Karaoke Forums

Saturday evening I did a mobile show at a House Warming party at a co-worker's house. Everything went well and fun was had by all.

Am wondering how many of you out there also do house parties and whether this is something commonly done?

_________________
"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

Did an "outside" house party week and a half ago, first outside gig. A couple kept asking us how much we charge for house parties. Well, they couldn't afford it, so we cut them a break and thought we'd get the experience from it. This couple really like our show, and are ALWAYS touting our show, so I said we'd do it as a gift (it was their daughter's birthday). Got there, set-up outside, everything went well, "until". I turn on the laptop, and I CAN'T SEE THE SCREEN. Glare, and sunlight are too bright. Same thing with the monitor. They set up a canopy over us, but that didn't do much to help. We finally decided to wait til dusk to have karaoke. That went great, even had half the neighbors coming over to sing. A GREAT time was had by all. And we got our experience, (and a 100.00 tip.) Still would like to figure a way to shade the laptop, and monitor in the future.

Rosario

I have several KJ friends that get together and throw House Parties and invite friends out on a pretty regular basis (about once a month). Not a lot of venues in our area. Compilation of gear and music makes for a pretty good time.

House Parties? All the time...just did one last Saturday. Especially popular around the holidays.

For me house parties consist of mostly dancing, and then karaoke when most of crowd clears out followed by cops at around 2:30am.

I've done my share of house parties inside and outside. I don't do them any more though. I never cared for outside parties. Always the looming threat of rain and bugs. The wind can be a challenge also.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I do them pretty regularly, once a month or so.

I generally do them for friends so in most cases I do not charge.


A lot of my friends are karaoke people anyway so karaoke is going to be part of the entertainment. Sometimes on house parties we have two different KJs split the karaoke, so the other one can enjoy the party.

That's my biggest problem with hosting house parties. I'm always working and never get to enjoy the party. It is usually close friends that ask me to do house parties. It's like being invited to your best friends wedding and asked to be the bartender. Then on top of it they want you to work for less or free. I'd rather be invited and not have to work. I work enough.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Love the sign.

_________________
[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I've done several house parties over the years, most were outdoors but a few inside. Many were for friends that wanted karaoke parties - they got charged a fee since this is a job, regardless, I am still working even if I know most everyone there - even got some referrals from some I didn't know. I did give the friends a break on price, but still made it worth my while to take it all out, set up/tear down & host. Unless it's for a benefit/charity, I won't do free shows for anyone.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I do at least 1 house party a month. I have a group of people who have 5 or more per year and it is at a different house each time. They have been steady customers for 4 years now. I get alot of referrals from that group as well.

I prefer house parties as I'm allowed to have fun too. The only problem with them is they go on forever. I finally developed a pay scale for anything over 4hrs and the rate increases every hour after the first overtime hour. I have had some 8hr parties that are marathons.

Love them though and would like to do more.

_________________
FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I do outside parties consistantly. I use two monitors (one for me and one for the singers) and a lappy. I made visors for each monitor out of cardboard and then I painted them all black. Works well and cheap. In the end, you have to monitor the sun the day before and set up with the sun in mind. I now use a stage snake (100 feet) so I can deal with this even better now. I love these parties because I get to play cool back ground music, dance music, karaoke and I normaly invite a performer or two (Elvis guy, singers, etc.) as an extra and they do the gigs for free (most of the time) for the practice and the free meal.

I've done free parties for family members -- Family Reunions, anniversaries, etc. and I usually give friend's a token price of maybe $100. Friends of friends, I'll do for half price.

The wife and I have turned our basement into sort of a mini-nightclub complete with stage and spotlight for our own parties. If you have to play outside during the day a nice big shade tree comes in handy.

Maybe I'm a sucker, but I love seeing people have a good time and especially people I care about. Other than dealing with drunks, the hosting part of KJing is more pleasure than work.

Now setting up, tearing down, maintaining books, preparing marketing materials and making sales calls is another matter entirely.