Why Do You Host Karaoke For A Living

[madjim- with the Lord]

I entertained professionaly for years sitting on a stool, playing an acoutic guitar ansd singing until I started loosing rooms to karaoke. I added it to my show and it took off. I tried to start some bands but made more money as a single.

Jim

[Lonman]

Simply put, made more money at karaoke than doing any band/soloist & running sound for bands.

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by Lonman

Simply put, made more money at karaoke than doing any band/soloist & running sound for bands.

Dito

Jim

[swany]

The wife hosted for another company for a long time. When her and I got together I was going to work another eight years and retire. I started buying equiptment for one show to make some extra cash doing KJ and DJ weddings. Friend that was in the business decided to retire, called and asked if I would give him $8,000 for his show from the trailer hitch to tailgate. This included 10,000 songs on cdg disks. Enough equiptment to run two shows plus the one I had built. I bought that and started a KJ show the night I bought it. That was seven years ago. Five years later I had to retire as I was doing more work than necessary. That plus my company offered me $35,000 plus a pension and benifits if I would retire then. So I've been full time for two years now. I just finished building my fifth show.

[marklwood]

Am I the only idiot that owns the place?

[bryant]

Played in a band about 15 years ago, band broke up, we split equipment, I started DJ'ing that weekend, got into karaoke about 10 years after that, everything took off from there. Met G/F who was very adept at electronic stuff, starting hosting with me within a year after we met,
Things got even better.

I have a good day job as well, and so does she. I will retire in 4 years because I can afford to.

[CerealKiller]

I Too played guitar in bands until I got so hungry I needed a real job.
Then I became a karaoke junkie and was at the right place when another kj went to the hospital, so I took over and haven't looked back since.

[capnvic]

Same thing, Bands seem to have booking issues, bass guitarist falls out of favor, lead guitarist sucks, so make him a rhythm guitarist, but nothing works. Tried the live mike show to no avail. (I was the rhythm guitarist) So I picked up Karaoke as a KJ at an Karaoke bar. Did that stint for five years, but the pay was lousy, so there I was doing my own karaoke show, at first with a partner, then later solo...Still play lousy guitar, but I can run a good karaoke show...

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by marklwood

Am I the only idiot that owns the place?

Your the kind of idiot that I love, you guys (club owners) hire me and I get to pay my bills. By providing karaoke, you save money for sure. Hard to call someone who saves money an idiot.

Thanks for being a part of the poll.

Jim

[RailMom]

Originally Posted by marklwood

am I The Only Idiot That Owns The Place?

lmfao!!!!

[RailMom]

I actually started accidently. I was singing karaoke in California at a show, when the KJ asked me if I wanted a part-time job filling in for him whenever he's on vacation. I thought, sure. Around the same time, another KJ asked me the same, and once again, I said sure. Between the two, I had pretty regular gigs going at a good rate of pay (especially since it wasn't my set-up). After I left Cali, I went to Colorado. Once again, at another show, the KJ asked if I wanted a job, and if I did, I should swing by the karaoke store and fill out an application. Once the owner found out I knew every song on DK's original 1-99, and more, she gave me the job. I've moved quite a bit since, but am now in Florida. I usually get asked at shows if I'm a KJ or would like to be one. That's how I usually fall into it. I don't find it - it finds me.

Although I enjoy karaoke, I DO NOT enjoy the drunken morons who come up on stage abusing the mic, taking their clothes off, spouting profanity, or SCREAM into the mic. (There are a lot of really STUPID people out there.) I personally like the audience seat better than the KJ seat. I give you full timers a lot of credit... I just don't like people enough.

[bobcox- with the Lord]

I was an Ironworker for 38yrs, and when i retired my girlfriend made me do it.
thought i was going to go fishin, Ha
gives me something to do, and the money is great.

[capnvic]

Originally Posted by bobcox

I was an Ironworker for 38yrs, and when i retired my girlfriend made me do it.
thought i was going to go fishin, Ha
gives me something to do, and the money is great.

It's amazing to see the number of retirees that have adopted Karaoke and Hoster as their means of Hosting Karaoke. More power to all of you....Still have to keep my day job. (Computer Geek)

[CerealKiller]

When all else fails become a kj
It really only takes 3 things, a good ear, money, and more money

[WDEWDAD7]

I too was a professioanl musician/singer. Played guitar and sang. Got tired of the road, tired of " bad " club owners, lazy musicians. Worked harder for less and less money. Took a day job, played in a band weekends, and started doing karaoke during the week. Sure caught the flak from my " fellow " musicians......taking their jobs, you know. I just saw the writing on the wall. Glad I did. I am responsible for myself, and I love music. Do miss playing with a live band now and again. Daryl.

[Monolithent]

Can you carry a tune now?
I still can't, and I am always amazed by those
that breeze through notes just like the record.

I like to think I can still carry a tune but I am not the ultimate judge of that. I manage to sneak a little one man band work now and again so I guess I can't be too bad

You ever get your audio outputs working right? I've got another long drive to look forward to tomorrow night if you wanna gimme a call. Should be on the road well into Sunday.

[dan matney]

This past new years eve was my 42nd year in a row to play music of some kind, it has been a blast, but got into karaoke about 9 years ago now, was the best thing I ever done, I work by myself, when I get paid I keep all the money, and dont have to worry about musicians getting drunck or not showing up, but the money has been great, the only thing I worry about now is system failor, and currently trying to get up to speed with back up stuff, should have done this a long time ago, but still miss the band thing, Ive done some guitaroke lately and that was fun.
kowboys

[dan matney]

Oh yea and by the way dont make the mistake of letting some idiot get your guitar, while you are doing a show, you will go out the back door and shoot yourself if you do.......L

kowboys

[madjim- with the Lord]

Originally Posted by dan matney

Oh yea and by the way dont make the mistake of letting some idiot get your guitar, while you are doing a show, you will go out the back door and shoot yourself if you do.......L

kowboys

One night while using the karaoke tracks as backgraound tracks, the owner brings up this guy who wanted to play guitar and sing "You Never Even Called Me By My Name", with the track. They said he was good enough. Needless to say his timing was so far off from the track (not to mention missing a bunch of chords) that I had to step in.

NEVER AGAIN!

Jim

[dan matney]

Mr Jim sir:
I know thisis wayoff the track here, but I down loaded a test version of hoster yesterday, it is really different than Im sued too. What I need to know is can the test version take flies from the external hard drive, I cant get it to do it but there is a lot there I dont know about. and also can anything read kma files other than hoster?
kowboys