Karaoke Psychology

All stage performers want to have an audience.  When you are dealing with amateur performers who are techies by day and, after four drinks, are able to eke out a song on stage, they absolutely need a nurturing  audience’s love. Everyone will have more fun if she has more fun. We need to hoot, howl, clap and smile to cheer on everyone participating in the fun. If you cheer and feed that ego, she is going to dish out more personality, more flair, more dance moves and a bigger dose of expression.

Definition of Audience

In this case an audience would be people watching within 15 feet of the singer. When you have a small crowd and yet those folks are 25 feet back in the corner, this does not constitute an audience; these are just people sitting in the same room.  When people get the courage to sing, it’s customary to support them by listening, singing, tapping toes and maybe even “roboting” or “ballerina-ing” to their song.

Let’s take a look at this floor plan and see how this floor plan hampers the goal of connecting the singer and audience.

Case Study: Obstacles – Scenario 1

If you want to support your friend or stranger on stage, your only option is to stand with this floor plan.  You must get up and move to a cocktail table in front of the stage. With only 2 cocktail tables, this a small handful of audience members facing the stage. The third cocktail table nearby, has another table in front of it hindering the view of the performer. This is a little clump that is part of the audience, the rest are spots of people sitting around the windows.

What happens to the people who want to rest their feet and relax from a hard work week? Well, they can’t see the singer while sitting. Have you seen a photo shoot where the photographer puts the tallest people in the front and the shortest in the back? No, that would be silly. This was the Scenario 1 floor plan. The tall, cocktail tables are in the front row blocking the view of people sitting at lower coffee tables.

Take a look at the big honeydew-colored shape in the diagram. This is a long distance between the people at the tables and the singer on the stage.  As a professional speaker, this is an unreasonable distance to be so far away. The energy and excitement can generate rapidly if the singer and audience were in closer proximity.

Imagine, you get the courage to sing your favorite song, “People” by Streisand. You get up to the lighted stage and you see no people. Everyone is at a perimeter table 20-35 feet away and you can’t see their faces. It can be a lonely place. That’s not the karaoke spirit. Let’s help “Karaoke Virgins” get their training wheels with audience love.

What if people are cutting it up on the dance floor? Your only option is to get out of your chair and walk to the dance floor to see the dancers. You have a wall of cocktail tables and people that block your view. My friend is a fantastic dancer and I wanted my mother to see us “lindy hop dancing. All the tables are on the perimeter by the window, so she couldn’t see. She could leave her table companions mid-conversation to see, which she did later.

If you arrive late and all the chairs and tables are occupied, there isn’t a good place to stand. You are going to feel awkward. When you walk in, you walk in front of the words on the monitor (in blue). Essentially, you are just right of the spotlight. If you walk in further, you will be in the middle of the room. You cannot slip into the background nonchalantly, wherever you stand in the honeydew area, you will be blocking someone’s view. If people wanted to pop in and see what’s going on, this setup was not welcoming.

At this event, fortunately, people turned up. Unfortunately, they didn’t have sufficient seating. If people are going to be hanging in this kind of atmosphere for 2-4 hours, chairs are a must.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqddf8upXeg

To be able to succeed with this set up, the singers need to be able to command the crowd and get people out of their seats. The audience needs to know how to give courteous, supportive behavior.  Luckily, this was the case. Had there not been a couple of people who could entertain, it would’ve been a relatively flat, dull event.  What do you do to ensure and maximize your next event? Read about the Maximized Scenario 2

Create the Karaoke Spirit – Maximized Scenario 2

You can encourage a happy crowd and persuade more peeps to get on the microphone and the dance floor. How? It’s simple. Make the seating arrangement more compact and give as many people as possible a good sight line to the stage.  Let everyone have a chair and get comfortable. Let people enter the venue without walking into the spotlight or blocking the screen.

Look at the 2^nd diagram

Notice all the tables can see the stage with no tall cocktail tables with people standing at them blocking their view.

Have you been to a campfire? Everyone is gathered around the fire. Its cozy. Fun. Family.Essentially we want to bring this feeling to our karaoke party.  Even if there were a big number of nine people, if they all sat in front on the couches, your singer is going to feel supported and is going to give the audience more feeling, more oomph. Having the nine people in a “U-shape” is more impactful than then standing in a small clump. The layout looks crowded, but that is because the scaling is a bit off. However, the idea of a good party is to be close enough to lean over to another table to say “Whatsup?” Walking twelve feet to another table is a more purposeful move and may take more guts to give a line to the hunk or hottie at the table.

Get fancy feet on the dance floor

Having the sofas close to the stage also means that there are people almost on the dance floor, so when “Margaritaville”,” Mickey” or “Eye of the Tiger” comes up, they can hit the floor in one step. If you can hire a swing dance team or appropriate dancers, they can get the dance floor warmed up and inspire dancing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT77LKt2qEo

Entice the Looky Loos

When “looky loos” wander in, they can park at one of the five cocktail tables that are close to the entrance.  They won’t have to walk into the spotlight  or walk in front of the karaoke screen. Making this a comfortable place will encourage more people to settle in.

Reward your singers and audience

The food table is out of the way and isn’t taking up valuable real estate away from good audience members. Plus, if it is tasty food, it is good to keep it for the people at the party, not the people in the lobby who walk in ten feet to snag free fixings.

Attendance

Plan for both extremes 10-100 attendees. I figured there would be a minimum of 15, since I invited and received 15 RSVPs. However, I had no idea who else might be attending.

In the table below, see how the different scenarios compare.

Karaoke Spirit

It’s not about good voices, it is about good times. It’s about people feeling free and singing their hearts out to happy times associated to songs.  Arrange the room appropriately and you can maximize your event.

Jolene Jang, The Meeting Maximizer

President, NSA Northwest, National Speakers Association

Smell-O-Vision

The intent of the “Smell-O-Vision” is to feel like we are in the movie.  Perhaps it fell a kingdom short of this expectation, but it was cute and positive, a creative endeavor. By the way, it was sold out. When you entered the theatre, you were given a bag of goodies (sparse 7 items).  The emcee costumed up as supersized Oompa Loompa and gave us a warm welcome poem. To start it off, he asked for three volunteers to come up and write a poem about a kid picking his (own) nose.  Hosting a little contest is such a simple and effective way to get people warmed up. The volunteers worked quietly on their rhymes while he informed us of the Smell-O-Vision protocol. Basically, when the movie advanced to different scenes such as the chocolate factory, we would eat the correlated candy, such as chocolate.  Two swatches of fabric were in our goodie bag, tobacco paper to symbolize Grandma Joe and fresh linens to be the place Charlie’s mom washed clothes.

The Highlight

The highlight  was  the bubble scene with Grandpa Joe and Charlie floating upward surrounded in a world of bubbles. Our giant Oompa Loompa turned on the bubble machine and we also had our own bubble wand too. Left, right, up and diagonal were bubbles. Certainly, this felt like we were in it.

Bonus

An unexpected bonus was the sing along aspect. Who knew there were so many songs besides the Oompla Loompa song? Everyone knew the songs, except us. However, if you didn’t know the lyrics, they were printed on the lower third of the screen just like Karaoke. That’s fun.

Possibilities

Walls of candy

The description for this event was enticing and waaaaay amped up (great writer), but didn’t deliver what they promised, but it was still great. Being from the event industry, I expected the scent machines wafting mouth-watering chocolate. After my mouth is watering, I would expect to have be showered with  candy treats.  Here is a picture of confectionery-themed room at one of the events at “The Special Event 2004.” The walls were lined with candy and everywhere you looked was sweet treats in one format or another.  Scents make a big impact. I wish you could have seen the event. This candy bar was just one aspect of this huge, over the top, highly memorable event at the MGM Grand in Vegas, produced by Heidi Brumbach, Event Depot. Here are examples of big brands like the Westin using scents to enhance the customers experience.  Renting a machine and using three scents would have made the crowds rave. Great creativity, I would just suggest matching the wicked description to the event.

Calling all sensory-loving cinephiles: bring your nose, your taste buds, and your sense of adventure to this one-of-a-kind screening of the 1971 classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory—now in Smell-O-Vision! Experience the world of Willy Wonka as you’ve never smelled it before, with goodie bags full of fragrant and tasty treats, and interactive moments that are “ninety-three percent perspiration, six percent electricity, four percent evaporation, and two percent butterscotch ripple.” Back for a second year due to popular demand, you can enjoy Gene Wilder’s wonderfully eccentric performance and sing along to those great Wonka songs, all while experiencing the sweet taste of chocolate and the odiferous aroma of snozzberries in total “sense-surround.”

Future Events

I love the creativity with SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) Events.

Quote-a-long

Check out this next one. It is a Quote-a-long.

Jolene Jang, The Meeting Maximizer

President, NSA Northwest, National Speakers Association

• You can experience more surprises and decisions to make. “I wonder when people will show up? Should we reheat the food again? Will the food start drying out? Do we have enough food, or too much? No idea.
• If it is potluck, “We have 5 desserts, I wonder if anyone will bring a main dish and if so when, should we eat the triple chocolate mouse, pecan pie and baklava?”
• If you have a small house and many guests you can thin out the crowd to fit in your house.
• As the host, you may have time to visit with your guests, which doesn’t happen at parties with oodles of people.
• If you have limited parking this is a better chance for your guests to find parking.

Energetic Parties

As the host, I want people to show up on time. I am supposed to be ready, so I want to be rewarded with guests on the dot. If I want people to show up as a group, then I need to set a  2-2.5 hour event or a 3 hour event with specific directions.

For example, my friends know that I am plan like crazy, plus they know that I may have a “program” regardless of what kind of social it is.

• If we want them there on time, we will request invitation to be at the event at 2:02pm. If you think you might be a touch late please tell us ahead of time, so we can plan accordingly.
• Create incentives for the first guests.
  • At 2:02, we will be cracking open a bottle from 1949 from… (insert expensive wine), the year that ….(insert some interesting event).
  • At 2:02 our dog, Moxie, will be performing a dance routine to Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. But Moxie only performs after her nap, so if you are interested, show up early.
  • At 2:02 Vinh’s famous hot out off the oven cinnamon rolls will be read to melt in your mouth at 2:20, they will be gone or cold.

If you have a small attendance list, you will have more success with stating a smaller window of time, so people will be concentrated  at one time.  People can always stay longer and usually will, but stating a huge time span will hinder the “party atmosphere” when there are 6 guests each hour instead of 18 people at one time. We just hosted a 2-5pm Summer Party without any time incentives. Most people showed up at 2:40ish and some stayed until 11:47pm.

I commonly see the big time frame and it is usually a problem. For a quick solution, just make if shorter. Each evite and invite receive, keep an eye out for it.

Jolene Jang, The Meeting Maximizer

President, NSA Northwest, National Speakers Association

Eliminate every second that is unnecessary or boring. The other night, our international student from Korea asked us, his host parents to attend his event. He is the student planner of a talent show at his college. As responsible, caring, host parents, we attended. This is a two hour talent show with ten musical acts and a comedian emcee.

Scene:

• Room 100′ across and 70′ deep with a wide built in stage.
• Stage doesn’t have curtains to open and close, just a backdrop, no side wings or backstage
• 20 par can lights mounted on the ceiling on a large “U shaped” track
• Theatre style seating with 10 chairs in a row, five rows deep and 2 sets of them, 100 people
• This is a huge room for an audience of 100.

What are talent shows, auditions and auctions notorious for? Guesses? Getting behind schedule. Well, I don’t know the schedule for this event, but if you took out all the wasted time in between acts, then sold this time to a busy person, you would be rich.

We were impressed with the talent. I just don’t understand the hairdos, but then again I am an 80′s child from the land of a million hair products.

Eliminate the wasted time – Identify the unnecessary and boring bits

The emcee announced the next act, then steps off the stage. Meanwhile the audience stares at an empty stage. The acts take a long walk and gathered their items, then eventually got on to the stage. As an entertainer, you need the enthusiasm of the crowd to hype you up, not the silence of the library scene. Your introduction has already been said and bored eyes are glazing waiting for the act to start. You are setting up your set, such as arranging the chairs, music stand, microphone placement, and getting settled. The audience sits another 1-3 minutes. You can feel the audience is getting ancy. You are a bit stressed and you are not thinking straight because you are under a microscope as you set up. You usually are behind the stage, but this time everyone is staring. The paid emcee, says your acts name again from off stage and you are on.

How interesting is it to see a band get set up? Not interesting, unless they are famous. By the tenth time of setting up, the musician better be worth it. Because the set up is boring this also puts more pressure on the audience to be better because the audience has to wait.

This is a wasted 4 minutes of our lives multiplied by 6 acts, 24 minutes. I could have updated tweeted 50 times, sent 11 texts, watched 87 facebook updates, booked a flight, downloaded and audio book, referred 2 linkedins, and had extra time to be bored. We left after wasting the almost half an hour on making notes. Multiply this ten times (40 minutes) and then add the judges tallied time, which is always painstakingly long, so long, that we left.

Banish Boredom

Entry and Exit

Even though this is an amateur show, you still want to make the most of it.

• Orientation/dress rehearsal – make sure every knows the process to get on and off the stage
• Decide the official entrance and exit of the stage, for example, enter on the left side of the stage , exit on the right side of the stage
• Tell your talent to be “on deck” ready to step on to stage the moment they are announced
• Define “deck” (since you don’t have a stage curtains or a backstage) make sure this location is the closest area to get on stage without being a distraction to the current act

Emcee

The role of the emcee is to warm up the crowd, guide the crowd, grab their attention and to keep the show moving, eliminate drag and make the talent look good.

The comedian emcee was relatively appropriate for the college age crowd (but not appropriate for a corporate audience) and had his stories and bits. However, I think the placement for his monologues should have been delivered while waiting for the acts to show up on stage and set up. Extra time was inserted for him to mess around with the crowd adding more time to the program. His entertainment value, in my opinion was not worth the extra time. These bits would have been great while serving the purpose of stalling while the act gets ready.

Emcee Solution

To give the acts more attention, a bigger entrance and more energy, the emcee should remain on the stage while the acts are setting up and until they are ready to perform. The emcee should take the attention of the crowd away from the behind the scenes set up.

While the act walks on, the emcee can give background on the act.

• How did they get started?
• How did they meet?
• Tell the story behind their name
• Why they chose this particular act?

This is all background the audience may find interesting and builds the credibility of the talent. When the act is just about ready, they can signal the emcee to do the official introduction and pull up the momentum.

Your emcee should be prepared to improv when…

• Technical difficulties occur
• Set -up takes a long time
• The next act can’t be found
• The act was awful, but you need to say something to make them look good
• The show is behind schedule and need to get back on track
• You need to ease the tension of the crowd is something made them upset

The emcee should have an arsenal of 30 sec, 1-10 minute bits to fill, transition and or energize the crowd. He/she should do research on the acts so he/she can be prepared to add interest to each act.

Floor Plan

I would have put the stage in the center of the room and the chairs in a u-shape. The room was twice as big as it needed to be. The audience was 5 rows deep and set 10′ back from the stage. The last row was about 30′ from the action. A front row seat for a concert can be much more interactive and engaging. Here is an alternative plan, I would have done.

• Take the stage to the ground. The stage is important for large crowds, unlike this one. They knew ahead of time the ball park of attendance. We can give better visibility and front seats to more people. The worst seat in the house is 3rd row and about 15′.
• The seats are 2 and 3 rows deep. This U-shape format will provide more energy for the performers and the audience. The audience can see each other, which can also be entertaining.
• The up-close seating allows the audience to see the sweat roll off the forehead, to see the intense passion in the singers eyes, and be in earshot of the band cues.
• The lights are already positioned to highlight this area and make this community college talent show feel like a high ticket price, theatre in the round performance.

All and all, the talent was impressive. The lighting and sound was great. The seating was fine. But making these changes would take this community college talent night run by students, seem like a funky, professional, off-broadway, interactive, night club lounge feel. None of these changes would take any money to do and would not take much labor.

These modifications are a win-win for all.

Jolene Jang, The Meeting Maximizer

President, NSA Northwest, National Speakers Association