We’re here talking with Gary Waight, he’s a DJ here in Vancouver. He specializes in weddings, parties, karaoke DJ events, so how’re you doing today Gary?
Gary: I’m doing very good and happy Halloween to you.
Mark: When we started to hangout Gary had a sombrero on, he took it off.
Gary: Yeah, here you go, my little Chiquita, alright my little Macarena, yeah here we go, we’re ready.
Mark: So we’re going to talk about tips for your music event so or event music, so what can you do to get my guests to sing karaoke?
Gary: Well you know, karaoke is a little bit like jazz music, you either love it or you hate it and that being said there are a number of ways to run a Karaoke event where it becomes super fun for those who love it and really entertaining for those who are more inclined to sing in the shower than in public. If the Karaoke is part of your wedding reception the best way to use it is to incorporate it into your event for example get people instead of tinkle on their glasses so the bride and groom kiss, have the guests come up and sing a song in order to get the bride and groom to kiss and depending upon how much effort the guests put into the song it reflects on how much effort the bride and groom puts into the kiss. I always bring along fun props, kind of like this one here and the guests often get into the character using some of the props and it becomes really entertaining for everyone. You can even use Karaoke to determine which table gets to go to the buffet line so lots of ways you can do it but the key thing is to corporate it into an event. If it’s a corporate event like a Christmas party then maybe offer some kind of prize to get people to come up and sing for so when I do my Christmas events with Karaoke I always ask the clients to provide me with a couple bottles of wine which is always a great incentive around Christmas time and I use that to either get up a group of guys or a group of girls to the mic and sing a tune that everybody knows. I usually pick the tune and it’s usually a fun tune and we get separate props along with the interactive elements that I put in there. It can be really entertaining and once you get the guests to sing most of the time it’ll just keep rolling on. Another more involved way to get the guests to sing is to have a competition between the different departments of your company for example the sales people could compete against a group of office staff or the girls against the guys, you encourage everybody to get into character with either with the props, costumes, banners, you can have judges and you can base the winners on such things as the biggest ham in the group or the most off key group of the night or any number of sub-categories. It kind of reduces the pressure because you don’t have to be a great singer and everybody can be a winner. After all Karaoke is all about just having fun, right?
Mark: Absolutely, so following along on that theme what’s a way to encourage my guests to dance?
Gary: Well, at a lot of events, especially at reception there’s a really wide range of ages, music taste and personalities, you know sometimes it can be a challenge to get the guests to dance. For wedding receptions one of the biggest determiners as to whether the guests will dance or not is if the bride and groom dance. If the bride and groom don’t see it as a celebration then the guests won’t either, that may be reflected by the amount of people on the dance floor. If it’s a corporate event, it’s always nice to see the president, the CEO or upper management dancing. There again guests will see the event more of a celebration if their leaders do, as a case in point, I think many corporations see their annual Christmas party for example as an obligation or something that they have to do for their employees and often the party comes across as that, I think the corporations should look at it as a kind of team building function and I know I did an event for ING who looked at it like that and they put in a lot of contests like limbo contests, twist contest, everybody knows how to twist, air guitar competitions and it just really made the party come alive and it really made the staff and the guests really come together as a team, have a lot of fun and the feedback I came back with, there was a big talk around the water cooler the next day so it’s really good to look at that if you’re a corporation as a team building event and not as an obligation party and if you look at that way a lot of people are going to dance and enjoy that. After all a company that plays well together, works well together.
Mark: Make it fun basically.
Gary: Yeah, exactly.
Mark: So what do you, what should I keep in mind when choosing the event music.
Gary: Well, the event music, when choosing the event music you want to keep in mind your guests. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things that clients often forget about especially bride and grooms. You’ve got a really wide range there from the grandparents to the youngest members of your family, your friends and sometimes the bride and grooms don’t understand that. A reception is very different from a club, a club DJ often doesn’t have a variety of music or the understanding of the guests requirement that an event DJ does. djboogieshoes An event DJ is better at reading the dance floor because they have to do that all the time where club DJ’s pay for a specific group of people usually younger people and usually remixes of the popular songs so they can beat mix into all the tricks that work really well in a club scene, that don’t work well at an event. A case in point is I did an event at Stanley Park at the Stanley Park Pavilion a little while ago and the bride and groom were very young and she was Filipino, he was Caucasian and basically she wanted to pick a lot of songs that were gangsta rap, that’s what she loved to listen to and you know gangsta rap has a lot of profanity in it, that doesn’t go well at a reception but anyway we followed that along and of course he didn’t want to hear YMCA. He hated YMCA but I do know that Filipinos love YMCA, I knew what was going to happen but we went along with that and when I got there and started playing her music we were surrounded by a number of her guests and we did get into playing what the guests wanted to hear and the first one was YMCA and the groom comes in with a drink wondering, Gary why are you playing this song they grabbed him, put him in the circle, in five seconds he was doing the YMCA and at the end of the night he came back and he said Gary even though you played the YMCA I had so much fun, it’s a fun reception and I got the same feedback from the bride. So always keep in mind your guests when you choose your songs, I find it’s always good to give me 10 songs that you really want to hear and let the guests determine the rest of the night. That’s usually a good way to go.
Mark: So you have a number of packages that you offer so how do I choose between the budget package and your regular package?
Gary: Well I think one of the biggest things you want to think about is when you are choosing the budget services over the regular service is the size of your group and the quality of your event. Budget is always a factor but it really shouldn’t be because you really can’t put a price on a once in a lifetime event or even a once a year event especially if it’s your corporation, you want everybody at the party to have fun and enjoy it. A smaller, more casual group where the music is really not all that important but it would be missed if it wasn’t there will benefit from the budget service. That really gives you a basic service with a nice music, smaller PA system, the ability to make speeches, announcements and some lighting so that those who do enjoy music will find it meets their requirements to do some dancing and have a party. You can also add features to the service to get some other things that you like in the regular service. The regular service is the most popular service that I do. This is a package to choose if you’re having 80 or more guest and having a party where the atmosphere is really important to you. Clients like this service because they see it, they can sit down with me and get a really good overview of their vision of what they’re event is going to be like and I can also give them lots of suggestions and tips on how to make that event stand out, the benefits of a larger PA system with a cleaner sound, the wireless microphone for your speeches so that you can walk around, lighting and the interactive feature will really give the client everything that they need to have a wonderful time and a great memory of their event.
Mark: Awesome. So there are some tips for you on making sure you get your guests singing, dancing and having a great time, what kind of music to choose. Thanks a lot Gary.
Gary: Ola, no it’s not Ola – o.k. see you later.