How Hil Got Hooked on Karaoke--Pt. I

If anyone had asked me about six years ago if I wanted to try karaoke, I might have said, "Thanks, but no thanks." I wasn't much for the bar scene ... or the bad singing scene, really. I thought of karaoke as a hobby for either (a) Japanese businessmen, (b) drunken losers, or (c) drunken Japanese businessmen losers. Therefore, being neither drunken, nor Japanese, nor a businessman (we won't talk about the loser part), I didn't think it was for me.

In 1998, one of my best friends was visiting for the wedding of a mutual friend. She had recently been in a relationship with a KJ, and had become hooked on karaoke. Knowing how much I loved to sing for a crowd (I did musicals and talent shows in high school), she insisted we find a local place for me to try it out. There happened to be a little hole-in-the-wall less than a mile from my house that was holding a karaoke night the night after the wedding. We decided that was perfect, because we could drink and just walk home.

We walked in a little before 9 p.m., a few minutes before the show was supposed to start. We found an empty table, and sat down with a couple of drinks. The place was pretty small, with a little kitchen in the back where they fried up great burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, and several other artery-hardening specials, most all quite tasty.

There were only a few people there at this point: the KJ, a portly, older gentleman, who was still setting up his equipment; a gorgeous female bartender; an attractive, smiling barback with sparkling blue eyes, who spent the evening batting those eyes at my friend and giving us free Pepsi to get her attention; and various glassy-eyed patrons leaning on the bar with their beers, looking as if they had been there for about three weeks without moving (they probably had). Old beer cases lined one wall, and neon beer signs were on all the others. There was a big-screen TV in one corner, and two pool tables at the far end of the room.

A few minutes after 9 p.m., the KJ announced the start of the show. He started to sing one himself, while we looked through his song book. He had a huge selection of songs, so we had no trouble finding a few songs to put in. The KJ had hooked up his system to the big-screen, so we could sing along as others sang, which was loads of fun. I still wasn't sure if this was the thing for me, but it was certainly different.

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