down on the list. You bother me about it, I take you out. Most of the time it is that random person who you will never see again anyways but thinks they are Gods gift so it doesn't bother me to remove them from my list.

My attitude towards accepting "tips" has changed significantly over the last few years. I was very rigid with my "rotation rules" and bent them for nobody in the beginning. Fast-forward a few years later and things are different. Someone offers me a decent tip to be bumped up in rotation then I'm gonna probably consider it where as before I would've declined.
A couple of dollars will not get me excited but a twenty dollar bill, etc. might just do the trick. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.

I run my rotation the way I would want it run if I am on the other side. I can't stand anyone cutting in line no matter what is offered to do so. that said I have gotten singers who haven't sung up in about five songs if I am running out of time.

In 17 years and thousands of shows I have never taken a tip or taken a "bribe" to bump someone up in the rotation. A sellout is a sellout whether it's for 2 bucks or 20.

it's really just not fair and it always causes more problems than the money is worth.

I won't sell out for $2.....