Looking for unique/interesting karaoke nights

Sabu · Post by **Sabu** » Wed May 11, 2011 2:08 pm

Hi everyone,

I am planning a big road trip around the United States coming up this summer. The goal is to hit just about everywhere I can get to by car (and even some places I can't!), and to explore all of the fun and awesome things and people out there to discover.

My friends have recently gotten me into karaoke, and we've had such a blast going to some local haunts. I'm hoping that I can take this newfound fascination with me on the road. In particular, I'd love to seek out any interesting or unusual karaoke nights that you've heard about.

For example, I know that there are some karaoke nights that use a live band. I've never been to one, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Or, another example, I heard that there's an occasional karaoke night somewhere in Philadelphia hosted by Skeletor; you know, the villain from He-Man.

I'm sure I'll be looking for ways to fill my evenings while I'm out on the road, and if you have any suggestions for places to experience some memorable karaoke, I would love to add it to my itinerary. Here's hoping that the wonderful community here can help me find my way to some of those places... I'll be happy to report back on what I find.

Cheers!

- Eric

alkalinesi · Post by **alkalinesi** » Sat May 14, 2011 9:20 am

Sounds like you have a cool idea with checking out stuff all over the country. I live 20 minutes from Philly and I seen Skeletor a couple months ago. He is an awesome host. He's funny and gets the crowd into it and he's got a gong, so if you suck he will gong you off the stage. Sounds terrible but the crowd loves it and everything went good. The venue was in a bar above the Trocadero which is a concert venue. The place is small and gets very hot and cramped. If you come to Philly I would deff check out Skeletor. But I can't help you out with any other suggestions sorry. Good luck!

Bigdog · Post by **Bigdog** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:25 pm

A gong show...isn't a karaoke show IMO.

They had that around here years ago. I thought it was a bad idea then and I still think it's a bad idea. Unless you advertise it as such so people would know what they are getting into from the start.

I promote quality professional karaoke and my goal is to attract quality singers...Not every singer is an American Idol talent. So anything like a gong that would suggest otherwise would be a detriment to my style of show.

Nobody really likes to be made fun of. It may work for him because he obviously doesn't actually care about karaoke as a viable form of entertainment. He is more interested in shock and awe. Probably with a bunch of screaming drunk regulars. There probably is a market for that type of "entertainment" but it's nothing I would participate in or promote.

alkalinesi · Post by **alkalinesi** » Sat May 14, 2011 5:09 pm

If it's not a karaoke show, then what is it? And everyone knew about the gong, I actually thought thats what made it an interesting and fun show. And it was't just the singers voice, it was just the mood of the song. And it's not HIM that's gonging them, if the crowd starts chanting gong, then he'll eventually gong them. You said it yourself that you don't control the show, the people who pick the songs do. But the gong, in my opinion keeps everybody entertained and keeps the show moving.
Of course it's not your thing, but you don't have to knock it or put it down and act like your so much more superior than him. He's a well known KJ and brings in big crowds as far as I know. So obviously something is working.

Post by **wiseguy** » Sat May 14, 2011 9:08 pm

If you use a gong it is not a karaoke show but rather a game show the uses karaoke as the medium. On the other hand, karaoke was never meant to be taken seriously and anyone who takes it seriously is missing the point. It's an entertainment for the average "shower singer" to have fun with.

Sabu · Post by **Sabu** » Sun May 15, 2011 1:25 am

Whoa... whoa... Don't make me separate you guys! ;) I had no idea I'd run into such karaoke purists!

Though I do agree that I would be rather crestfallen if I had gotten up to do a song and gotten yanked off-stage in the middle of it. And I've seen plenty of karaoke performers who would probably get gonged, but are fully entertaining in other ways.

(the people who went on the gong show knew that there was a chance they would get interrupted in the middle of their act, right? not that that excuses it, but well, it's something...)

Anyway, I'm still interested to hear if anyone knows of other fun karaoke shows out there, whether it's pure or not. I know there was another group in Philly that used to do Puppet Karaoke, and then there's the not-really-karaoke game of Presentation Karaoke, which is more like an improvised comedy bit.

Ooh, speaking of which, I heard that there are some karaoke places who have famous comedy bits in the catalog. And you perform the comedy using the screen as a kind of teleprompter. Has anyone heard of anything like that?

I'm sure that there must be all kinds of varieties of karaoke shows out there. Bring 'em on if you know about 'em!