Features on all aspects of karaoke
Behind The Scenes of a Karaoke Show - The Other Side
Just a little article about what happens behind the scenes from one KJ's perspective.Many karaoke goers only see the end product; I will try to explain now how much background work is involved in getting the show on the road so to speak.
A KJ's life is full of laborious and mind numbing repetitive tasks that a trained monkey would lose interest in doing. Many tasks are for the pub goer's benefit. When I wake up and have my first coffee of the morning (and a considerable amount of cigarettes) I first of all check my answer machine to see who has called me that morn, usually I'll find about 3 messages which were left by early birds just before they went to work, these messages can therefore be dealt with later on. I then start to plan my day, right so it's time for a reprint of our books.
I load up MS word and start adding in all my new or recent discs, but before I do that I have to check if we have them already or not. So I put one version in the punters book and both in the master (my copy) once I have done this I then print off the listings - this takes an hour or so - but I can't leave the printer because it WILL jam or WILL run out of ink mid way through and several times after that. As any KJ will tell you books take up a hell of a long time to produce, so that's why we get upset when somebody puts a fag through Shania Twain to Van Halen!
Books are also expensive to upkeep each one is worth around £20.00 a time depending on size ink used etc, so a show with 4 books would cost on average about £80.00. Remember that next time you complain that there aren't enough books to go around!
Request Slips are the most fun ever! Really! Come round and cut up 400 sheets of A4 for me sometime. Please!
Ah Yes - Kit Checks - Every afternoon after a gig the night before I do a kit check first of all the mics, mmmm crudded up with someone's sandwich bits or cigarette ash, stinking of vodka and red bull, a quick soak for the heads in something quite acidic should take care of that, book covers drenched in yellow beer, and it don't smell great either, oh and look, Dan is gay inscribed on the front cover as well how sweet oh well it's a shame to wash it off, but it is spelt wrong.
Everything else is checked repaired or replaced if needed. (I Spend Over £50.00 A Month On Replacement bulbs leads And Book Pages Pens Etc)
Invoice time for booking clients, this is fun I take all the details reproduce them on a printed confirmation form them post it to our clients. This Takes Up On Average About 30 mins A Day If I'm Quick.
The Rest Of The day is full of other fun and crazy karaoke like things to do but I'm boring myself to tears here so I'll jump ahead.
The Gig.
We KJ's like to get to a gig nice and early (most of us anyway) to get our gear in while it's nice and quiet and not too many people in the way. We happily leave our warm homes to lug around extremely heavy and difficult equipment into the backs of our vehicles and then into pubs, on average we probably leave for work (gig work) about 2hrs before we are due too start. We love that bit. Once everything is set up we scratch our heads and wonder why the music isn't coming out? Ah yes turn the switch on much better!
You'll often hear us say 1,2 down the mics a lot at the beginning of a show testing the mics you may think, that's one side of it but we really do it so the 30 something yuppie sat at the bar can say " learning to count again" or " I bet that's the highest you can go" we just love that! Some of us have become stale with the 1,2's now so we say wooo or pop pop. But it hasn't got the same reaction.
We always love it when in the middle of lifting a very heavy speaker on a stand someone comes over to us and says "can I have a book now. where are you're books pens, slips and I don't want to sing first though mate!"
Once things are going as a general rule we really do enjoy ourselves no doubt about it why else would we do this job the money, (yeh right!)
But little things make us twitch and wonder how humans ever managed to build flying machines, such as big blokes who think that hitting each other on the head with their mics is amusing, and girlies who consider flashing there boobies at me will convince me that they must sing at 11.05, and my favourite, I'm leaving in five minutes can I sing next, to which any seasoned karaoke host will say, if you want to sing that badly you can wait 15 minutes until it is you're turn, 9 times out of ten they never leave until the end!
And my personal favourite is the drunk who comes up to me with a book and a blank slip pointing at a song in the book, I want to sing that one. yes I say so go fill in a slip and no can't you do it. you must know the number right - no sir if I knew the number I wouldn't write it down in the book now would I, but I'm too drunk too write it down, then your too drunk to sing or the best one I can't read or write ah ha! But they always look at the screen when there singing don't they!!!!!
For all the downs this job has it has also many many ups that far outweigh them, that's why I do it, but this article is about the bits you don't see as a karaoke goer. I Love this business and I wouldn't see myself doing anything else.
I'm sorry if this seems like a go at the karaoke fans, but let me make it clear that it is only a small percentage of the people I meet that act in this way, I love you all and I do chuckle to myself now and again when I think about particular incidents.
To all you karaoke goers - keep up the good work! You are our lives!
Jay Shortman
Impact Karaoke
A Happy KJ
* Please note this is one KJ's perspective on life as a KJ it may not necessarily reflect the true feelings of other KJ's living or deceased. No monkeys Or Squirrels were harmed in the making of this article, all characters depicted bare no resemblance to anyone I've ever met fictious or other wise.
Karaoke Info > Articles :: Behind The Scenes of a Karaoke Show - The Other Side