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I have a problem that many of you kj's have probably had at one time or another. I have certain singers at my show who "Lobby" themselves to sing with other people. They sing not only thier own personal song but sieze the opportunity to duet with someone else (ie; friend or whoever) whenever they can. they may end up singing three times in the same rotation. From a singers perspective it dosen't seem fair to see someone get to sing eight times a night. some of the people who do this are my faithfull regulars who spend alot of money on drinks and i don't want to piss them off and have them quit coming. How do the rest of you kj's handle this situation?

It's NOT fair.

That's why I have a rule about duets... if you sing a duet, that's you're ONLY turn for the rotation. Same for the other singer.

Some people don't like this solution, but I gotta admit, it's solved far more situations than any problems it created.

Not in my show. My rule is "one free duet". After that, you get once on stage per rotation. By yourself or in a duet, your choice.

Someone tried to tell me it didn't take anyone's turn. That doesn't matter. We are having karaoke, not "The Marcie Show".

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I have only had one person who has made a habit of doing just exactly what you are describing. This is how I handled it, and the problem went away. The gal comes in with a bunch of friends. And they all support each other, which is really cool BTW. But she will get up and sing "background" with whomever is up there. Now I don't mind if someone is struggling and they ask her for help, thats never the issue. But when she started putting up someone elses name on a slip, and they would come up and NOT sing, just so she would sing, I started putting every slip with her name on it, in her pile. Then I explained to her friends what I believed she was doing. They spoke to her themselves and said that it made it appear she was being unfair. She saw her wicked ways, and now everything is peachy. I didn't have to interfere, I just let her friends use some good old peer pressure, seemed to do the trick.

This is how I handle it -

Duets have to count as one persons turn and you can only sing twice in one rotation. Usually when I ask which persons turn the duet is to count for they both decide they don't want to do it because they don't want to give up their solo turn. This method also controls the duet hogs. They will get to sing twice in rotation, but that is it. Once for their solo turn and once with a friend. I have to admit I don't really have a problem with duets. People don't choose to do them often.

If I have a busy night, 2 hour wait, I announce duets count as both peoples turn. I have only had to do this a few times because people usually don't do duets when it gets busy. At the most I may see one or 2. Believe it or not my patrons take it upon themselves to be curtious to others.

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

Nobody sings more than twice in a rotation. Period. I don't care who you are, or how good you tip. If I determine that someone is "lobbying", or getting people to sing with them, but the other person isn't really contributing to the song, I.E. the lobbyist is singing the whole song, other person not really singing, I won't let them sing more than once, their own turn in the rotation.

Bottom line, it's your show. If you thing something is not right, your singers probably think it's not right also. Act like the peson in charge, as you are, and eliminate this problem. There have been many post here, on how to run a fair rotation. Not all of us completely agree, but you will find we agree on most things. Read a few of the post, then develope a list of rules you can live by, and run your show that way.

Felix the KJ

Which is a BIG part of why I made the rule that only one person per rotation gets up. 9 out of 10 times the person listed on the duet does not want to sing with the person requesting the duet & make sure the other person listed KNOWS that will be their turn. The majority of the time the person listed will tell me they want to do their song first & IF there is time, they will do the duet later - provided the person putting the other people down didn't already get to sing. Sometimes it's a legitimate duet, but often it's just someone trying to get more stage time.

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I have to admit years ago I had the same problem. That's when I started doing it the way I posted. I couldn't go directly to the method of letting them sing once a rotation regardless of a duet because it was to harsh of a jump. It's amazing how things change when you let the mic hog (person who solicits everyone in the room to sing with them) all of a sudden doesn't want anyone singing with them.

The new one that I had to put a stop to is them wanting to sing with me. I don't normally sing during the night , so they think if they sing with me they'll get an extra turn because no one else wanted to give up their solo turn to sing a duet with them. I just tell them I have to many singers, so it looks bad if I'm taking up a spot in rotation.

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