Karaoke Forums

Well Star, I guess we see this in different ways.

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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"

I'm interested in the rotation program you use as well. I've seen a few other apps that handle rotation as well (karaoke-goround, etc) but this seems to offer a much better solution to tracking singers and rewarding them.

Nice web site BTW....

Karaokefun,

I have to agree with you. It is so wrong to insist on a tip to put someone in the rotation. It's not really a tip is it. Sounds more like a fee. A tip is something you earn by giving good service right??? If there's any justice in the karaoke world that guy will not be in business long with that attitude. There are some prettystrange people out there.

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Too soon old......too late smart.

I've seen a couple ways of accepting tips in different industries in the area:

Tip Jars - Ok, but it should be classy and not overly prominent. One guy does a mountain climbing presentation and he has a boot labeled 'Tip Boot' at the back of the theatre. He doesn't mention tips in the show, he doesn't ask for anything, but he makes $20-30 a night on average in tips (50-70 people in the show). I find this classier than the dinner theatre I went to where the performers are at the back of the theatre holding buckets and they've conveniently written in hints about tips into the last few minutes of the show.

Tips w/ slips - I've seen singers tip $1 w/ a slip. Not to sing quicker, but they would sing one, bring one (+$1). Sort of strange and I'm not comfortable w/ taking a tip w/ a slip. I'd go with a jar before I accepted this sort of thing. It just seems like a bribe - even if it's only a $1.

Tips left on your table/or handed to you at the end of night - I don't mind this so much. The one time it happened, I was doing my best to make sure everyone sounded good and on this night I even turned one of my speakers around when one person came up everytime (she wanted a monitor). I'd turn it back around when I she was done though. At the end of the night, when she sang for the last time (she was the next to last person) she put $4 on the table and said "Thank you. This is for you." I don't mind this - she had nothing to gain from tipping me, I didn't expect it, and was even a little shocked as I hadn't solicted tips, or even mentioned it at all.

I just remember that tips are gratuity offered for SERVICE. If I have offered a good level of service and they feel compelled to tip me I don't have a problem with it. If they expect something in return (other than the same level of excellent service) then it's a bribe and I'm not interested.

I can't be bought, but I can be rented to do a show!

I've never been to a karaoke bar. matter of fact I haven't been to any bar in probably 25 years. but why don't people just take a number and when their number comes up they get to sing? makes sense to me, but then most of the time when things are complicated it's because being fair is not what they are trying to do.

Since I've stuck my head out... what DO people do at a karaoke bar anyway? Is the idea to get people to listen to you sing? People in my neighborhood pester me constantly to have a "gathering" (it's what they call it) to come listen to me sing right here under the shade trees. They bring the kids and a bunch of food and we make an afternoon of it. Sometimes a couple of hundred people show up. They're pestering me right now to have a gathering for labor day. I promise it's a lot more fun that argueing about when your turn to sing is. I can almost smell the bar-b-q and tater salad right now!

I suppose I've missed the point somewhere and I appologize for that. Maybe someone could wise me up. Hey, I'm not trying to be a smarta** either.

I don't go to karaoke bars with the intention of having people listen to me sing, I just do it because it's fun. Most of the time you have a less than rapt audience - they're there not only to sing, but to socialize, so they don't always pay attention to the singers. I do try to make sure I clap at the end of each song, whether I was paying attention or not during the song.

It's pretty much like any other bar other than you get up to sing the occasional song. Each one has it's own unique mix of people, again just like any other bar.

Growing up in Pensacola, Florida I know plenty about backyard parties with BBQ, karaoke and the like (ahhh.... I really miss Dreamland BBQ). Karaoke bars are not so much more than bars w/ karaoke in some cases, and custom built establishments in others. Most people come to places w/ karaoke on a regular basis because it provides them a chance to showcase themselves, get feedback on their performance to do better, or sometimes just because it's a place they can go and sing without people looking at them like they're crazy (which many people do anyway but that's a different thing altogether). While singing in the backyard w/ friends is great (I've done lots of this) going to a place w/ a good sound system, people that are friends, and having the opportunity to get constructive critisim to improve ourselves is great as well. Keep in mind I'm talking about the friends that gather regularly or semi-regularly to sing first and drink second (or not at all) - not the power drinkers that try to scream out 'Sweet Home Alabama' before falling down or passing out (I've seen this too!).

karaokemeister did you ever make it to any of my shows in Mobile? My grandparents lived in Pensacola for many many years til they passed away in the 1980's.

The most obnoxious thing I have seen, started innocently enough....

A friend of mine was running his show, and he always keeps a big empty pretzel jug (you know....the Costco size) with a huge sign that says "TIPS" right next to his TV monitor. Most nights it stayed empty. One night a drunk patron threw a dollar in, noticed the jar was empty and took it around to every single person there....demanding a tip for the KJ! Well just about everyone put in a buck or 2, and the drunk happily presented the jar to the host........Next week he did it again. And every week from there on out, differrent people took the jar around demanding a tip for the KJ.......Mysteriously, after a month or so, the crowd went from 20-30 singers to 10-12.

Funny how a genuine gesture could go so wrong...............

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Let's Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!

No, it's not so funny. I could've predicted that would happen. People don't like to be put on the spot (no matter how good natured it might have been). As a KJ, he should not have allowed any person to touch his TIP Jug, let alone go around the room with it to solicite TIPS for the KJ. That's tantamount to the KJ just telling people to leave him a TIP.

I went to a show, where the KJ had a TIP Jar, and halfway through the show, she would sing the "Dollar Wine" song, and dance around by everyone with her TIP Jar. Another time, I went to the same person's show, and she had a partner with her. I was called up to sing, and the partner, very nonchalantly, coughed a few times, while nodding his head in the direction of the TIP Jar. I knew this guy from other shows that we both attended. I confronted him about that, and told him that he ever left a TIP for the KJs at the shows he went to, so why is he, all of a sudden,forcing his hand out for a TIP?

I agree with Cueball, I would have felt put on the spot as it would seem as if the KJ put him up to it, certainly the KJ condoned it.

We don't put up a tip jar and we still get people who want to give us a tip, buy us a drink or make other gestures that let us know they appreciate the way we run our shows and treat the bar patrons, singers & non-singers alike.

Susie

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You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
and be a star!!!!

Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

(TIP THE BARTENDER)

Sometimes when a regular and I mean somebody that is there from starrt to finish I'll let them in the middle of the rotation to get one last song to go home early.. But here is where tips come in.... About the first time they ask me I'll tell the bartender (on the mic so eveybody can hear) Hey Sue We are going to let Sam in to go home when he is about done with his drink and has put a tip in your jar let me know and we will get him up...
I talk to eveybody on the mic like I am standing next to them in a very informal way and everybody knows whats goin on... So if I do break the rules a little bit it is more or less with crowd approval and the bartender should be the ones getting the tips... After awhile you are a team that is aware what is goin on and working etc...
Breaks over ...back to makin books...

"New Singers always go to the end of the list." Sounds good, but what do you do when the rotation is 30 singers long (at 5 minutes per, that's 2 1/2 hours) and a new singer comes in two songs into the second rotation? You have a rotation that will run for 2 hours twenty minutes, 1 hour twenty minutes of show time left, and this guy hasn't sung yet. So what? Too bad, shoulda got here earlier? Sorry, I can't do that, and would get PO'd if a KJ did it to me.

I put new singers at the end until the end of the first rotation. Then new singers go in the rotation wherevery I am in it when they turn their slip in. That way, everybody gets at least one song. (Or at least they will till I get up to 50 singers!)

Now, duets/groups. Each person has a place in the rotation. A duet counts as a turn for one of the people in the group. If a KJ told me, "If you sing with this person, one of you will lose your turn," I'd say fine, then both of us would leave for another show! I had a patron who complained about other people's duets until I told her she would lose all her solos if she kept singing duets! Funny how her opinion of duets changed....

KJ's singing at their own shows: What's the harm? As long as it's kept to one song per rotation (like everybody else), and the KJ's turn is always the last in the rotation, why should the KJ be forbidden to sing just cause he's the KJ? Sometimes I get requests to sing duets with other people. I say, "OK, but it'll be the last song in this rotation." They're usually cool with that.

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Paid2Party
"I love karaoke. Where else can you get paid to come out and party with your friends?"