Whatta Weekend!

Whatta Weekend...

Current mood:accomplished

Hello all! What a whirlwind weekend! I have been so very busy with work that I have been neglecting my blogs, lol.

Yesterday was the Shark House fundraiser at Rossi's to benefit the employee family relief fund. I think it went really well, and we had an unbelievable turnout. I got there at 2 and there were already people there.

Many people ask me where I have had the largest rotation of singers, and for now, the answer will be at the benefit! I stopped counting around the 60's...and at points I know we had over 70 singers in line. Of course, some of the singers had to bail out before their turn...nothing like a 4 or 5 hour wait, LOL!

It was suggested that I was going to charge people to sing...like $5 a song, to raise money. I had a better idea. I would let everyone sing for free, but I would take bribes. A $20 would get you to the front of the line...so if you were the 12th person to hand me a $20, you were the 12th singer...all who handed in a 20 or more went to the front of the list. If you wanted to sing next, just hand me $100.

Now assuming I could get 15 singers an hour in (and that would have been tough with raffles, announcements, etc...) that would have only raised about $75 an hour for the cause. The way I did it, after 4 hours of karaoke, I personally raised $1350.00 in bribes alone! I felt REALLY good about that! I was also able to hand Robin an envelope stuffed with cash when I got there...that came from donations made in cash at my other shows this week! That is money that is above and beyond the other efforts, such as the raffles and auctions and contributions being collected elsewhere. So, I am happy to say that it looks like the efforts are working, and we will be able to help some of these folks who may need it. There are more ways to help and I will put them on my website at www.harryoke.com today.

I ended up shutting down around 10pm...that made a long day, but worth it.

On Saturday I did a corporate holiday party just South of Jax. That went really well...we were in a different room than last year, and they had me on a moveable wall with no electricity. That was the only oversight. Once they got electricity to me all went well. The folks seemed a lot more receptive than they were last year, and I was definitely in my groove with the age group. The other parties around us broke up and we kept it going until midnight...some folks from the other parties were walking by and crashed our dance floor since the DJ seemed to be doing such a good job, (coff-coff), LOL!

I always enjoy the reward of being in the right crowd, playing the right music. When people are up for a party, and receptive to entertainment, and interact by requesting, commenting and dancing, it makes the job eaier for me...and I do a better job. Nothing is worse than being at a party that people are being forced to be at, and they are not music people, or dancers...and you cant really get them going. I tend to take nights like that personally, until I have that really good night to remind me that I may actually know what I am doing to some degree.

DJ jobs are infinitely more difficult to me than Karaoke jobs. With karaoke you definitely use a different side of your brain. Not that karaoke is easy, but you are relieved of the song choice process at least. When you DJ, if you are good at it, you must have a strong working knowledge of songs and be able to know in 15 seconds what the better song to play is going to be, then start thinking of the next one, to keep the people happy, working the ebb and flow of energy.

Well with most of the holiday work behind me, things will get back to normal...although now I will have my Sundays free since the fire. This will be a temporary setback...I am looking forward to having a few Sundays free for now, but I have no illusions that come January or February, Sundays will find me onstage at yet another venue. I have some prospects, but nothing committed, so any rumours to the contrary floating around out there are just speculation. It has been less than a week, and already I hear the rumors on the street of where I am gonna be next, LOL!

All for now, and all the best to you all...