Why does
the bartender
hate me?
by Johnny Stewart

I have been doing musical entertainment in clubs for thirty-five years. I have kept most of my engagements for long periods of time. My current show is in its tenth year. Experience is a great teacher. However, here are a few ideas that can save you some unnecessarily bad experiences.

If you are playing to a small room or a large room, there are certainly times when your karaoke show should only be loud enough to entertain the guest who are interested in karaoke. The rest of the crowd can be drawn into your show but they shouldn't be forced to listen only to it. At the end of the night your report card is the cash register. Management doesn't really know who was there for karaoke or not. You may find it interesting to consider the fact that some of your best spenders are customers who did not come for karaoke. I have found that the best spenders sit at the bar. The club likes these customers and the bartender likes them also. These customers like to sit at the bar because this is where they are the most comfortable. They probably did not come to sing. Or if they did come to sing, they like to be entertained by the bartender and the other bar customers with a little karaoke in the background.

Did you ever wonder why the bartender didn't seem to like you, your show or karaoke? But you are bringing in business, right? Maybe you are, and maybe the owner will never hear about it because the bartender doesn't want you doing karaoke.

Why doesn't the bartender want you doing karaoke?

Maybe you are costing the bartender money. Before you landed on the scene, the bartender was the only entertainer. The bartender's tips depended on how well the bartender did his/her thing for tips. Ask any bartender, they make more money in tips when they have a few loyal customers sitting at the bar than they do when there are too many customers to handle.

The next thing that happens to the bartender; is with karaoke, the club needs a waitperson to take care of the customers who come for your show. Before karaoke, the few customers sitting at tables would come to the bar and tip the bartender for the service of making the drink or serving the food. Now with a waitperson the bartender has to split the tips one way or the other. You can try as much as you want but you are not going to make friends with this bartender. My suggestion is to not try. Just have patience.

If things go well, you will get over the difficult hump in time. You will bring in enough new people to sit up at the bar that like the added excitement karaoke brings. The waitperson will have enough business that he/she will make enough money that he/she will tip out to the bartender at the end of the night. Both the bartender and the waitperson will make money.

It is important to understand what chases bar customers out of the bar. It's not only the volume of the music it's the quality of the music. First of all the volume is important. Try not to point your speakers at the bar and bartender. Point the speakers in towards the singer. If the mic feeds back, turn everything down 'till the feedback stops. If the singer is happy that's all you need for now until you bring in more customers. The more customers the louder you can make it but still don't point your speakers at the bartender or the bar.