G'day David, i will subscribe as soon as possable, but i am doing it hard at the moment, with only one or two gigs a month to live on, but as soon as business picks up i will subscribe, i am doing alot of canvassing at the moment but everyone seems to be worried about the weather and the petrol conditions, most publicans believe these two factors are the reason nobody is venturing out to the pubs these days. it's a bit different down in melbourne and up in sydney, but large towns and country towns are really feeling the pinch even bendigo and mildura and ballarat, plus with some of these el cheapo's getting around makes it so hard at the moment it's disgustingly hard to get work. regards

REPLY from David
Sorry to hear that times are so tough at the moment, and I'll look forward to welcoming you as a Subscriber later in the year. I think things are always tough, and I hear the same stories from the city - so I think the only different is that you run out of pubs to ask in the country a little quicker (which just saves banging your head against the wall a little sooner, doesn't it!) In the city. one operator has been finding it difficult to get karaoke gigs, but seems to get reasonable regular work with their Tribute show - I wonder whether it's time to 'think outside the square' and offer a different kind of show that takes publicans away from karaoke(even though it still involves you and all your equipment and a price you can live on)? -------- Suggestions: 1. KARAOKE BY REQUEST Pin-board at the side of the room, songbooks there, pens, request slips - and anyone gets to write their request on a slip and pin it on the board. Any singer (or you) can sing the requests - thereby keeping two people happy per song rather than just the singer, and particularly saying to the pub that this is 'karaoke for the people who don;t want to sing.' (Of course, this is really just normal karaoke but with a pin-board). 2. SINGING COMPETITION - WIN A CAR TONIGHT Just a one-night karaoke competition with the prize being a car. Tell the publican that he needs to put up a big banner, and it'll stop people in their tracks. Buy a model car from your local toy shop, take a pic and put it on your poster without enlarging the pic, and with the words 'actual size' under it. And the words 'You can't drive it home, you can't impress the girlfriend or missus, even your mates will laugh at you, but hey for the rest of your life you can tell the world you won a car for your singing.' 3. CRAZY'S 'no one in particular' TRIBUTE SHOW As people seem to like Tribute Shows at the moment, and it sounds more like proper entertainment, give them this. Lose the monitor for the audience, light the singer a bit better and make it all look a bit more like theatre than karaoke, and sing whoever you want, but group your songs into two or three by each artist. Invite others to sing their tribute, and this is just karaoke with less audience singing. (On the poster you can list a heap of famous artists, then at the bottom of the list write 'yeah, right, I won't be doing a tribute to any of these!' - and that'll tell people it'll be a bit of a laugh). ------------- I always like the idea of giving people 3 choices, as they normally pick the middle one (you'll see W2S Subscriptions have got three choices) rather than being able to answer 'yes' or 'no'. Anyway, hope this might help, or at least encourage you.
Submitted by wolf on 25-09-2005

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