Karaoke Forums

This came up in another thread, and rather than hijack that thread, I thought i'd start a new one on the subject.

Say you're starting the night, and you only have 1 singer, who has turned in several slips.

What do you do?

Now what I do is bring the singer up.. and provided they don't just absolutely suck, i'll have 'em do a 'two-fer' then play some 'regular' music for a few songs.. maybe 3 or 4.. and then bring the singer back up for another song or two.. maybe sing one myself in there somewhere.

Now I wouldn't likely play SEVEN songs in between bringing the single singer back up like BruceFan claims in that other thread.. but in my opinion, if you've only got one singer in the club, no harm in spinning a few tunes between bringing that single singer back up.

It depends on the crowd.

If it's just you and your singer, then it doesn't really matter if you let your singer sing them all. If there's a crowd of people, I've found it's better to get your singer singing rather than waiting for more singers because once the singing starts the singers will come. They often just don't want to be the first.

If it happens alot, you're in the wrong business. But everyone suffers a slow night or a slow start eventually. That's when some DJ filler music seems appropriate. Or maybe let a karaoke song or two play without a singer and see if someone gets inspired.

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KNOW THYSELF

I know who the singers are in my room - if I notice a lack of singers, I sing one....and if the lone singer has given me a slip, they sing...while they are singing I am out in the crowd urging people to sing - "Good time to try something new, nobody's here." etc. etc. I don't make them sit...but I also don't let them blow their wad in the first 20 minutes. Just depends on the room. People who attend my show happen to like my singing, request certain songs (which I learn for them) so they don't mind at all if I end up singing 2 songs in the first half hour of the show but I watch carefully to catch new singers coming in. I don't wait for slips from them, I put up a song they may have sung in the last two shows...they get a kick out of it..."But I didn't even put up a slip." Of course you didn't...but you're here to sing and sing you're going to!

Then we rotate back & forth, i'll sing, then they will & while they are singing I will be in the audience trying to stir up some other singers, however this is a rare occasion.

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

Like Lonnie it is very rare that I have to look for singers but in that situation the singer who turned in slips would sing then I would sing after twofers for each of us I would by then have read the crowd picked out a song and headed into the audience with all the mics and we would have a singalong to "Sweet Caroline", "Respect" etc. then I would go back to my one singer and myself and repeat the process untill I had singers.

Sometimes you just have to make it happen, but honestly I haven't had to try that hard for several years.

I won't start my show with any less than 3 singers. When I arrive, there are typically 50-75 people already in the bar. I throw in my regulars the second the walk in the door. I'll announce I am doing karaoke, and usually start right away.

About 1/2 the time for my Wednesday show, my regulars do not show until about 9:30, and I start at about 9:00. Since there are typically 50+ non-singing customers in the bar, I'll go ahead and DJ for a 1/2 hour or so until the karaoke crowd shows.

Without getting into the whole DJ/pure karaoke discussion again, it is just smart for me to keep 50-75 NON SINGERS entertained and in the bar drinking until I can get a non-stop, entertaining karaoke show running. It would be financially irresponsible for me to start a show for the 1 or 2 singers when there are tons more people in the bar that would not appreciate the same couple of people singing over and over again, and would probably leave. My job is to generate business for the bar, and I do what I need to to keep the most people happy with steadily growing tabs throughout the night.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I will start my show with just 1 or 2 singers and also include myself in the rotation. Usually once the crowd sees people singing the slips start rolling in. If it's really slow I will add 1 or 2 filler songs between the rotation.

I sing one, the singer sings one. Repeat until end of show. Occasionally I have been known to throw in a w_vocal version from Pop Hits.

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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.

I like the way you think, mckyj. I wouldn't have minded had the KJ did what you would do and used A filler song to break up the two people singing but ONE filler song at a time, AT MOST...NOT SEVEN OF THEM IN A ROW...while I'm sitting at the bar waiting to sing a song. Definitely not the best way to recruit new regular singers, IMHO

This isn't the first time I agreed with Bruce. I don't need 3 singers to start karaoke. It is karaoke. That's why I'm there. Karaoke.

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

That's my beef when I show up at start time and get told "I want to wait until I get some singers". Well, that's a lot of incentive to show up early, eh?

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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.

Guess 1 singer doesn't count as a real singer?

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

Agree with this..., except for maybe only 1 filler song MAX between singers.

In both my shows it's about keeping ALL PAYING CUSTOMERS comfortable..and that means sometimes it's not pure karaoke until my rotation is at least 6 singers. Half-songs of filler music between those few singers while i keep annoucing and introducing karaoke as the main form of entertainment. This includes walking into the crowd and saying hello as the half-song filler music is playing.

My thursday show always starts out slow due to bands playing at bars right next door on both sides.

We all have to adapt to and read our crowds to know what will work at our venues each and every show. There really is no right or wrong way unless you don't care...

[font=Garamond]We all have to adapt to and read our crowds to know what will work at our venues each and every show. There really is no right or wrong way unless you don't care...[/font]

Hammer hitting head of nail Mr. R. Thanks for reiterating....

Unless your club IS a karaoke only club. In which case everyone that goes in KNOWS it is karaoke only. Singers & non-singers alike.

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

Similar to Mckyj57, I will sing the 1st song and call up the 1 person/singer to sing his/her song next. Then I will keep rotating back and forth between us until the 1 singer is tired of getting up. I will try to sing songs that might encourage the crowd to join in (songs like "500 Miles" or "Breakfast at Tifany's"). I might (jokingly) threaten the crowd, by saying something like, "If one of you doesn't come up to sing, you're going to hear me and "xxxxxx" sing all night long. If the 1 singer I have gets bored, then I just put the show on Auto-Pilot by playing some of my multi-plex discs. Then I will walk around with the Mic, and if I see someone singing along to the song, I will try to encourage hime/her/them to get up and sing the song.

Maybe when you have only one singer, it is a good time to drag out the really long songs, perhaps the ones that you have removed from your book. Anything 5 minutes and over. Any song with a really long intro and outro.

I have a monthly 7:30-11:30 gig which can be a bit slow on a Tuesday. Today there was just me for the first half-hour. I alternated me singing a song, then a karaoke w_vocal version, for that time. Pretty soon, I talked a new singer into singing and busted a cherryoke. Not long after that, a few singers showed up and we had a slow but enjoyable evening. Not a bit of filler music, unless you count the w_vocal versions I did.

I actually had to go to my backup computer which doesn't have any dance music on it. I have a new Acer laptop which has a problem that is bedeviling me -- I can't get the internal microphone to turn off! I actually removed the device from Windows, and it still is on.

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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.

I've threatened to sing Barry Manilow all night long if nobody gets up to sing.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

"His name was Rico, he wore a diamond"