Karaoke Forums

Some of you might have remembered my whole topic I posted before about "Pay For Th KJ" and how this bar has been trying to screw me on pay... Here's another gripe!

I keep in touch with my singers using Facebook. I had two messages and one phone call about the fact that the bar chose to cancel THURSDAY karaoke this week because NYE is tomorrow and we are doing it Friday instead. I have no less than 20 people lined up for karaoke tonight - and many more will likely come out if I put it out on Facebook.

I gave in and called the bar and said "Hey, I have a lot of singers wanting to come sing tonight. I am willing to do karaoke tonight if you want - you don't have to pay me, but if things are good, you can pay me what you want".

They said no.

"REALLY?" I asked. "You don't have to pay me at all - I kinda just want to get out of the house anyways".

"No thanks."

I am thinking I might call the bar across the street and give them the same offer...

(I already do karaoke for the owners of the bar across the street - just at a different bar they own)

Actually sounds like a plan to me, I say go for it and call the other owners!! This bar is making very bad decisions and it will eventually be their demise. Cover your butt first. Just my opinion.

Yanno, I started karaoke at their other bar. They went from nothing on Fridays IMMEDIATELY to 100+ people. I have to fight for every customer at the other bar. It took a while to get it going, and it still isn't THAT great (50 - 75 people average).

I know that if I took my show across the street, it would be a packed house (100+ every night) - and I'm sure I wouldn't have to build it up and maintain it like I do with the current bar.

This is the same bar that cries poverty every Saturday when I go to get paid.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Why are you fighting every week at this other bar when smooth sailing is right across the street to be had just for the taking.
Go for it! Call the other bar!

If you don't,,,, I will~

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

WOW!!!! I never heard of a Venue turning down something for FREE!

My thusday dec 30 show was quite a bit more busy than average. I guess a lot of people had the next day off, and could go out two nites in a row.

Guess i'll be the first to say it.. something about this doesn't add up.

You think a '50 to 75 people on average' isn't 'that great' for a weeknight karaoke show? How big are these clubs?

Why would you ever offer to do a show for free at an established gig?

From a bar owner/management perspective, there are only three reasons why they would cancel your thursday show, even if you offered to do it for free:

1. You don't bring anyone in the club, and your '50 to 75 people on average' is grossly exaggerated and is more like 5 or 10.

2. The crowd you draw sips water all night, or buys one drink and nurses it all night.

3. The crowd you draw is more trouble than it's worth (i.e. fights, drama, 'bad elements')

On a side note..

New Years Eve isn't the big bar night people make it out to be, simply because it seems EVERY bar has something going on, and more and more people are opting to stay home or attend private NYE celebrations due to the ever increasing police presence/DUI checkpoints around holidays.

Regular bar going folk often refer to New Years Eve as 'Amateur Night' because that's the night people who rarely go out go get sh!tfaced drunk and try and drive home.

If I didn't have a job that pretty much required me to be out every NYE, i'd be at home, too.

Many of the local DJ's/KJ's I network with have observed the last few years that our nights just prior to NYE have been slamming busy, with the actual NYE being kind of lackluster.

I know my Wednesday show was packed wall to wall.. but NYE show at the same venue was only about 80% capacity.

Cheese, I sort of agree with your assessment of NYE. My NYE party was lackluster as well. Still a lot of fun, but not the normal crowd. Seemed to be a younger, more immature crowd.

But I wouldn't be quick to judge what the OP is saying. Maybe, just maybe, the owners are stupid. It happens all the time, right?

True, every now and then you get the occasional owner/manager who is absolutely stupid.. but i've yet to run into one who refused the opportunity to bring in 50 to 75 thirsty patrons on a thursday night.. especially if the entertainment was free.. unless those 50 to 75 patrons were water sippers or serious troublemakers.

I mean, zero investment for a influx of 50 to 75 additional patrons is quite literally a 'no brainer'.

I guess a 4th possibility exists.. the crowd of 50 to 75 people were going to be there regardless of what kind of entertainment they had going on.. or maybe they replaced the dude with some other KJ and didn't want him to find out.

Anything is possible I suppose.

I do two nights a week at this bar - one on Thursday and one on Saturday. The Saturday show is the one that has the 50-75 people.

The Thursday show has never really taken off in the year I have been doing it. I have experimented with everything I could think of, I even added an hour to the show along with Trivia (Trivia was 8 - 10 and karaoke followed). I'd say that we barely averaged 20 people all night - meaning we would have 50 people come in, but there was never more than 20 there at any given time). I never made full price on Thursdays.

There are also some issues going on inside the bar. They are having money problems and the owner's wife is now calling herself "The New Owner". Despite this, they also have a manager that, IMO, is absolutely worthless, especially given the fact that both owners (husband and wife) are actively involved. I'd say that there is a bit of a power struggle going on. I have been told that I should NOT talk business to either owner and that any issues I have should be brought to (the manager's) attention - despite the fact that the manager is very rarely ever there at night and at least one owner is.

I have spoke with the other bar owners and we will see what happens.

You know Troy? I used to do this one bar that sounds much like the same thing you are going thru. I did a Sunday show there. The manager asked me to do the show. But his hands were tied by the owners. The one owner was actually drunk at least 20 hours per day, every day. And he also had a drug problem, which made the problem more pronounced. The manager wasn't very good either, and in 3 attempts at different bars in managing, each one failed. Bottom line was, none of the owners/managers could ever make a decision, one way or the other, good or bad. They just would point blame at the others as to why things weren't working. Nobody would take it upon themselves to actually have a plan. Consequently, they couldn't give me any answers to what they wanted me to do. So, I just walked away from that gig. And really am not sorry I did it either.

What I am saying here is this, there ARE owners/managers out there that are afraid to make a mistake, so they make no decisions at all. And that is the beginning of the end for them.

Good Luck to you my friend!

Surprising, our crowd was pretty much all our regular good singers only difference was they were all out on the same night instead of some Mon, some Tue, some Wed, etc....It was an SRO crowd, although I only had 52 singers this year compared to previous years where I got up to 80 singers once (everyone got one song).

I'm watching a friend of mine that is going through some issues with a stupid bar owner right now.

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