[RIKKI TIKKI]

Originally Posted by mindonstrike

Sounds like you're on a short leash

I'm a one man show.
I wish I could here a helper but there's no money in the budget for that.
I've had a few people offer to run an occasional show for free but I suspect alterior motitves
I had a paid helper once ( About 8 or 9 yrs ago ), so I could take vacations, & sick leave, without hanging the venue out to dry, and them having to find some other KJ/Dj or Band to fill in... He dropped my new $500 Shure microphone, twirling or flipping it, and Our relationship went back to Host & Client real soon after that... Nobody doing free shows, will take care of your expensive equipment, and even if it's on a paid basis, the care they take in setting up and tearing down will be negligible. Now I communicate with the Management, and make them aware of vacation plans well in advance, and have suffered through the normal cold & flu season without missing a show because of sickness, or the nagging injury, mainly because if I don't play, I don't get paid!
I tried to get my wife interested in helping but she hates being the center of attention. She comes out to support me once in awhile but only sings with a friend or a group
I too, try and get my girlfriend more interested, but she also prefers to stay in the background, and let me be the "Karaoke Guy" out front with the crowd. That's whats funny about our relationship, she is generally the inquisitive, talkative, outgoing one... and normally I'm the quiet one... I put on the "karaoke mask/face" and it's like Jekyll to her Hyde, or a complete roll reversal...
Sam

She's my best Roadie, Guinea Pig, Bartendress, Manager, and Translater ( She's Mexican/American, and my Spanish is very poor ) so I'm very appreciative when she wants to accompany me to my gigs, which is most of the time on weekends, and maybe an early appearance on weekdays, when she's not overtired from her day job! ( Currently she is the City Clerk for our little town, hoping to retire in the next year or so. ) So I may say I'm a one-man show, but most of the regulars know how much my helper in the background does, and her support allows me to do what I love to do when I put on the Karaoke Mask!