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Last night was the slowest night of any karaoke night I have hosted. There were never more than 6 customers in the bar at one time the entire night. Two weeks ago they had one of their best Saturday nights ever. Odd night to say the least.

To put it in perspective.....*I* sang 18 songs (including duets). For the first two hours it was just myself and one other singer going back and forth and doing duets. There were a total of 6 singers for the entire night and 4 of those only sang once each. There was even a 30 minute interlude where I sat at the bar chatting with the bartender and with the one group of 4 people that was there most of the night.

We chalked it up to the following factors -

1) Seattle Mariners Home game (stadium on the other side of town)
2) Seattle Sounders Home Game (stadium on the other side of town)
3) First full weekend of beautiful weather so everyone was out camping hiking/daytripping/or otherwise outside *not inside*.
4) People were home doing their taxes before the deadline....
5) Those who had already done their taxes realized "Holy Crap! I am screwed!....and poor!" so they stayed in....
5) This bar relies a lot on foot traffic and there were practically ZERO folks out in the neighborhood in spite of the fantastic weather.

On the up side, myself and the one other singer had a chance to go to town. Here is my set list for the night -

Little River Band - Reminiscing
Jace Everett - Bad Things
Billy Paul - Me & Mrs. Jones
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising (duet with Misty, and new for me)
Paul Simon - 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
Train - Drops of Jupiter (New for Me)
Squueze - Black Coffee in Bed
The Eagles - Heartache Tonight (Yes....I own 8125)
Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind
Tesla - Love Song
Gwyneth Paltrow/Huey Lewis - Cruisin' (duet with Misty)
Billy Joel - She's Got a Way
Richard Cheese - Baby Got Back (vocal elimination)
D4L - Laffy Taffy - (song challenge, new for me and WTF!?!?!)
Reba/Brooks and Dunn - If You See Him/If You See Her (duet with Misty)
Black Crowes - Jealous Again
Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl (new for me)
The Motels - Only the Lonely (new for me)


-Chris

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-Chris

Must be your location....

I sang 1 song last night... (the opener) and had a 1hr. 30min rotation all night long....

There are slower nights, but even at the slowest, I don't think I've ever done more than 4 songs over a 5 hr. period.

I had only 1 idiot last night who was being very "disrespectful" (for lack of a better term) to women and he came in and only lasted about half and hour before his friends were warned to put a chain on him or they all go.... they dragged his drunk butt out about 5 mins. later.

I believe that one of the keys to success in this business is to insure that women that come in alone feel safe and protected from idiots and predators like this guy. This will actually help your business since so many people sing "love songs".... it just doesn't seem to go over as well when there is a bar full of men....

Encourage a "happy and festive atmosphere" and toss out the "tough guys" that gotta act tough, the obvious predators, sloppy alcoholics and the weirdos. I realize that might empty a few places entirely, but for well over 10 years it's worked extremely well.

The club only "seats" 56 people and has a till that rings in at around $2,500.00+ two nights a week and the judicious booting of these types has helped to keep it that way.

Last night was an anomoly for this place. Since picking up the gig, I have had people queued up before start time every night. There have been a few lighter nights, but the bar has made money every night and does well during the week. They had one of the better Friday's two nights ago and we were all prepped to have a good night last night. It was just one of those weird nights when the stars aligned and people just weren't there. The Bartender took a pic and sent it to another bartender who was working a few blocks away and they said they were dead as well.

I agree with your assessment on making the women feel safe. The venue I am at is run and operated by two lovely women and they do a good job of keeping things safe and fun. They have given me free reign to control the crowd so I am empowered to bounce if needed. Fortunately I have only had to have 2 conversations with folks. Both were last week because.....

Last Saturday we had two bachelor parties at the same time. One of the bachelors was a light weight and going downhill fast within an hour. When a cup of beer was thrown my direction I gave them their options. They actually calmed down, but I think that had more to do with the bachelor hitting the tipping point quickly after that. The same bachelor also dropped the mic by accident when trying to get it back on the stand after a song. The floor is bare concrete at this place so it was very unpleasant. That warranted a warning to everyone that an accidental mic drop is understandable. An intentional one is an immediate and permanent ban.

Good Times.....

-Chris

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-Chris

CHRIS, DON'T WORRY...IT WAS THE SAME IN ORANGE COUNTY CALIF....IT WILL PICK UP IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS...YOU GOT THE SUMMERTIME COMING...AND YOU'LL FORGET SATURDAY THE 14TH...

T.

Ohhh Tony find you caps lock button and unlock it please.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

It's usually notoriously slow around tax time!! I worked Fri & it started out a rotation of 4 for the first hour - building up to 28, but it was really dead up til then. We are usually slow a few weeks after Apr 15th, until people start getting refund checks!

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

It was slow at my service club last night too. Only 5-7 singers until 11pm (when I left). I understand the rotation two weeks ago was 28, and it is often 20 (amazing for our little town).

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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.

This is why my buddy and I do both Karaoke and DJ. Slow nights suck, but they do happen.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Not here. Karaoke only. If it's slow, then they get to hear me sing TV themes until they start singing to get me off the obnoxios stuf Perfect time to try new stuff as well.

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My buddy isn't really into singing. I use those nights for new stuff, but after a while the smoke starts to bother my throat, so I limit my singing. I smoked for 23 years, quit 6 years ago, but now the smoke bothers me, if I sing a lot. I have always wished they would get rid of smoking in the bars down here.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

! I use slow nights for practice.... kinda wish there were more of them. Last night was slow at my gig also, but I still had 23 singers. Every person in the place was singing. They were a mellow crowd. Was almost boring but there was a comfortable feeling... like we were all in someones living room. No drunks, no mic dropping or screaming, and no complainers about how long it was taking to sing. Quite an unusual night!
Now, Thursday night.. rowdy bunch, 32 singers, all complaining about how long the rotation was. THEN I had a girl come b*itch at me... Her and her friends sign up to sing as "3 hot chicks" (no they aren't even close), two of them sign up under their own names. (3 people=3 turns) ... so the one that never uses her own name decided to put her name on the slip of "3 Hot Chicks", in parenthesis, little tiny letters. So.. she comes up and yells at me that I never call her name! This is the first time she's ever put her name on there. I told her that I call up the name that I can SEE written on the slip & if she wants me to call her by name she should put just her name or make it visible. I'm not going to type a whole list in the singers slot.. only three words show up on screen anyway. SO... she's drunk and leaves. (It was closing time anyway) I've mentioned this group here before. Women!

But then...right after she left, there's a man standing close enough to have heard most of what was said and he smiles at me, then comes over and says, "I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but you should have played this song earlier"... he was talking about the last singers of the night... they were singing Love Shack. I tried to tell him that I can't DJ with the karaoke singers, singers pick there own songs, I have no choice.. yada yada yada. He got mad and left.. Go figure.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

Come to California, can't smoke anywhere here. They're even going for the 'no smoking outdoors within'.. x-amount of feet from a building...even your own home.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

Yeah, but you have earthquakes and mudslides. No thanks. .

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Not in Northern Cali! And it's not humid and we don't get hurricanes!!

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

How's the drinking water up there? Ours is horrible.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

man i love richard cheese, i think they should have all his lounge versions on karaoke...

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It's all good!

Karaoke-Version has quite a few of his songs, a few of those with graphics.

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