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DJ Articles - Everything you do affects the entire room

You've got a pretty important job. You've got to be on your toes, since everything you do affects the entire room. A bartender or waitress may only affect a few people at once, so if they spill a drink or screw up an order, not everyone will know. If your record or CD skips, everyone in the room will be yelling at you. That's a pretty heavy-duty responsibility. And as you probably have realized by now, shit does happen. You've just got to be ready to make the most of it.

Much of dealing with those unavoidable problem situations, like a skipping song or a clipped amplifier, comes with experience. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to deal with these situations the first time they happened to me. I usually thought about what happened later that night, and figured out how I should have handled it. How could I put a spin on these mistakes to make them look like they were part of my show?

Simple. When a CD or record skipped, I always had the next song cued up. While the song was still skipping, I would announce that this was the new Puff Daddy remix. I'd then roll my next song, and everyone would laugh about it.

If an amplifier clipped or overheated, which happened a lot when I worked those cheap cheesy clubs for that DJ service, I'd turn up the lights and make it look like I turned the music down to put on a contest or a drink special. After the first time that happened, I had a meeting with my manager and cleared an emergency drink special or contest in case of such a situation. This way my manager was aware that his equipment sucks and also that I'm not an idiot.

Another thing you should never do is stop and correct yourself after saying something you realize is inaccurate. Unless it's something material, such as a date of a promotion, the price of a drink special, or something that everyone else would obviously know, just let it disappear. More people will realize you screwed up if you stop and correct yourself.

Just knowing these easy remedies for the above situations has already given you a big edge in the DJ industry! Practice these, and think about strange things that have happened to you. What could you have done to make the incident look like it was part of your show? Try to be prepared for anything. As you gain more and more experience, you'll learn even more of these secrets.

- Chuck Fresh - Chuckfresh@aol.com

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