[swany]

I do have a lot of duets in my crowd especially at one bar in particular. Lot of the time they'll have as many as five people singing at once. I often encourage singers to come up and sing with me if there is not too many people waiting in rotation. I use a written list to manage my rotations, if a couple sings only duets, that's the way they are in rotation. I encourage most to put their name up as a single and ask for someone to sing with them, if they are friends and do this all the time I put them a quite a few singers apart and ask them pick different partners as often as possible to avoid strife for me. Still I ask them to put their names up single and ask for a singing partner. I figure it's one song, and if that singer wants to invite ten people from the list it's still the singers turn only and not the rest. Easy if you can get away with it. I've had gripes and I usually have my wife take over and explain the way I run the show on a one on one basis, and tell them to do the same as everyone else that it is a KJs problem and has been and will be for a long time and each of us tries our best to handle it as we see it. Your best bet is to get to know the patrons, and make new friends each night, this works great for me as my wife and I usually work the show together. One night I work the crowd and the next she will. Most often she likes to the run the show and have me do the roadie and good will tours. When she works the crowd it's usually because she has a friends in the audience. Keep a smile and introduce yourself to as many as possible, giving a perception as a good KJ helps but being one includes carrying a pencil and paper for suggestions and new song request. Take their slips up for them and as you get to know the people the complaints go down.