Mix alcohol with someone’s favorite song, and you never know what might happen. Karaoke disc jockey Eddie Topple wound up with a broken face.
The place was Carey’s Irish Pub on Bluemound Road. A patron was crooning a heartfelt version of “Mr. Roboto” and a heckler started screaming profanities. While trying to mediate, Topple was sucker-punched, breaking his eye socket and cheekbone.
“I tell you,” Topple says, “I choose my venues more carefully after getting hit.”
And there are many from which to choose. According to a 2005 BMI report, karaoke has become a $10 billion industry worldwide. John Seymour, an engineer who hosts karaoke at Bootleggers Bar & Grill in Downtown Milwaukee, estimates there are some 50 karaoke venues in the area.
Why the boom? “Karaoke machines are cheap now. You can buy a small box for $100 for your home or rent one for a party,” Seymour says. “Also, there’s a new generation of singers. With the older crowd, it’s solo singers. With the kids, they sing in groups. It’s a bonding experience.”
But not always in a pleasant way. Bamboo Bob’s Beach Club used to have the nastiest karaoke crowd in town. But having closed in 2004, that distinction probably goes to another Downtown bar, the New Yorker. Survivors of tough crowds also recall The Post in Bay View or places in the boonies where patrons are suspicious of outsiders.
“At a bar like the New Yorker, where the crowd is very serious, you have to be careful about the song you select,” says Rebecca Berkshire, a roller derby star and hair stylist. “The regulars have songs they prepare and you can’t be singing from their arsenal.”
In his eight years as an emcee at almost every karaoke venue in town, Rockin’ Roy Stewart has been punched, pushed, had beer spilled over his head and a cue ball thrown at him. “A lot of singers just have to have their fix. They’re addicts,” he says. “They explode if they think the emcee skipped their turn. My job is to get them to mellow out and realize we’re all here just to sing, but it doesn’t always work.”
Consider yourself warned.
