Karaoke Forums

The real question: What entertainment does the venue want and can I provide it?

If the venue wants to run a trivia or DJ or contest or whatever night and pay as much or more than Karaoke and run it on a different night then why not do it? It's an opportunity to bring people back to the bar and keep them there (what we're really paid to do) and perhaps expand both audiences because you can cross promote the entertainment.

I've run DJ, mixed Karaoke/DJ parties and "game shows" at the venue I have. All of them one-off events but would do them if they were to turn regular; the crowds vary a bit and the folks are usually just as nice. I've set my PA up for business events and watched the board during presentations and such. Pay is good but dang it's boring

My personal rule is to do events in bars need to entertain people who are there to have fun. Then you get the best reaction from the crowd and know the folks are generally out there to enjoy themselves. Meet them half way and they're going to have a great time and make your show/event fun.

Well, I thought about stripping, but didn't want to be mistaken for a boom mic - causes all kinds of complications at a karaoke show...

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

you mean when some well-meaning woman tries to hang the mic on you?

I think things such as Trivia would be a useful add-on for an early weeknight---like a Sun Mon or Tues. Maybe Wednes. But I would NEVER try to incorporate something like that on a weekend night.

_________________
"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

....or sing while it's in the stand.....

_________________
"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

Oh Man, that happened tonight at our venue! (Just kidding...but I did have some young dude come up and, right in front of my husband, pretend to dance all over my body...cracks me up! - He just as quickly came up and apologized to both of us - I made him feel completely okay about it. What is it about young men and older women! )

Come on, you guys - i have to work in the morning...notice the time of this post...I just had to respond - sitting in my office laughing aloud at 2:20 a.m. would probably bring the little men in the white suits if anyone heard me.

heheheh

or what it is about older women that crawl all over a pool table trying to be Madonna! ! (One of our local karaoke company KJs did that during a song... we about split ourselves wide open laughing on that issue. The fact is that the gal WAS a BIGGGG woman, and she looked SO serious while doing it, and then cracked an evil grin after she was done.

Every Wednesday and Sunday night at different bars I run a quiz night.

The format is that I ask 60 questions, pushed through the house PA and also shown on big-screens:

01-10 - Pictures round (such as album covers, movie posters, warped celeb faces, landmarks, etc)

11-20 - This weeks news

21-30 - Guess the intro (artist+title from a song intro)

51-60 - General Knowledge

31-50 are changable rounds, such as guess the TV theme, sports, movie quotes, history, etc.

We draw about 60 people a night (bar capacity) and prizes are pre-paid bar tabs for use any other quiz night.

I'll be honest, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but we have a strong core of teams that would cause chaos if we ever decided to end it. It's not the biggest payer ever, but I am allowed ot use it to advertise the DJ/KJ stuff (and it gets me bookings too). Moreover, I love "people", I adore meeting the guys and gals that come down, love chatting round the tables during the breaks.

Every so often we will do a "special" themed night (Christmas, New Year, Haloween) and we did an "exam" night last eyar, in real exam conditions. I didn't wanna do that but it was suggested, we ran with it, and oddly enough everyone loved it.

So there's that. What else?

On occasion I have rented out some secondary kit, which has earned me enough to upgrade it - seems like a scam to me, but people can either buy their own or use mine. I put high insurance levels on it, so that if they break it, it's replaced. Seems stupid to me but hey...

Some of the "party" nights at our venues (eg Christmas / New Years / Birthdays) we do a "Truth or dare" game. I have a big buzzer linked up to a flash game I wrote. A bottle spins, people hit the buzzer and there are random truth or dares:

* How many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth
* Put your phone to the mic, call a random and tell them you love them 3 times in a conversation

These always come with a free shot (US call them shooters?). And the person is decided from a shuffled list of slips (don't worry, rotation is not affected)

Wel also give shots away for "the first person back to the DJ booth with a":

hat, thong, walking cane

In all honestry, it's VERY childish, and I'd NEVER do it on a DJ night or pure karaoke night - but sometimes at parties, people want party games. SO I provide.

Oh also if someone wants me to (and people sometimes do) I will arrange the catering, decoration, balloons for larger parties. The % profit in that is MASSIVE but people pay it. And it is something I've always been good at organising.

End of the day - karaoke won't last forever, it's in decline in the UK - nowhere near where it was 5 years ago. Extra services are wher I can claw in some more cash - or make my name stand out.

I have found that trivia before karaoke is great, during is not so good, and after is a waste of time because everyone is drunk. I have used a "Jeopardy" like computer based game with great success but to make it work you have to have a big screen for the audience.

_________________
Okay, who took my pants?

Which, while hosting, you surely have?

And to reiterate - it goes down well DURING karaoke in a party, but 100% no on a karaoke night!

No, not always. Sometimes the bar is too small to have one of their own and there is no room for the projector. Trivia just doesn't seem to work if the audience can't play along at least in their own minds.

_________________
Okay, who took my pants?

Really not at all. At least not the way I did it.

I would hand out answer sheets for 6 questions. Ask a question every 15 minutes. Not intrusive at all...each question takes 30 seconds max (repeating it twice) then, boom! Call up the next singer. That insures the trivia players stay for the whole hour and a half for the "game". General knowledge and pop culture questions from Trivial Pursuit. I collect all the sheets, if there's more than one who got them all right I'd draw from them to pick a winner. Prize would be a CD or T-shirt. I did 2 games a night for a total of 3 hours. Sold the heck out of this concept to bar owners who were worried that people wouldn't stick around.

_________________
[font=Lucida Console]DangerousKaraoke.com[/font]
[font=Lucida Console]"Sing for the day, sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!"[/font]

Every once in a while we do a local TV show for cable access.

_________________
[img]<img%20src="http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j288/miller2348/myspace/images/Funny_Pics/images/21.gif"[/img]

CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE AT THE DOOR, STICK AROUND YOU JUST MIGHT HAVE SOME FUN