Well, last Thursday was really something special.
I got into karaoke about 5 years ago. I'd never tried to sing before, but there was a karaoke bar across the street from my house, and on a lark a friend and I decided to give it a go.
Well, after that first night I was off. I made regular trips there for years sometimes going 2 or 3 times a week. The Thursday night crowd was my favorite, and I made a lot of friends at that bar.
The KJ's name was Jimmy, but he didn't do it alone. The system was permanently installed, and he shared duties with Danny and Chrisie. Sometime one would start the show, and another would finish. Or if somebody had something pressing the others would cover. It was a great arrangement, and the show was great.
The bar service sucked. I could never really understand the large crowd, other than the karaoke was good and Jimmy and crew were so nice.
Jimmy ran karaoke at that bar for NINE years, but finally decided to give up the business. He made arrangements with the owner to sell his system to the bar, and Danny was set to take over Jimmy's duties.
Well, all of a sudden... for whatever reason the bar called Danny, said they weren't hiring him or buying Jimmy's equipment and they had gone with someone else. Now, the owner's son had taken over the bar recently... this and money I suspect were the reasons for such a nasty turn of events. Stupid, because there were a LOT of karaoke traditions the folks there had, and Danny was a big part of it. He was frequently there to sing and have fun even on nights he wasn't working.
Well, I've been at my new gig at Kenny B' Blue Marlin for about a month now and show attendence has been getting better and better every week, but last Thursday was a complete home run as Danny and the old Merrit House crew paid a surprise visit to an old friend (me!)
"Hey there Koyote," Danny said, "As he and about 10 people walked through the door. Thought I'd stop in and see what Grasshopper has learned
"
What a blast. Holly nailed her Heart song "Alone", Patsy sang some Billy Joel, and Danny did his "Mustang Sally" routine. That's were he get a few of the ladies in the crowd to come up and be "Sally Girls." Sally girl duty entails standing in the front, swaying back and forth and singing "ride sally ride" when appropriate. Danny is hilarious as he adlibs lyrics in a bluesy voice. Standing behind the girls he says things like, "Oh yeah... thats the say", or "I loves those Sally Girls", etc.
One of the newbies said to him as the song started, "Hey don't you want to move up front?" Without missing a beat, Danny responded into the mic, "Oh no... I likes the back view!"
Everybody ate, drank and had a really great time. This was the first time my old Thursday crew had come up to see me, and they had a blast.
As the show was coming to a close, I said to Danny, "So master, how'd Grasshopper do?"
He just smiled and said, "A+ my friend. A+. It sounded great and you run a fun show. Really good. We've been going around to different bars on Thursdays for a couple of weeks now, and this by far is the best show of the bunch."
Wow.
Howling good times!
Too funny.