Here in the Cleveland area we have open mic night everywhere. BUT... most of them really stink. You know "that guy" who says "All my friends tell me I am a good singer"? That's who comes to most of the open mic nights. I have always wanted to walk up to one of those people and tell them "Whatever you do, hang on to those friends!"

Now, there is one guy here, named Brent, who used to hold a Wednesday night even that was a songwriter showcase. 3 songs per artist in 20 minute time slots. Copy songs were prohibited. There was a stretch of about 14-16 weeks in a row that I attended, performed 3 times. Then it got clique-ish and Brent's friends got the prime time slots every week and a couple of them rotated the same 5 songs in and out so it got boring and I quit going. I don't know if he will start that up again when the Covid dust blows away.

Karaoke I will not even attend. The only time I ever went to Karaoke night was when the Motown band was very new and we were looking for exposure. All 5 of us would go, in our black satin band jackets, and we would sing to either the DJs tracks or a CD I made of us playing at rehearsal with no vocals. The guitar player we had then didn't sing, but for "show of force" reasons we stood him at a dead mic so it looked like he was singing. We got a fair amount of work from that. That place had us in alternating Saturdays for a while and then when summer came and the outside patio bar was open we played EVERY Saturday afternoon at 2. And the bar across the river heard us and came over, which ended up with us playing there every SUNDAY afternoon! That was when we were playing a ridiculous amount. We did 320 dates that year by virtue of playing those doubleheaders 3 times a week. Those were the days! Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri x2, Sat x2, Sun x2. From mid May to mid October. No more!