What makes a good karaoke experience? Part 2

Last month, I blogged about my thoughts on what makes a good karaoke experience:

http://heckledtrio.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-makes-good-karaoke-experience.html

For the most part, that still holds true. Last night's karaoke outing has only reinforced that. But not in the positive sense: I got to experience a few *negative* points that really turned me off to the KJ, and, as a result, the establishment itself.

My friends and I first hit the Cliff Room back in April, shortly after Tabitha's birthday. There were only 4 of us in attendance, and we had mixed reactions afterward. If you recall from my blog post, I enjoyed myself immensely. Now I realize that it was primarily because I'd been drinking that night, so my perspective was a bit skewed :-P Last night, that same group of 4 of us finally got a chance to hit the Cliff Room again. This time my drinking was light enough to keep me sober all night, so I feel like I got to observe everything with a different set of lenses than the first night. And while the evening started off quietly enough, it did not end well, karaoke-wise, primarily because of these negative factors that totally turned me off to the KJ:

1. Not having a good system in place for keeping the correct order of singers.
G-Man (of OTT fame) has his computer, with karaoke software to keep track of the queue of singers. Dyno Mike (of Creekside, Monty's, and all sorts of other places) uses the good old-fashioned song slips, and simply arranges them in the proper order. The Cliff Room guy? Simply keeps a notebook with a list you can append your name to.

As you can imagine, that system is fraught with all kinds of problems, not the least of which is that it's difficult for the KJ to keep track of the proper order of the rotation. As new people come in, G-Man and Dyno can simply insert their names into the middle of the rotation to keep it evenly spaced out. How do you do that when ALL the names are already written down on a notebook, in what amounts to a random and unfair order?

2. Drinking too much.
I've been of legal drinking age for a while now-- definitely long enough to figure out how much alcohol I can tolerate before becoming totally wasted, and how to pace myself to prevent that. So you'd think that a KJ, who is being PAID to render a professional service, should also be able to control his alcohol intake.

Not this one. He was so drunk he couldn't keep track of the rotation! He accidentally skipped people, or switched them out, or... well, all kinds of things (see point #3). Having a messy notebook on top of that certainly didn't help him keep things straight!

3. Taking bribes
I think this irked me more than the above two factors combined. Bad enough that as the night wears on, you have to practically hover over his shoulder to make sure the drunken KJ doesn't miss your turn (yes, I had to do this, and even then, he kept forgetting me!). Even worse when you see people come up with cash in their hands, with the #1 spot going to the highest bidder. Yes, I witnessed a $5 briber "lose out" to a $20 briber. There is absolutely no sense of fairness in this.

A good karaoke rotation should be first-come, first-served for the most part. And I can understand a KJ making a one-time exception for a known regular, if the regular has a good reason (like a birthday boy having an extra turn because he's actively celebrating his birthday at the bar, or the time our friend Eric was squeezed in because it was his last night in SB) and if it's not a frequent habit. But bribery? Especially under the guise of tips? i.e. shaking your tip jar at people who want to know if they can go a bit sooner? That's really low.

All in all, I had a terrific time last night, despite our woes with the KJ. The atmosphere was lively, the people were a ton of fun, and I enjoyed the company of my 3 friends immensely. So it's not like the night was a total wash. I just wish that our enjoyable experience hadn't been hampered by a jerk of a KJ. Well... never again! Next time we're sticking to the known KJs and their establishments!