Bar hoppers

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:07 am

There seems to be one cry baby at every bar. They think they are getting screwed on every rotation. It's all in their mind. Nobody else is complaining. I do it fair for everyone every time. Stop getting too drunk to see what's going on. Then we won't have this problem. Or find a KJ that want's to kiss your butt. But it ain't me. My relatives don't get favors. My friends don't get favors. Everyone is equal at my show. I don't care about your talent level. I don't care if you suck. I don't care if you dropped $500 tonight. One song per rotation for each slip. Duets come off somebody's pile.

I had an owner want some favors the other night. He wanted this mini skirted cutie to sing again and again, because he wanted to hire their band.

I reminded him that we had other paying customers in the bar. I was getting ready to tell him to think with his wallet, not his organ brain.

Marlena · Post by **Marlena** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 5:31 am

oops posted this wrong lol

DanG2006 · Post by **DanG2006** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:11 pm

wiseguy wrote:
When media personalities come in I don't announce them. I just shake their hand, ask them what they would like to sing and slip them into the "fake" (that's a bogus name used as a place holder for big tippers and media).
Big tippers and media... who else do you give special consideration to? Your family, friends, the sexy looking girl that smiles at you? You definitely have an unfair singer rotation system. In my area, you'd be the loneliest KJ in town. Having a fair "rules of rotation" is the number one factor in building a good following of singers. I've been a KJ for over 15 years and have never strayed from my strict rotation rules. This has allowed me to build up a large and loyal following of singers that assures that I will never have a problem securing gigs.

The basics of my rotation rules:

Try to allow every person, that turns in a request, to sing at least once. This means placing new singer requests near the top of rotation.

No singer will EVER see another singer sing twice before their turn comes up again. Not even as part of a duet.

Never show favoritism to ANYONE, including the media, my family and friends, the owner of the place, or the guy who tries to slip me 20 bucks to bump him up in line.

I pretty much do my rotation the way that Wiseguy does his. I try to limit a singer to one song per rotation and that includes duets. If one of the singer's a new singer and the person they are singing with has just sung or has a slip, yeah I'm still using slips and books at this time, then I inform him that his second song won't happen til next round.

mwadeson · Post by **mwadeson** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:58 am

I Play at A Bar just outside city limits they are open until 2am the bars intown close at 1am. we had a problem with books getting stolen or demolished anytime after 12:30 so talking with the owner he was upset because they are only coming out there because he is open a hour later. So he said pull the books at midnight and just dj from 12:30 or 1am until close. It works out nice I get a chance to get the books picked up and some stuff packed up. And With Singers not coming up when called I have made it a policy We call they names twice and if they no show they no longer sing tonight. Same with People putting songs as jokes on there friends. It happens once shame on you. If it happens twice paybacks are not allowed. I had two local drunks that would do this every week. The Bar owner had a talk with me and he decided to ban them from the bar on Karaoke night.. My biggest point is alot of common sense and communicate with the guy who writes out the check.

Marlena · Post by **Marlena** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:27 am

I DOn't accept song slips from anyone other than the singer themselves and if i have complaints i explain i want to optimze the singing time they do have, so as many songs get played as possible without waiting. ALso i call a " Marlena going once, Marlena Going Twice Marlena is gone" ussually by that time i have queued up the next song and am ready for the next song. If that same person comes up and re-requests that song, i tell them i already called them up once and if it happens again they can't sing for the rest of the night. That's gets them paying attention to me.

I also pick up my books an hour and 15 minutes prior to my show ending because i am always full til 2 am and sometimes til 20 after with those i already have up and if you come in at 1 am NO your not singing tonight, come back earlier next time. Fitting these people in does NOT improve the bar business as far as i am concerned, or they will just always come at that time. If they really want to sing and you don't let them put up a song whenever they feel like coming in at say 1:30 or 2 am THEY Will start to come earlier if they know your not going to accomidate their lateness.

Now with that said i do make the odd exception as such, like a regular who is always there at 9:30 shows up after a wedding and wants to sing and they get there at 1:10 am then yeah i will put them in, but not those that don't ever make a habit of ever being there before 1 am.

mwadeson · Post by **mwadeson** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:40 pm

I to will make and exception for a regular who happens to show up late

djBe · Post by **djBe** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 2:47 pm

I run my rotations mostly like WISEGUY.
Getting to the topic of the thread, I have no problem with bar jumpers - they bring me more business than they take away. I have a Saturday show where a competing show is RIGHT NEXT DOOR in the same strip mall, so it happens alot. If I call them and they're gone, they move a few songs down the list I try one more time then they're off the list. But that's the deal no matter where they went, another bar, store, bathroom, whatever.

If I know a guy is just jumping in, not even buying a beer, he goes to the bottom of rotation.

I count duets as both singers' up if its real busy - say 15 or more rotation - as one singers up if the rotation is under 10. 10-15 singers I just sort of feel it out.