As a comedian, I often do shows that are either preceded or followed by karaoke. (Luckily, I have yet to do one that runs concurrently to karaoke singing, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to be asked to do so.) One thing I’ve never understood is why a bar crowd will sit and politely listen to patrons butcher songs in ways that make their ears bleed. They then applaud, as if doing so is some sort of an accomplishment, though every one of us does the same thing every day in our cars. Or is that just me?
Then, when the comedy show is on, these same persons who listened politely and applauded no matter how awful the performance they just saw happened to be, decide now is the time to shout at one another, hold conversations at decibel levels that approach those generated by a jet engine, and yell at the performers. Here is a sample of the karaoke that was held before and after the comedy show I did last night:
That woman got applause. The comedians? We got heckled and drowned out by the “audience” relentlessly from about 10 seconds into the first comic hitting the stage. If I were in academia, I would do a study on the psychology of karaoke crowds vs. comedy crowds, and why the former seems to never become the latter. But since I am not, I’ll just say this- if you’re at a bar to have fun during karaoke and a comedy show starts, just sit there and listen. You might have a good time, and even if you don’t, it’ll be over before too long and you can go back to warbling.
