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We had a strange night last night. Didn't expect many people as one of our regulars got a job tending bar with the competition and was taking her crowd with her. But we were greeted with almost a full house, including a singer who is a professional on the local level. The boyfriend decided to get things going a half hour early.

Had a pretty good night but it started to thin around 11:30 and we thought we'd be out early. But then 4 sailors on leave from the base appeared with a designated driver and they were ready to party. The bar owner started buying them shots and then paid us $20 to stay another hour. Then he paid us to stay another hour. There were just the four of them plus five regulars who stayed for the duration, although one had stretched out across the bar stools and fell asleep. One of the females was an excellent singer but when one of the strictly for fun male singers decided to do "Stay" by Sugarland I started to lose touch with realty and think I was in a strange movie.

It was getting to the point where neither we nor the bar tendress could stay upright (fatigue, not drinking) and the regs were slumping in their chairs. So we told them we'd have to call it a night but they could pick two more songs to end the evening. They chose "American Pie" and "Piano Man." When all was said and done I realized my boyfriend had just run 8 straight hours of karaoke without a break--not including setup and take down. We got home at 4:00 a.m. and made $160.

We have only been at this a year and may be too eager to please and should have set limits. But we felt that because the people were military we should let them have their party. They were extremely appreciative and plan to visit us again next year when they pass through again. But I still feel as if I just got out of some weird dream. "Stay" by Sugarland?????????

Hope the $160 was on top pf what you normally make for the night. That is a long night.

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Nope--it was $40 more than usual. It's a small place where a $500 till is considered good. If it had been cranky regulars we would have just suggested they come earlier next time and we would have been out of there. But we didn't want to shut down the sailors. Didn't sing "Zoot Suit Riot" for them, however.

They did the obligatory Toby Keith and Aaron Tippin songs but also threw in some Green Day with their Sugarland.

Way to hang in there LL! When you finally catch up on your sleep you should be happy you earned next weeks tank of gas by staying late. Money, however small, doesn't grow on trees very often... I make what i can and sock it away for full retirement. Kudos to you for sticking it out. It may pay dividends next year as well.

Great story - It sounds like you had fun too.

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Please up your price. You really deserve the extra coin.

At my current bar, I work from 9:00 p.m. to close, and local blue laws prohibit the bar staying open any later, so I couldn't if I wanted to.

However, at my old bar, I used to work 8:00 - midnight, so there was an extra 1.5 hours after my show officially ended that the bar was open.

If the bar was busy, the owner would encourage me to keep going, but he certainly wouldn't pay me for my extra time.

SOOOOO, what I started to do was simply let the crowd know that I was only getting paid until midnight, but could go longer if they could all chip in an extra $50.00. If there were enough singers to chip in the $$$, I stayed an extra hour. If there were not, I quit at midnight. I'd say 60% of my nights, the patrons happily paid the extra $50.00 or even more. Most of the nights I worked through 1:00, the singers would then pay even more to keep me going until 1:30.

If you take this approach, and do it repectfully with your singers, then a $125.00 base pay at your karaoke venue can turn into $175-200 VERY easily. It's jsut all about tact and giving the singers what they want (i.e., are willing to pay for)!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Yeah, I wouldn't work 4 hours for $160. My regular week night is $225 for 4 hours. Friday and Sat I charge $250.

Looks like we all have different $ amounts for our base, some of us (myself included) sometimes work for rates that even pirates would balk at! The key in the end has to be how much the bar can afford. My 4.5hr Friday show (subbed out to another guy with my equipment) gets $100 from the bar and they make anywhere from $500-$1300+ (I've been suggesting that they need to raise the pay a little but it's a struggle.) The 3 hr Friday show I am trying to build myself was paying $120 but switched to 25% of the take. 10/30 was $150, the following week was $25, last week was $45! I know I had several weeks when the bar was no making enough bank to cover all the expenses when they paid me $120 so right now I'm sharing some of the cost of getting the show going.

I long for those $200+ paydays but I need city gigs rather than country gigs for that.

- Jonn

City vs. country says a lot. Our population is 3,000. As said, a big night for the bar is $500. This is our "practice" venue and we have had some ups and downs before we started matching the Friday hosts. There had been other hosts on Saturday nights at this venue and Karaoke was considered something that wouldn't work so we didn't have much negotiating power going in. It has taken a LONG time to build it up. I'm hoping we have paid some dues and can move on up to some more nights but at a big city venue.

I highly respect you and your boyfriend for staying the extra hours to entertain our military. Payed or not, if any military personnel walked into my venue I would stay until the cows come home to entertain them. Their sacrifices out way mine by a long shot.

Yep, kudos to ya.