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St Paddy's Day tonight and it was held at my usual Sunday night venue. Brought me in special for St. Paddy's day. When I finally was able to end the first round, we had a rotation of 34! The longest rotation I've had yet. Had to stop taking requests and pick up my books two hours prior to closing. The place was PACKED and a good time had by all! Best night yet.
I'm still stoked.
Thanks for letting me share.

I hope there weren't too many whiners.... It can be a nightmare when you have a rotation that large on a "drinking holiday." Nobody loses track of time faster than a drunk singer... they'll put in a song and 5 minutes later whine that they put it in an hour ago!

At least you got your books out of the "line of fire" with the green beer.

These kinds of holidays (like New Year's Eve) are especially tough to manage as a KJ with everyone tanked and wanting to be "the star" at every moment. Congrats to you that you pulled it off with everyone happy the whole night....

Ever consider ending the 1st round after 12-15 people and starting a 2nd round where you work in the new singers with the 1st rounders? Makes for a shorter wait for everyone involved. That being said, congrats!

I don't know how cutting a rotation is more efficient. You still have x number of singers. We broke the 50 singer mark last weekend, 30-40 is not uncommon. So the rotation will be the number of people who put slips in. I don't see the logic in cutting a rotation at 15 or 20 because you still have the other 20 or whatever left to go. The rotation is the number of people who put in slips.

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I agree with timberlea. I don't see how splitting a rotation would make any difference.
You still have the same number of people wanting to sing and waiting to sing.

I personally put all new (first time) singers into the rotation at the end of the current rotation. If it is especially long, and as a last resort, I will try to sandwich them in intermittently, approximately 15 minutes after they put in their first request.

No opinions from me, because whatever you did, they all had a good time! Congrats on o job well done!

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I have a rotation end time, because I don't want singers who showed up way early to have to wait for people who just showed up ten minutes ago. Assuming a start time of 9:00, you have to show up before 9:45 to get in the first rotation. After that you wait. So if you show up early, you can probably sing twice without staying until the end.

It's the same reason I think it is stupid to "wait for singers" before starting. What is the incentive to show up early and spend money?

There are many ways to skin a cat.

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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.

Good job diafel. We seldom have those large rotations in this area anymore although years ago I did do shows with 50-60 singers. Our crowds are 10 to 1 audience to singers and the small bars out here arer more neighborhood bars even the ones that sit 2 or 3 hundred. My show is Thur and I will be doin Danny Boy..

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Out of the 34 - were they all SINGLE slips - any duets or groups which may overlap ?

This is what I do & works very well. Say you have like 10 singers in the first round, you get down to a couple songs from the bottom, 3 more people walk in, put them at the bottom, 4 more sign up, put them at the bottom. You could have a never ending first round.
Put a cap on the first round, then the people that were there from the start will begin working on their second song while the 7 that came in later begin working on their first song. Yes there is still wait, but gives the illusion to the people that have been there from the beginning that they are getting up faster. Rarely get any complaints.

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This is what my venue KJ, Stacey does. It works really well too. I can't believe how many people ya'll get at your venues! The bar that I go to is very homie so we get maybe like 20-30 people, but only like 15-20 of as actually sing. I absolutely love it though, for 5 minutes it's like your a celebrity.

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T.J.
Karaoke Enthusiast

15-20 singers is good for a small crowd like that. I get 10-15 on avg for weeknights. Weekends can go up to 40.

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I put a cap on the first round too. My night often starts with just three or four singers. But singers keep arriving as the first round keeps going. They keep getting added, often getting to sing almost immediately. But somewhere after around 35-40 minutes of this I'll "close" the first round and let the singers who were there at the start sing again with no insertions. I may begin to insert after them, or I may add new arrivals at the end of the round. It all depends.

Bottom line is that everyone who arrives before 9:30 knows that they are going to get to sing fairly soon, and those who are there at 9:00 are going to get to sing at least twice in the first hour. And I announce it nightly.

Diafel congrats on your super night. I don't break 30 in one round very often but when I do I'm usually pulling my hair out. Somehow you kept the troops calm... nice job!

Yea, the only thing that's sucky is the bar we go to is a Sports bar and the owner will only let Stacey karaoky there on thursday nights, so it's one night a week... kinda sucks, but I understand.

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Thank you,
T.J.
Karaoke Enthusiast

About the same here, i'll either take max 15 singers in the first round or at 9:30 i'll start adding/mixing to the 2nd round - whichever comes first. Unless of course the first round is very light that it don't even make it to 9:30. But that's rare.

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Now i am confused. As long as singers are putting in slips during the first round tnen they are in the first round and the first round is a first come first served basis and they are added at the end of the round. depending upon the number of singers and the requests or participation of the first singers of the original singers and new singers this might change drastically.

This might seem strange but I am catering to singers dancers and listeners. I would venture to say that 75% of my singers would rather have dance sets every round and get mad when we cut them short for karaoke. I will say it again i am not a KJ but provide entertainment.

We do party here and do not treat karaoke as a flippin religion..

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No one is being cut short in any way shape or form. If I have 15 singers & i'm on number 15, then I start back at number 1. If someone comes in & hands me a new singer while I am on or close to number 15, then the show has been going on for close to an hour anyway, they will get incorporated into the next round. Say I get 5 more singers while I am close to the 15 mark, instead of keeping the singers that HAVE been there from the start waiting another 5 singers, they will get to start to sing again & the new 5 will get mixed in.
We also cater to singers, dancers & listeners - with karaoke only.

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Because if singer number one came in at the beginning at 9:00pm, by the time we get to # 33, they've waited well over an hour and a half. By this time I am nearing the end of the round. I closed the round because singer # 34 and after would not have to wait at all, or would only wait maybe 5 to 10 minutes or so. Not fair to the guys that came in early and were waiting patiently for the last hour and a half. Why should someone who just walked in the door get preferential treatment?
As for working the new singers in with the old, it doesn't work here. Singers are used to following one after the other in pretty much the same order, with new singers added to the end of the line. It's been the status quo in our area for well over 15 years that I know. If you try to change it, they don't understand and think you may be playing favorites.


Yes, they were ALL single slips. They were some duets, but they get counted as one of the singers' turns, so the rotation number is still accurate. I don't give extra turns for duets. One of the singers must give up their regular turn for it.
As for keeping them happy, I just announced very often that we had a lot of singers waiting and to please be patient. I also let them know that they could really help out by being ready to come up when it was their turn and making their way to the stage as quickly as possible. I would call out the current singer, then announce the next singer who was "on deck". Again, I announced very often so that they would know that they were not forgotten, that we were getting to them.
BTW it amazed me that I didn't have ANY (not one!) inquiries as to whether the singers' slips had been lost of if they had been forgotten. They all pretty much knew that they weren't, due to the frequent announcements. Saved a whole lot of distractions and headaches explaining over and over again to individuals.
Thanks for the compliments, guys!

Club I worked in Biloxi, MS averaged 45-50 every Saturday night... Many times over 60. This was the busiest night of the week.

Club I worked most recently in Dothan, AL averaged 20-25 on busy nights.

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I have been up to 50-60 a couple times on weekend gigs. For my weekday show 20-25 has been common for some time for the longest rotation.

For some of these events it is pretty much a given that you will only sing once that night....

After several weeks of 20+, a night where the rotation is only about 15 can feel slow... For the first few months after I started I thought a rotation of over 10 people waiting was "long" now it can regularly be 30 on weekends and 20+ on weekdays.


As for duets (or larger groupls), I allow them but they have to go down as one singer's turn when it is busy.