By Shayn Satten, “Teen Entertainment Specialist”
As DJs, we have all had experiences where nothing seemed to go right before, during, or after an event. Here’s my tale of one long and rainy night not too long ago when nothing seemed to go right…
A Bad Start
My DJ, Emcee, and Dancer got into a minor accident leaving a gas station on their way to the Sweet 16 party. I rushed to the gig to ensure that everything would be okay.
On my way, the mother of the celebrant called me from the hall, panicked that none of us was there. Finally, we all arrived at the event safely, and only 20 minutes later than we initially planned.
So the setup began, which included around the room uplighting, and lasers in front the dance floor lighting moving heads. Then all of a sudden, our dancer comes to me with a startling realization – he left his dress pants in the dryer.
Dealing with the Unexpected
Well, I took a minute to think the situation over. There wasn’t time to run out and buy new pants, and his home was too far away to drive there and back. Then a solution occurred to me. I turned to the DJ and asked, “Don’t you have a Mickey Mouse costume in the truck from the event you did earlier today?” He did, and thankfully from there, the night increasingly got better.
The celebrant, and his family and guests were ecstatic with this surprise guest appearance, and our dancer transformed him from regular Mickey to Mickey, the back-flipping mouse. The kids loved it and wouldn’t leave the dance floor, not even to eat. In fact, the Mom almost made us play Sinatra in the hopes that the kids would stop dancing for a moment just long enough to ensure the food was not wasted.
Very quickly, the dinner period ended and in a flash we had them all back up on the dance floor! Everything was going extremely well and we had our fingers crossed for a clear path to dessert and ending the gig.
Then, as if our day had not been difficult enough, Tragedy struck.
The father of our Sweet 16 girl must have been over exerting himself and paramedics needed to be called to the banquet hall.
From DJ to DJ Superhero
In an all-out effort to ensure the celebrant’s special day would not be ruined, we brought her up to the dance floor and focused everyone’s attention on her. To my surprise and delight, we were successful in doing so.
After the event, we found out that the dad had refused to go to the hospital, and instead the paramedics took him home to rest. The mother was so happy and so impressed by our performance, that she gave each of us a 25% tip and hugged us all individually. Everyone went home happy.
To top it off, she called me the following Monday asking the proper spelling of each of our names so she could write an excellent testimonial and highlight each one of us individually. She then talked to me for another ten to fifteen minutes, raving about how great everything was!
The Moral of the Story
Do everything humanly possible to keep an event running smoothly, no matter what happens. With a positive attitude, some creative thinking, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to please a client, you could be a DJ Superhero that takes the villains of stress, mistakes, and tragedy head-on, and winds up saving the day!
