Karaoke Forums

So, I was approached by the owner of a coffee house to run a show at his establishment (I think he's wanting a day show). Although he's a friend -- and I want to take the job -- I'm a little bewildered by the idea of running a show there. This is why:

The coffee house is in a European style -- very relaxing, a foutain, and 3/4's of the seating are outside in a quasi-garden setting. People certainly don't come there to belt out songs... or to be disturbed... and I'm not certain that a few "bad" karaoke songs might push the regulars away?

The owner wants to try it, and I do too... just trying to figure out how best to approach this?

Has anyone done something like this? Or a coffee shop show? Any ideas are welcome! Many thanks.

Your basic karaoke only format will not work. I'm not sure a daytime show would work.. In that setting it starts with dinner music then requested dance music and the energy and tempo oicks up into a party type atmosphere. Yes it can be done without alcohol. I have done AA clubs. At a certain point some will want to sing. Usually with this format the singers are better than average. It is entertainment not karaoke. He needs to make money on food or something besides booze.

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Yeah, my thinking is to restrict the show to generally "crooner" and "torch" songs... I'm thinking songs you would possibly hear sung professionally over an upscale outdoor brunch?

Probably print a very small songbook of tunes for this particular place... and try and recruit some singers from my other shows to make appearances...

I actually did a coffee shop karaoke show for quite some time at the Mighty Cup in Glendale, from 7-11pm on Tuesdays. Attendance was really good after a while, with a mix of Sober Riders (bikers who don't drink) and youth AA groups. The problem was that although the place packed out for it, without alcohol sales, it never made the place enough money (and often lost money) and eventually the owner had to let me go. Cups of coffee just don't generate the cash beer and booze do.

-- Dan Dan

Yeah, that is the fear...

Thanks for the info.

The upside is this is directly in the middle of the film studios, so there's a lot of industry/producer traffic. That could mean that there would be a lot of good singers trying to get noticed? But does that equal coffee sales? Hmmmmmm...

I have a caterer that could help make this an actual brunch, but yet again I don't know that would equal more coffee sales... Oh well...