Karaoke Forums

I usually close down at 1 a.m. here. Depending on how busy it is, I will say it's the last song as early as 10 til. Then, when I get crap from people, I let them "win". Even if I have to do 2 more songs it still only pushes me a little past 1 a.m. I can deal with that. I also do not play any segway music between the last song and what I introduce as the "final encore song". I also shut down my comp and my amp as soon as they are done. If they give me any crap after that I simply tell them "We just did two extra songs, I've got to get broken down and I just shut off my equipment, come back next time and I promise I'll hook you up." This scenario works great. They get what they want, and so do I.

it seems all you can do is stand your ground. i have used the babysitter bit and it usually works.
except with the one guy who actually followed me out to my car as i was loading the rack and was STILL asking for one song......racks closed.......in the car.......

beer.....the cause of, and solution to, all of lifes problems

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Pushy ppl never get anywhere with me, especially if they are repeat offenders. To the Pushy one, I just say Sorry, I stop at 1:00, and continue to tear down.


Now if someone asks nicely, and is polite about it, I usually tell them, first I have to have a "TIP" for the extra song, plus it has to be OKed thru the bartender, and they need a "TIP" too. I figure $5/song. Some nites I have played till 1:45, and made an extra $50, and extra tips for the bartender too.

But if it is a nite I don't want to go over, I just use the "BABY SITTER" excuse, saying that my kids are at home, and the baby sitter has to leave at 1:30, and I don't have any time to go over, blaming it on the kids works great.

Most of my gigs.. actually ALL of them at present, run right up to the bar closing time, so I don't run into much of that 'one more song' thing.

When I do, I just point at the clock and say, "Sorry man. Bar closes at 2:30am.. unless you got a time machine, we're done."

When I played venues that only booked karaoke say 9 to 1.. it really just would depend on my mood if I ran over.

If the house was packed, and we were all having a good time, i'd stick around longer (provided bar management was cool with it) if for no other reason than for good PR with the crowd.

That, and I like to party.

I wanna go to a Cheese show!!!!!!

I think part of the problem for me is I quit at 2am and the bar closes at 3am. (On occasion I am paid to stay until close depending on the crowd size.)

I've also found that if I agree to do just one more song it turns into 3,4,5,6 etc... They take kindness as a weakness and will nag more and more.

If they think your a push over they'll try to push your limits on everything, not just one more song, but then it's when they sing.

Boy I'd love to show up at some of these people's work places and do to them what they do to me. And I think I'll get drunk first.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I've never been anywhere near as good as dealing with drunks as I'd like. Good topic. The idea of a group sing on the last song of the night kind of appeals to me. Good idea!

Maybe I should have been a little more sarcastic in my response, that was the intent and I missed it.

In reality, I do have that same problem and it is usually for one or two people that will walk in in the last half hour of my show and drop 3 or 4 slip on me and I simply tell them that I will work them in for probably only 1 song if possible and i will not drop one of my singers that has been there all night sitting patiently through 2 or 3 rotations. I usually run over 5 or 10 minutes if it a large rotation but if it is a slow night, which is usually more tiring than a busy one (go figure) I shut down on time. You have to be a good diplomat with your singers so they will continue to return night after night.

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No venue to big or too small. From your den to the local club or event, we have the music most requested. Great sounding system!

My Apologies to you then Rum! Didn't sense any sarcasm.

I guess i've met too many djs and kjs that think the world of themselves and don't handle their businesses professionally or responsibly.

You open another stage...

I'm about to do that in a bit. There's a Mexican restaurant across the street with a beer/wine license that has been asking me to work for them for a while. We sellout Friday/Saturdays by 10:30pm like clockwork. This usually means folks walking in after that, seeing that we're sold out walk out and go somewhere else.

I've ordered the SC diamond set, once it arrives I'm going to go through and remove all dupes and non-sc versions from my current library and move those to the collection across the street.

Luxury of knowing how to automate everything is I don't have to hire another person to run it. Luck of all this is it's right across the street in case of problems (which there shouldn't be)

Right now my policy is 2 in queue, but if I have a 2nd stage I might reduce it to 1 in queue to force singers to queue up on both stages. Dunno, we'll see.

Nothing wrong with just saying no. It's not rude if you say it in the right tone. I love my job but it is just that in the end.

If I have to get up at 3:10 and my quit time is 1, there will be no playing over. If I don't have to work the next day,,,, as I said, I love my job and I will play over if the bar doesn't mind. So,, I guess I'm always honest. If I don't get my 1.5 hours beauty sleep, I'm not very pretty the next day!

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

Toqer you're an absolute technical wiz! One thing though, would your current employer view you running another karaoke show so close by as something that could potentially make their crowds smaller?

Pretty much the same as Lonman. I have a cut-off time. I work from 7 – 12. No more request slips accepted one hour prior to closing time. I can only play 15 songs till closing and I am not about to deprive my earlier singers especially if they already waited for so long. After 11 pm most of them ask me if they will have another chance to sing. I can pretty much determine if there’s time. If I say they will sing again then I will not disappoint them. Come early, sing more. Come late, sing less. Come an hour before closing – no can do. Sorry!

One night 20 minutes to closing, a well-dressed burly guy inconspicuously handed me an envelope. I opened it and there’s a hundred dollar bill and a note inside saying: “It’s yours. Just let me sing one song”. I returned the envelope with the $$ and a note that says: “Sorry, Sir but with all due respect my rotation is an integrity issue. I don’t take bribes”.

At the end of the night he came over and shakes my hand. He said: “It works in other karaoke place but you turned it down. I admire your honesty”. I said thanks for understanding.

I take the approach that I give the impression that "closing" time is actually 3-5 songs before I actually intend to really close.

That allows me to make the last 3-5 singers think that they are getting something special by getting to sing one more "final" song. This is even though it is what I intended all along. When I get what is really that "extra" song beyond what the bar and I intended to actually be the closing time, I can say "we have already done 4 songs past the end".

This works pretty well for one of my shows, but for another one the bartenders want everyone out of the room as soon as possible after 2:00 and that is a hard cutoff, and they dont want any songs to start after that point. The bartenders help by turning on the bright lights and telling everyone to leave, and I can honestly say it is not up to me.

Can I PM you an address where you can send him.
Pleaseeee.

I'd love to, Jerry, but he never came back.

Here bar closes at 2am. I play most nights til 1:45 if sinngers left I will go to 1:59. It's against the law here for me to play after 2am in the city.

I gerally play music from 1:45 til 2 so if someone wants to sing I will bring them up.

I get this every Friday night. Thing is, I wouldn't mind going over to 1:45, which would be the easiest thing, but the bar makes me shut down at 1:30, on the dot. I get the security guys in my face pointing at their watches every time at 1:20 (even though I have already planned things out, and have for three years at the same venue. Jackasses. Anyway...) I tell the whiners that it is illegal for me to play music after 1:30, but if they are willing to pay the thousands of dollars fine we will get from the city if we are caught going over, then by all means, go for it. I also tell them to get in touch with City Council and try to repeal the fine. I then tell them to go complain to the owner, which they do, always to no avail, and I get kind of a evil little chuckle from doing this.

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Wam bam thank you m'am.

This happens to me more often than not. In my experience, there is absolutely nothing you can say to most people to get them to understand. Of course, I work at bars with DRUNK people who are out of control. To me, they're just thinking "Me me me" and the rest of the world around them is invisible. On my first night of KJing, I was threatened by a group of people (not saying their ethnicity) who demanded that they sing "or else."

The kinder sober people will understand when I say, "I can't have anymore singers. The boss says no. It's not my decision." But unfortunately most of my singers aren't the kind who understand and they beg and get mad. Usually, I still run the same lines but I've learned to not let them bother me. At first I hated it, now I'm just used to it.

Sometimes I have to get a bouncer to help me shut down. Although one time I did that, I left the room for one minute to get him and when I came back, all my tips were stolen.

I guess I work in a brutal environment huh?

So in conclusion, I say just tell them you have to shut down, say it's not your decision, look them in the eyes when you tell them (otherwise they'll think you're weak and take advantage of that), and just learn to not let it get to you.

So how do you handle singers with monstrously bad breath who insist on spending the most time putting in their request?

Off topic, but I'll answer. I keep breath mints at work and pretend like I need one and then offer them one. They'll usually take one, but it doesn't always cure the problem. Aaarg!

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]