This is part rant, part commentary, part post asking what you would have done.
Last night, at the beginning of the night, a pair of "singers" came up and did a duet. One guy had zero clue about how to use a mic. He was screaming in the mic and forced me to turn him right off at one point. The moron had no clue. After he was done, I made an announcement over the mic to the bar, because this crowd seemed to warrant it. (I RARELY have to do this). "Microphones are designed to amplify sound. Yelling or screaming is already amplified. The two are not compatible to my speakers, my ears, and everyone else's ears." to which everyone applauded.I then gave a very quick demonstration on how to pull back the mic when you get louder, so as not to blow our eardrums off. Fair enough. The night went on until 2 hours later, when said idiot comes up and wants to "beat box". I tell him no because 1) this is a KARAOKE show, not an open mic night and 2) he doesn't know how to use a mic and I'm not willing to risk it. (his demeanor got my spidey sense up).
He continues to ask and after at least 10 times within the space of a minute, I finally tell him "What part of no don't you understand? Didn't your mama teach what that meant?"
I finally had to walk away from my board to get him away from me. He then proceeds to send anyone and everyone up to me to ask me. I tell them all no.
Now I'm starting to get annoyed.
In between all this, he keeps coming up and asking.
I seriously tried to be nice but after the 40th time, my patience was wearing thin.
I finally tell him, "I don't know how to be any more clear to you. No means NO. It doesn't mean that the more you ask the more likely it is for me to change my mind. It doesn't mean send all your friend and even people you don't even know up to harass me while I'm working in hopes of changing my mind. The answer is NO".
So now we are getting near to the end of the night. After being harassed for almost the whole 2 hours, he gets one of the current singers to hand over one of the mics (it was a duet). I turn his mic off. He then takes the other. I turn that off too. I stop the music and call up the next singer. I then tell him that NO means NO!
He asks me why are you being such a biatch?
Because of this comment, it makes me realize that he is right, that I WAS being a biatch and that I REALLY like him and his style. It makes me feel so bad and endears me to him so much that I have an epiphany and realize how wrong I was and that I just HAVE to let him at it.
STOP!
WAIT!
That's HIS fantasy!
So now I'm pissed!
Then he realizes his mistake and starts telling me he knows I'm a nice person why can't he just get up there?
He gets the same answer. GAWD! Some peoples' children!
So another couple singers down the line..... same thing. I turn off the mics and call the next. We get to the last song of the night which the waitress (shes new) has begged me to put up. I was going to end with the previous song, but this was a new singer and she begged me. Fair enough. But never again!
Not only does the person named not come up (it was another guy - Delaney is a GIRL's name, I thought - but you never know), but within seconds, guess who takes the mic?.
Now I'm done.
I shut it down and head out side to cool off.
Moron comes out and we end up in a yelling match, with him defining a karaoke show, correctly, I might add, and then insisting that he should be able to "freestyle" because that's what a karaoke show "should" be. I make it clear to him that this is MY show and MY equipment and I run it MY way.
He tells me he's won 47 beat box competitions and he has his own CD out there. THAT's how good he is.
I tell him "then why are you here and not in LA making boatloads of money?" I also tell him "so what? you have your own CD. Big deal! ANYONE can record."
He proceeds to call me a biatch. So yeah, it degenerated into a shouting match, but I disengaged and walked back into the bar to tear down. In the meantime, the bar owner has come out, basically to keep an eye out, I think.
After a minute or so, dinglenuts comes back in and tries to start it again. I cut him off and tell him "I'm done talking to you." He insists and back outside I go, just to get away.
After a minute or so, I go back inside to finish tearing down. By this time idiotsticks is outside again.
Now he's having issues with his very drunk girlfriend and it appears that he's treating her very badly. All the while he keeps turning to the window and trying to egg me on. I ignore the butthead and finish up. As I'm hauling my gear out to the van, he makes comments at me, calling me a biatch and so forth. I ignore him.
I have never felt the need to ban anyone before but this guy has earned it in my books.
Now the question:
Is there a way to prevent this kind of crap in the future?
Actually letting him get up there is NOT an option. It's not the style of my show and although there were quite a few people who would have enjoyed that, there were far more who would NOT. Also, once I let him up, now all of his friends want to get up there to try and out-do him. It quickly degenerates and I lose control of my show and my singers leave.
What could I have done to make it clear to him that he was NOT getting up there to beat box and in the process get him to leave me alone?
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