I was hoping someone would have some advice for me. I’ve been a novice DJ for more than 15 years and recently decided to take my love for music and Djing to the next level and started my own DJ business. I’ve done a lot of parties for family and friends over the last 15 years and I never had an experience like the one I had last night.
I’ve done about 10 paying Gigs over the last few months and everything went very well at all of them. I’ve done two weddings an anniversary party and seven birthday parties. And last night happened! It was horrible.
I got a lead from a friend of mine a few months ago. Two of his friends were having a 12th birthday party for their daughters and they needed a DJ. They were low on cash and the Gig was only three hours long so I agreed to do it cheap. They were getting quotes between $400 and $500. Since they were friends of my good friend and the hall was 1.5 miles from my house, I told them I would do it for $150. Since I usually get about $100 per hour, they were paying half price.
Well here’s what happened. I have a detailed questionnaire which asks the client for very specific information such as song requests, special announcements, how much DJ interaction they would like, if they would like any games played or props, ect. I sent it to them and asked them to complete it several times but they never did. I didn’t want to be pushy so I stopped asking them for it. They sent me a list of about 75 songs they wanted and said they just wanted it to be like a school dance. So I stopped asking for the questionnaire. I got there, set up and started playing the music. After about 35 minutes one of the parents started telling me to start playing different music (keep in mind this is the music they requested). So I changed things up a bit to make her happy, although all the kids were dancing anyhow. It seemed as if anytime a few of the kids stopped dancing she would tell me to “say something to pump of the crowd and keep them dancing”. I’m not a huge interactive DJ, but I was making announcements through the night like “ Is every body having a good time?” and “put your hands together for so and so’s B-day”. She must have told me to talk to the crowd like 15 times and I was running out of things to say! What do most DJ’s do or say to pump up the crowd? In this situation I think the party didn’t need me to say much, most of the night the floor was full, but at some points they dwindled down to maybe 20 or so people (there was 56 kids at the party).
Also out of nowhere she said “Do you do Limbo”? I said yes but I don’t have a bamboo stick with me. She was pissed and found a broom and we played limbo. She then said what other games can we play? I told her I wish she would have completed the questionnaire so I would have been prepared for this. But I played the Freeze Dance game and then musical chairs. She also came over a few times and told me to stop playing a song right in the middle of it. She didn’t want me to find a good place to transition into another song, she just wanted me to stop it and move to the next song. It was horrible.
How do DJ’s deal with people like this? What could I have done to avoid this? How should I have handled her?(because I feel like I lost control of the party). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
:trisad:
I’ve done about 10 paying Gigs over the last few months and everything went very well at all of them. I’ve done two weddings an anniversary party and seven birthday parties. And last night happened! It was horrible.
I got a lead from a friend of mine a few months ago. Two of his friends were having a 12th birthday party for their daughters and they needed a DJ. They were low on cash and the Gig was only three hours long so I agreed to do it cheap. They were getting quotes between $400 and $500. Since they were friends of my good friend and the hall was 1.5 miles from my house, I told them I would do it for $150. Since I usually get about $100 per hour, they were paying half price.
Well here’s what happened. I have a detailed questionnaire which asks the client for very specific information such as song requests, special announcements, how much DJ interaction they would like, if they would like any games played or props, ect. I sent it to them and asked them to complete it several times but they never did. I didn’t want to be pushy so I stopped asking them for it. They sent me a list of about 75 songs they wanted and said they just wanted it to be like a school dance. So I stopped asking for the questionnaire. I got there, set up and started playing the music. After about 35 minutes one of the parents started telling me to start playing different music (keep in mind this is the music they requested). So I changed things up a bit to make her happy, although all the kids were dancing anyhow. It seemed as if anytime a few of the kids stopped dancing she would tell me to “say something to pump of the crowd and keep them dancing”. I’m not a huge interactive DJ, but I was making announcements through the night like “ Is every body having a good time?” and “put your hands together for so and so’s B-day”. She must have told me to talk to the crowd like 15 times and I was running out of things to say! What do most DJ’s do or say to pump up the crowd? In this situation I think the party didn’t need me to say much, most of the night the floor was full, but at some points they dwindled down to maybe 20 or so people (there was 56 kids at the party).
Also out of nowhere she said “Do you do Limbo”? I said yes but I don’t have a bamboo stick with me. She was pissed and found a broom and we played limbo. She then said what other games can we play? I told her I wish she would have completed the questionnaire so I would have been prepared for this. But I played the Freeze Dance game and then musical chairs. She also came over a few times and told me to stop playing a song right in the middle of it. She didn’t want me to find a good place to transition into another song, she just wanted me to stop it and move to the next song. It was horrible.
How do DJ’s deal with people like this? What could I have done to avoid this? How should I have handled her?(because I feel like I lost control of the party). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
:trisad:
