[sevekj]

I finally just got through reading through all of the threads.
It was entertaining and informative.
Thank the Lord there are conscientious KJ's out there.
I have been in the biz now since 95, I discovered it in 91 at a company christmas party, I was well known for my Elvis act and I used to perform at the city Playhouse intermissions and for assorted events. I heard Karoake for the first time at my company christmas party and they were playing the background music to a variety of songs while we were eating our catered dinner, then Elvis, Suspicious Minds began playing and I was amazed at the background and how real to the original it was. Well I signed up right away, I was pretty new to the company at that time so most everyone did not know of my Elvis act, besides I was kind of shy about revealing it at the time, but that was soon going to change. I normally just played simple songs with my guitar, but know I would have a full band playing just like the real thing. Well, to make a long story short, I slayed them that night and won all kinds of prizes and everybody new me as Elvis after that. Now, I am a KJ and an Elvis Tribute Artist, I have sang with the Jordanaires in Las Vegas and Memphis and have been enjoying welcoming crowds for over 10 years.
I have been a KJ for 9 years, I did not own even one CDG before starting the business, I bought my business after considerable research and a stroke of luck. I began locating karaoke clubs to perform my act in and I began paying attention to how the KJ's ran their shows and took care of their business, I learned from the best and the worst. Long story short again, I no longer do Mobile gigs, I do 7 days a week, I own the business and have 2 hired KJ's that I have trained to do the business when I can't, they really don't do the business, I do the business, they just host the show the way I have taught them to do on my nights off, I take care of all the behind the scenes stuff, you guys in the biz know what I am talking about.
Ok, sorry I have mounted a rotation board (to get to the meat of the subject) I created it from a dry erase board framed and very professional looking and set in thirty spots on it.
First singer ME! Always me first, (this makes sense to most good KJ's) then introduce the first victim I mean singer (just a joke everybody always laughs) They have already been written into slot 1 on the board, everyone sees it, and when I don't know who is up I look at the board or I will ask the audience to help me out and tell me who is next (another joke, gets the audience involved) this goes for every swinging singer, they get on the board (sign up sheet for some of you) and they remain there through out the night. Example : Busy night first rotation crazy 30 singers rotation was built up to 30 in the first 15 minutes rotation full come back tommorow earlier or stay and I will put you on the bottom of this list when space allows ie: people leave the premises or forget to sign up again and get dropped from the list, although if I see them which I pay special attention to all customers and singers in the lounge I will allow them to remain on the board as long as I have their slips. As long as you are at my show you will sing after the person you sang after all night unless they leave or are dropped from the board for lack of slips (usually meaning they have left or when they finished Pardise City their throat was history so they opted to pass on the rest of the week.) I have a little recipe box that I use as my working tool to place their professionally made slips 4X6 and there are 30 slots, once you are in that slot you stay in that slot and if you want you can bring me 20 slips, I will play them in the order you hand them to me, I place them in the appropriate slot standing upright and in front of the slot and when the song is finished I place it in the back of the same slot only lay it on it's side and in back of the rest of the slips in the slot. At the end of the evening I save the slips of all the regulars and if a new singer request I save their slips I will after they come to my show 5 times I make them a personal bag with their Name on it and it goes into this cool container I bought at walmart which holds over a hundred different bags of all my regulars, I use top quality Ziplock bags to store each singers slips, they love it. My rotation is the fairest in Land and I get nearly no complaints. There is a lot more to my rotation than what I have mentioned here now. I will input more later as it is nearing time for me to run my show. Toodle oooo!

Seve