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Wow, two years in the business, and no one has EVER gotten in my face and cussed me out like what happened last night. Doing this five nights a week now, in hindsight I guess that's lucky.

My Friday night gig at the Seahorse Inn is pretty hoppin'. While my rotation never get to be more than 15 to 20 singers, the faces change all night. I have a bunch of regulars, but they sing one or two songs and are done.

I have a "core group" of about 10 that will hang all night... but the bar itself is PACKED till close, and the enjoy the karaoke.

Anywho, in that core group are these three girls: Jenn, Holly, and Blake. They are all gorgeous, and they all sing extremely well. I mean American Idol well. They perform and "shake it" and just have a good time, and everybody loves them.

Anyway, Holly and Jenn had come in early and had been in the rotation since the begining. I had two new folks, Diana and George, come in on the second rotation and hang a bit... they seemed like they did karaoke regularly, but I'd never seen them around anywhere before... and never at the Seahorse.

So, Holly comes up to sing, and after her is Jenn. While Holly is singing Blake comes in... and she hadn't been in for a few weeks so Jenn and Holly were really glad to see her. Jenn comes up and wants to do Lady Marmalade now that Blake was there, so I put it up. Now let me tell you, this is one hell of number they do. Three very pretty girl, singing their A$$es off, and really rockin' the house! The bar goes wild, and every has a good time!

So anyway, after their song Diana comes up and askes me about her song, and why she got skipped. Confused, I show her her name on the screen (I use compuhost). She was mad becuase Blake just walked in and sang, and she had been waiting... but she "understood" about the pretty girls.

I pointed out that Jenn and Holly were in before she was, and pointed to the "time in" on the screen for Jenn. "They just did a trio on Jenn's turn. Blake hasn't been here in a while so that the song she picked to do." I showed here where she was, her last performance time, and when she was going to sing next (which was five minutes).

She seemed to really understand at that point and walked away. Anyway, a few minutes later her boyfriend/ husbands comes up to me and starts spewing (screaming)profanities at me about how to f-ing do a rotation, not to f with the rotation, etc. etc.

I tried to talke to him the same way that I did with Diana, but there was no talking to this jerk. I smiled, and said, "here, let me fix this dilema for you." and promptly deleted his name off the roll. "Now you don't have to worry about it."

He was incredulous. "I'm a customer! You'd better put my name back!"

"No."

Well, now he's going to kick my a$$, etc. etc. I got Gene the manager, and he sits down and talks with the guy. A few minutes later the guy, with Gene sitting there, calls me over and says, "My name is George, you remember that because I'm talking to Lionel tomorrow, and your outta here!"

Then I said, "My name is the Karaoke Koyote. Remember that, and if you walk into a bar where I play don't bother putting in a song, becuase you don't sing with me... not tonight, not ever." Smiled and walked away.

Of course, Gene was amused.

I was talking about this guy after close, and the barmaid said he was a jerk. He comes in, but not usually on a Friday night... gets in arguments with his girlfriend... pulls her hair, etc.

The cool thing was, that just about every guy in the place jumped to my defence when it looked like it was going to get physical... I'm mean the guy backed off with the posturing when that happened. They love me there. I just installed a $6800 audio system there that I jack into to play, and it sounds great. Everyone (including my American Idol girls) that its the best sounding Karaoke system they've ever heard (permenant speaker placement helps a lot eh? ), so this guy doesn't worry me about my job there for sure.

But, man, what a jerk!

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

handled very well. It's usually very hard to remain calm when somene screams in your face. and AWESOME that your other customers backed you the way they did.

Not to rile you, but once again a position how a duet can EASILY be misconstrued as other singers getting favortism, bumping up...

Duets are probably one of my biggest dislikes about singing karaoke. There just doesn't seem to be a way to please everyone on it. Most people are satisfied with whatever way a rotation is ran, as long as it's ran that way ALL the time. It may take some time for people to get used to insertion methods, or bring one - sing one, or the "line" method... but most, once exposed to whatever you do, accept a rotation as long as it doesn't change when it gets busy, or whatever.

But duets?? brrr... they're my nemisis!

Again, well handled Koyote!

Ooops.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Thanks, Knightshow.

Duets can be problematic. I don't let the same person sing more than twice in any one rotation for that reason. I'm using Compuhost, and the next five singers in line scroll across the top of the screen. I add new singers to the bottom of the list.

If I make a change, I announce it. "Alright, we are coming to the bottom of the rotation, and a few new singers have been added, so bear with me while the new folks sing."

People that come to my shows regularly LOVE the way I do rotation. "I've never seen a KJ with the scrolling thing before! That's awesome!" "Hey! my names up there!" etc.

They know if they have time to go smoke a cigarette, or take a potty break, and I don't even have to call them up on their turn... they just come on up. I don't bump, period, the end. I don't care what pressing matter has you leaving in the next five minutes. Thanks for coming in, I'll be here next week. Come when you can stay longer.

So, for someone to get in my face about rotation is just out of line.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

My rule is simple. If your name isn't on the slip when it's turned in, you don't get a microphone...period.

Everything else is based on stage time. If Joanie turned in a solo and also a duet with Janie, they are going to be in the same rotation slot. If Janie gets upset over that, I'm happy to explain that Joanie was just on stage. If Janie wants to take Joanie OFF her slip and do it as a solo, I'll put her right up.

Every KJ has to run their gig their way, but if I saw the same person get up twice before I sang, or someone who just came in sing before me, I would certainly take it up with the KJ. We are all in the service business, and customers should be treated with respect. But there's no excuse for anyone to be rude to me.

I would have never brought up anything about "pretty girls" or "regulars" - in karaoke, a fair rotation means everyone is treated equally. But I would have made a point about saying, "Well the rotation says that Jenn is up next...and Jenn has invited 2 of her friends to sing with her." That would explain why someone who JUST sang is back up there as well as someone who JUST got there is singing. If you didn't make a point of conveying this to the crowd, I can see why someone else in the rotation wouldn't understand what was going on and be upset.

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[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]

You appear to handle duets the same way I do. You definately handled the situation exactly as I would have. Nobody sings at my show if I don't want them too. The owner has no say on how I run my show, except for maybe volume, though this has not happened. If he tried to dictate things to me I would politely say goodbye, and my crowd would go with me. They are loyal to me, not the bar.

Felix the KJ

Handled well. I've adopted the duet rule that others have. One free duet one per night does not count as your turn. If this would have happned at my show, I would have explained to the complainer how it happened, let them know they can double check at the front of my books where it is outlined and if they still have a problem with it, sorry too bad and if you don't get out of my face, you don't sing for the night. Once I've told you that, if you don't get out of my face, you won't sing at any of my shows.

Exception to the one free duet rule, if the rotation is 3 or 4 singers, I will be more generous.

Those are the kind of people that everyone loves to deal with, a problem child!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I had something similar happening the other night. I was playing at a regular smoking bar, nothing fancy but a big place and a lot of fun.

Anywho... I have those 5 girls walking in, obviously drunk. A Birthday party I found out. So the first thing is, they come up to me and ask "Is this Karaoke!??". So I'm thinking "d'uh" but stayed nice, said yes and they grabbed a book and everything was cool. Then one girl put in a song request and tells me, they all going to sing together. Right after her, one of her friends puts in another song request. So I'm asking her, are you all singing together on this one too? She says yes. So I put it under the same name as a second song.

5 minutes later a guy sings a pretty up beat song. So they all get up and bump and grind on him, while he is singing. Not a big deal, but I spotted some beer bottles in the girl's hands. So I went up and made them understand, no drinks on the stage. One of them gave me a look like "who the fxxx do you think you are?". Anyway, I stay calm and finally get them to put their bottles down.

So now it's their turn to sing. They sing their first song, everything's still cool. After them I call up the next singer and her friend (who put in the second song) comes up and asks me, why she's not next? So I explain my rotation guidelines to her. She's understanding and goes back to the rest of the girls. Now that other girl (who gave me that very clear look before) comes up to me and asks me the same question again. So again I explain to her, how the rotation works. Then she says, but that's not fair, since the other girl put in her request right after. So again, I tried to explain that that's not the way it works. But it's her birthday! So I told her (still trying to be nice) that I'm hired by the Bar, not her friend. Otherwise I would cater to them all night. But considering the fact, that the Bar hired me, I have to cater to all of the singers and have to be fair to everyone. Now she says, there's no reason to be an a$$hole about it.

So I let her know, that that was not my intention. I just gave her an answer to her question and just the fact, she didn't get the answer she expected, doesn't make me an a$$hole. So now she starts cursing me out. At that point I had it and said "Seriously, I don't need to put up with your attitude" and deleted them from my rotation and told her, she's not singing again... ever.

She still cursed me out and on they're way out they gave me like ironic thumbs up. I just smiled and waved them goodbye...

Rotation is always a fun subject. Aaarg !

I could careless who sings. It is keeping a fair rotation that matters to us as KJs. I don't know why people think we sit around picking and choosing who sings and who will get skipped.

It's always frustrating to get those few people who just don't get it. Especially when they act like spoiled brats. Screaming in someone face over singing a song at karaoke - ridiculous.

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Sounds like the guy was looking for a reason to be a jerk but I can't help but wonder if by the time Diane interpreted what you told her to him, what he HEARD was you wanted to get the prettier girls up first and he took it as an insult to Diane.

I swear, this is "Princess Syndrome", and it can drive me nuts.

Every now and again I get that group of chicks out to "get their drink on" and act like they're in a "girls gone wild" video, and tease every guy in the place. If the world doesn't bow down to them they can act like complete b*tches.

Usually, this is drink induced. I had this one chick who tried to "super whistle" in the microphone, and whistle everytime someone sang... or even while they were singing. Finally, I went up and told her that the whistling was annoying everyone at the bar and was rude to the singers and she needed to stop it.

"You're saying I'm annoying? F- you!"

She wanted to leave, but her girlfriends were having too good a time so she had to stay. I saw here like a month later... would you believe she came up to me, apologized, hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek?

I try to understand when the alcohol is talking, but I'm not going to take someone getting up in my face.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Yeah, that's exactly the attitude they had.

It is listed in the rules that you can get banned from my show... I make no bones about it....you want to come in and have a good time..great no problem ...currently at this time i have 4 I have banned for life..and only 1 got 30 days....as I said before Im not here to baby sit ..act like a child and Ill treat you like one...

I had a somewhat similar situation a while back where a regular got a bit angry that he was not singing, mainly because it was a busier than average night, I did have him on rotation but it was just taking some time.

For whatever reason he got in my face said a few angry swear words and said he would never sing again and get me fired from the KJ job.

I assume he was a bit drunk on that occasion, and while he did not come back for the next month or so, he returned and has been a well behaved singer for the last 6 months and makes it to about 2/3 of the shows.

He never mentioned our arguement, and I assume it was just the booze and whatever other problems he was having at the time that brought on his behavior.

My advice is just give a one month ban in such situations and if they were regulars they will return (and probably be embarased by their behavior).

On the other hand if it is a REGULAR problem with an individual or group as opposed to a one time confrontation like you had, then a long term ban might be better.

Usually my ban is for the night, not forever. I also get those people who will be jerks for the night then come back in and apologize.

Oh the whistler. I just tell them my amp will automactically shut down because it is to loud. Same thing with the screaming. It's funny how if I ask them not to scream into the mic it goes in one ear and out the other, but if you tell them the system protects itself by automactically shutting down they stop. I'll never understand why these people can't hear for themselves how annoyingly loud a full out whistle or scream is. Especially when everyone cringes.

I have a regular who has a scream sing style. I announced before hand that he was responsible for any ear damage during his performance. That seemed to tone him down a bit and get a laugh. Of course I wouldn't recommend it unless you knew the person well enough to joke about it.

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Well, I'm not all that intimidating, but I am a father of two girls. I've found if I shoot out the "daddy eyes" that usually stops the shinanigans immediately.

The worst equipment abuse I see is beating the mike head to the beat of the music during a music interlude. I cut the mic from the board, and when they look at me I just give them a finger shake and dagger eyes... usually works.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

99% of the time alcohol is the culprit in these situations - and sometimes with guys it is a pride deal...they think they're friends are watching how they deal with getting dissed and it probably brings out the worst in them. I'm very fortunate, I guess, as I don't think I've ever had to ban anybody. Usually I can come up with a one-liner for them that cuts them down to size (always in private) but can certainly do the same over the mic. Enough of a motivator for any jerk like that to calm down quickly. Yes, the eyes do the job most of the time, and if not, the ability to come up with those quick one-liner stingers is a good backup plan.

The people I've banned are rule breakers mostly.

I posted about the last person I banned for the night. It was the guy that picked up the mic and screamed at the top of his lungs and swore. I forgot exactly what he said, but it was pretty nasty. Anyway, he has come back several times since and jokes about the night I cut him off. He was not happy with me the night I did it, but has apologized since and understands he was out of hand.

I find this has been the case with people I've banned for the night. They come back apologize and all is forgotten, as long as they behave.

Divas are another story. I haven't had to ban one yet.

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I don't know what it is with the "girls gone wild" thing. Most of the time its funny and cutesy... to a point. I'm not gonna cater to them because they are acting(?) like complete sluts. As host girls take wierd liberties with me that if roles were reversed would get them at least a slap in the face, and at worst arrested!

I frequently get my nipples pinched (not gently ), and my crotch grabbed (or worse!)...

So, when the divas get pissy because I'm not catering to them... I'm amused. Sweetheart, I do this 5 nights a week... crazy girls bumping and grinding on me happens OFTEN!!

My regulars laugh at me because while I am a Koyote I'm not a dawg. I try to keep things light, and the singers up and going, while maintaining a party atmosphere... "wild girls" can be a part of that as long as they don't intefere with the actual show and the singers.

The "twice per rotation" rule gets these groups pissed at me the most... no singer may appear in the rotation more that twice... thus a group of five girls will not get to sing five times in a row!

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