Contests ... Good or Bad?

[CochrellGary]

I don't like contests for the same reasons previously posted. But what do you do when the bar owner wants a

contest? Here's what my wife and I do to make the bar owner happy, the patrons happy and take the CONTEST

out of a karaoke contest.

We call it a BYOB Challenge, (Bring Your Own Buddies), "A singing show where talent doesn't count but your

buddies do."

Basically here's how it works.
Anyone can sign up during the evening, call it a "no talent" signup. The challenge is held during the last hour of the

gig, keeps everyone in the house. All enterants sing one song. When all the enterants have sung their song they

are all brought up front. One at a time their names are called out, and the audience responds with hoots, hollars,

screams, whistles, etc. The winner is picked by audience response.

The secret ingredient is a visual VU meter that the entire audience can see. We display it off of a laptop computer

into an AV projector onto a large screen, software by Radio Shack. The biggest number that shows up on the

meter determines the winner of the challenge. All personalities have been removed from the judging process. The

audience is now involved, they really get into seeing how high they can get the meter to read. The winner of the

challenge is the person who got more of his or her friends to attend and cheer. Everyone can see for themselves

who got the highest reading on the meter. "Talent doesn't count but your friends do." The bar awards dinner for two

at a local restaraunt and after six weeks the previous six winners vie for a home karaoke system. Then the process

starts all over again the following week.

Gary