by Al Reilly

Created on: August 29, 2007

There is precious little in this world that I enjoy more than going out on a Saturday night, after a hard week of work, and kicking back at my favorite karaoke venue. To be able to sit back with old friends and pound back a few cold ones and then get up and let loose is something I truly pleasure in. My wife and all our friends all get involved and have a few laughs between songs and generally forget about the doldrums of 9 to 5 life.

The only problem I have, and I hate to say it but, sometimes it is BORING! The fact that I even mentioned this bothers me to no end but it is true. After going to the same regular club for quite a while you have the same group of brave souls that will get up every week and belt out their hearts to all the regulars. The fact that it is the same group of people getting up with the odd spatter of semi-regular souls and the occasional new face is not the issue. In fact that is what I would call the best of karaoke in that you have this loyal troop that you meet with regularly every week and become like a family.

Wherein lies the problem and the source of my boredom is when you have the same people doing the same few songs, week in and week out. I don't know how many of you have encountered this but, you have one regular at the bar who is there before the K.J. can even set up and has his songs in before the equipment is even out of the van. His first song is a brutal rendition of "2 out of 3 Ain't Bad", to be followed by "Play That Funky Music" and on we go. Week in and week out it is the same songs in the same rotation. This wouldn't be a problem if it was only the one guy but there are about 50% of the performers doing the same 5 tunes every week, although some of them will do us the courtesy of putting them in using a different order.

What really drives me nuts is the host has over an 8000 song collection at his disposal. I admit that I do some of the same songs more often than I would like, but that is because some of the bar patrons have requested me to sing that tune. To me part of the adventure of karaoke is trying out new tunes and expanding your repertoire and not get yourself stuck in the same old thing. Believe me, nobody would request this version I previously mentioned of "2 out of 3" on a regular basis.

Lately I have been getting the host to implement with me a tactic I used to use when I hosted karaoke. I call it Kamikaze karaoke where the host would pick out a disk from his bin and get me to pick a number from 1 to whatever the last song on the disk is and then I would have to sing the song. Sometimes I am familiar with the tune, or I know it well or sometimes I haven't a clue and butcher the tune to shreds. It doesn't matter because we are all regulars and friends and we laugh together at it but it changes things up and for any wannabe rock star it keeps the edge on and at times brings them back down to Earth.

I encourage any K.J. who finds his regular show going flat to try this idea out. The charge for the use of my idea is nominal, buy me a beer should I ever end up in your club, and put a spark back in your shows. Finally a word to all the karaoke singers out there who are stuck in a rut, expand your horizons. We love you no matter what you sing as you are part of the family, but don't tell us the same story all the time.

One last thing to keep the best from the worst. If somebody sings a song during the evening, don't put the same tune in to see who can pee higher up the tree.

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