Beyond the DJ Booth
Brian B and Joe Bunn tackle questions about the private event DJ industry, share music, gear/gadgets, and stories from their gigs.
Beyond the DJ Booth
Ep. 9: Dance Floor Bans and DJ Exit Plans
Ever wondered why some words just make your skin crawl? That's exactly where we kick off this episode of Beyond the DJ Booth. Joe's got a beef with the word "slaw," and Brian can't decide whether being called "bud" is a friendly pat on the back or a subtle dig. But that's just the appetizer. Once we've had our fun with cringe-worthy vocabulary, we hit the dance floor to tackle the age-old debate: Should kids rule the roost at weddings? Joe spills the beans on a recent gig where tiny tots turned the dance floor into their playground. We mull over ideas to keep the peace and the party going, like crafty kids' corners or fun movie nights to keep the little ones entertained and give the grown-ups a chance to groove.
Parenting and partying are a tough mix, and bringing kids to weddings can be a whole circus act of worries and stress. With a hefty dose of humor, we unpack the trials and tribulations parents face, sharing stories like the inventive family who packed a blow-up mattress for their kiddos—talk about commitment! And just when you think we've covered it all, we dive into the DJ's domain, discussing how to fend off those overly ambitious music critics among the guests. With anecdotes and tips galore, this episode is all about making wedding receptions a blast for everyone, from the toddlers to the grandparents. Tune in and discover how to keep your wedding events harmonious, fun, and unforgettable!
RESOURCES & LINKS
Our website. Please leave a review! - https://www.beyondthedjbooth.com/
To book Joe Bunn: https://bunndjcompany.com/
To book Brian B: https://djbrianbofficial.com/
Joe’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djjoebunn
Brian’s Gear Finds on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/djbrianbofficial
DJ Event Planner free demo: https://www.djeventplanner.com/signup.php
Brian B's Coaching Options: Https://www.thdjscreativeedge.com
what's up everybody? Welcome back to beyond the DJ Booth. It's Joe Bunn, brian B. We're here, we're back, we're doing it, pre-recording, batch content making. I think it's okay.
Brian B:Well in the continued effort to learn more about Joe Bunn.
Joe Bunn:When do I switch it and make it the Brian B learning experience?
Brian B:Eventually Soon when I have to come up with the.
Joe Bunn:What are these called? Show openers?
Brian B:Yeah, okay, a little icebreaker if you will, icebreaker. Okay, what is the most cringe word for you?
Joe Bunn:Slaw, slaw yeah.
Brian B:Use it in a sentence. What does?
Joe Bunn:that even you know what slaw is Like the food Cabbage.
Brian B:Yeah, what's bad about?
Joe Bunn:it Gross and I don't really like slaw. I only like it on barbecue sandwiches, okay, and it has to be basically like from Smithfield Chicken and Barbecue. Oh, so it's kind of sweet slaw, finely chopped cabbage. Okay, but just the word like, when she's like I'll go, let me get the value pack you know with the sandwich, and then she's like you want slaw on that.
Brian B:And I'm just like I do, but I don't want to say it. That's so good. Do you have one? The thing that came to mind was bud, hey, bud, oh yeah, hey, buddy. Like it feels so condescending. It's passive aggressive.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, it's like it is passive, aggressive, but it's not. We were talking about this the other day. The guy at the convenience store, let's just say he's Middle Eastern, I don't know, it could be or Indian.
Brian B:I'm sorry for anybody no.
Joe Bunn:I mean you had, I mean it's, but it's. Those guys are genuinely when it comes off their tongue. Is what I'm saying? Oh, I'm saying it's genuine. Yeah, I can't do this. I see what you mean.
Brian B:No, no no, I see what you mean. I trust you. I trust you Okay, but do you ever?
Joe Bunn:use it. I call my son that hey bud, that's what my dad called me. No, not bud Buddy. Buddy, my dad would be like hey, buddy, it's your dad, or whatever, and it sounds very, it was very genuine.
Brian B:My dad yeah.
Joe Bunn:So I ironically, even when I context In delivery, the guy at the convenience store with the accent sounds very genuine and I'm like I'm doing good buddy, how you doing. But if it's some asshole finance bro with like a Patagonia vest and a button-up shirt hits me at the coffee shop at 7.15 with a buddy, it's passive aggressive Totally. He's looking down on me. He wants to know why I'm still djing.
Brian B:Yeah you know we went to carolina together. Totally yeah, I'll punch him in the face, yeah fuck you bud can we? Even curse on here. I think so okay I think you don't mark the content.
Joe Bunn:All right, whatever yeah, maybe on youtube. I don't think I've been doing that. Anyway, carry on.
Brian B:So you had gigs this weekend.
Joe Bunn:I did.
Brian B:Any gig story stand out man.
Joe Bunn:I'm just going to say this again. I said it years ago. This was before Instagram, when Facebook was like the king and I made a post about bringing children to a wedding and it went so sideways on me that I had to delete the post. Somebody called me a sexist and this baby hater. This, that and the other. Listen, man, I'll start it by saying this.
Joe Bunn:The bride had a daughter. Let's say she was five or six years old, right? By all means? Do I believe that that little girl had every right to be there, to be in the ceremony I think she was one of the flower girls To maybe even hang out, eat dinner and maybe dance a little bit, right? But once it crosses over to like Waka Flocka, like, I even got on the mic, did I not say this? I said it's time to put the kids to bed, kind of like a subtle hint, because they had been there so long. Passive, aggressive, very passive, aggressive. It was just aggressive. People were circled around them. They don't want to, you know, start to approach the DJ booth because all the kids are doing their circle thing, their little, you know little jigs.
Brian B:So how many other kids were there? Six, how many guests?
Joe Bunn:140. So six or seven under the age of 10.
Brian B:And they're dominating the dance floor 100%.
Joe Bunn:It was genuinely affecting the vibe and the comfort level of the other adult guests to approach the dance floor and get on it. They felt like they had to stand around them and watch them and, kind of you know, imitate them and cheer them on and it hurt the dance floor man.
Joe Bunn:There's no part of me that says she should not have been there, or her cousins or let's assume those were other family members, sure, brothers, sisters that had little kids, sure, but there's a certain point, man, where it has to turn the corner and they need to go. They could have set up. This place was in a gorgeous venue. We've never been there. It was a glass restaurant in Durham, Super cool. You should take your wife there. It's called the Glass House Kitchen. I've never been. He had never been.
Joe Bunn:Nobody from a company has ever been, maybe two years old. It was kind of a little campus, other businesses, laboratories and stuff, these super modern buildings, but they had a whole glass conference room upstairs. They could have put on Barney or whatever the hell kids watch, have a popcorn machine, maybe a balloon maker, face painting, something for these kids. Yeah, that they would have enjoyed even more than wrecking the dance floor. Put up two college girls up there, or two college kids up there. They would have looked after them, entertained them for two hours from nine to 11. There's just no way they wouldn't have had more fun doing that. I don't know, am I being an asshole?
Brian B:We have that a lot in the Florida market that we have an office in because it's destination, so everybody's bringing their families.
Joe Bunn:Right.
Brian B:Did it ever turn the corner?
Joe Bunn:It did. Yeah, I mean we had a good time in the corner, but I mean it definitely affected the starting point. They kind of came and went a few times yeah, so then it kind, of you know, broke it up a few other times the worst is when the kid is coming up requesting a song. Oh, no, shout out to those kids. They would dance to whatever I was playing, which was the bride's 60 song request list. They never tried to deviate, they never asked for anything crazy. They didn't ask for anything, they just danced.
Brian B:The worst, though, is when they go back to their parents and say hey right, baby shark right. And then they come up to the parents like hey, can you play this for my kid, then you feel like a complete man if you don't play it. You know what I mean. You're cooked at that point. Yeah, you're a jukebox, the worst that did not happen.
Joe Bunn:So I just I don't know, man. I know this is probably going to come off the wrong way, but I'm not a big fan of kids at weddings, and I guess the last part. As a parent myself, the only time that I ever took a kid to a wedding was when I wanted to leave early. I knew I didn't want to be there in the first place, so I took the kid as an ejection seat. I knew I could pinch him or something and make him cry and then I could get out of the wedding.
Joe Bunn:Right, there's just no part of you that's going to take a child to a wedding again, no matter what age, to where. You're not going to have one eye on them the whole time or worry that they're going to stick their finger in the cake or, you know, run off or something like that. You're just not going to have a good time yourself, right, and you deserve to have a good time, right, totally, you've got your wife or your girlfriend You're going paid for. Basically, if you want to have a good time, you're just not going to with that level of responsibility.
Brian B:You ever try to hit this off at the pass and bring it up when you see the demographics on your planning calls you ever address it?
Joe Bunn:You know, I think it goes back to you and I you know, when we talk about these planning calls, I think mine just aren't as in-depth as yours. I think, if I really knew, it was a heavy kid you know, if you knew this one, would you have mentioned it? I would have said, hey, here's a suggestion, and I would have brought up this conference room movie night. Yeah, yeah, I would have, and not felt bad about it as a parent myself. It's not like I'm speaking, you know, out of turn, or something.
Joe Bunn:I know what it's like to be a parent and I have to be responsible for a kid at a wedding. Hey, you know, these parents are gonna have a lot more fun and this dance floor is gonna be a lot more your friends and family. Let them dance a little bit, let them open the floor, but like then be like hey guys, we got, you know, pjs and movie night and pop. I mean I can think of all kinds of cool stuff you could do, for it's two hours. Yeah, it's two hours. That I need, you know, the dance floor I'll never forget.
Brian B:I had one where there was a kid and you could tell this couple who had they had like three or four kids yeah, yeah, they were making the circuit and so what you mean making the circuit of like going to weddings with all of their friends and bringing in their kids.
Brian B:Oh, because this is how I knew, like towards the end of the night, I'm hearing this like machine. I'm like what is going on like is this? Like whatever? And I'm looking and they've literally brought a blow-up mattress that they're putting in the corner of the room I'm.
Joe Bunn:come on, bro, I'm not joking.
Brian B:They have all three kids sleeping on the mattress and I felt a little deflated. I'm like, hey, my music isn't good enough that you can't sleep Right, right All of it, but I'm kind of glad they are sleeping at the same point, right, right, but you're talking about the music's bumping and everything.
Joe Bunn:These little kids are just s mattress.
Brian B:The fact that they brought the mattress.
Joe Bunn:Yes, I'm like this is a thing. Yeah, no, man, you got to get a sitter, man, you know, I mean, you know, your, your daughter's what? Two, now four? Yeah, went quick, that went quick. Yeah, oh yeah, and he is four. But also think about, like, how many things you brought her to that are fine, right, come over to joe's house to watch football. Yeah, no problem, there's 10 other adults. Right, right, she can run, run around, she can have a good time. But if you're going out for a dinner, an anniversary, a birthday, you don't want a child there. Whether they're on their best behavior, they're on their iPad, they're doing whatever, it's still a level of responsibility. You've got to take your drinking down. You've got to keep an eye on her, you know, is she happy, is she hungry? Like how long is she going to last? Whereas everything else is so much more relaxing. If you just get a sitter, I don't know, man, anyway, that's what happened.
Brian B:I don't know Do we even want to go into yours. I got one more. Well, you're good, I just want to. I got a question.
Joe Bunn:Okay, Snake Juan, by the way. Snake Juan on the board and now has a that's a microphone. Go on, so it's for both of you.
Brian B:How do you deal with somebody trying to tell you to move on from a song?
Joe Bunn:Yeah, you saw that a couple times. There was this thing of wrap it up or a cut. It was the same guy twice got me with a. He either did that motion where he older guy, no, no, a 30 year old Family member Don't know Non-VIP Guest, wedding guest, love those.
Joe Bunn:And I was ripping through it. It was a minute and a half into the song and I was on to the next one, so all he had to wait was another 30 seconds or whatever. I don't care. If it would have been a hot girl, I don't care who it was, I stone face you. And then I let it play another at least 32 bars. I let it play even longer than I was going to. So he intentionally knows he doesn't have that power over me, because if he thinks he has, that power then he's going to do it all night.
Joe Bunn:So he did it once or twice, and then once I stone-faced him and then let it ride even longer. We never saw it again.
Brian B:Am I right? Yeah, what about you? I kind of go passive-aggressive and when they do the wrap up I'm like, oh yeah, I got you, don't?
Joe Bunn:change it? Yeah, me neither. That's what I'm saying, because then they own you. Yeah, no, yeah, same same answer, basically, but he's doing.
Brian B:He's doing the big smile, thumbs up, I'm doing the stone face nasty but the thing was, is like it used to really bother me years ago, like it still irks me. I mean, I'm it's not gonna ruin my night, but it bothers me but I think me being passive, aggressive and being like yeah, yeah, I got you, I'm listening, like I'm doing that for my own benefit too so I don't get rattled.
Joe Bunn:Same, you know what I mean. The stone face is the same. It's the same reaction, just a different facial expression.
Brian B:Yeah, oh, that's classic. Good question, there's a great question actually Speaking of questions. What a great segue. Okay, we got one today. We got one this is great.
Joe Bunn:Yeah, chris Ortlieb from Powell, ohio. Chris Powell Couldn't tell you what is your exit strategy. I'm 46 and I'm considered selling my LLC and concentrating on something else. I still love DJing but won't be able to do it forever. First I got to retort. Can I retort Retort?
Joe Bunn:It's not like the NFL, like you know, like Tom Brady was an old man at 40 or whatever he quit at. I mean I'm not saying forever, forever, but like Randy is we just celebrated his 60th birthday in Vegas does 110 shows a year. Like he's taking care of himself, he's in good shape, he's in high demand. I mean, I'm not saying you could do it forever, but you can certainly scale your business to where all you have to do is be the agent you know for these other DJs, start hiring, you know, 25 and 30 year olds instead of 60 year olds or whatever. Again, randy was probably in his thirties when we started working together.
Joe Bunn:But you know, I don't want you to think that there's like a some sort of a rip cord and and this magic age where you have to get out of DJing. If you love it, keep doing it, and people are still requesting you and you're in demand and you're keeping up with the trends, whether it's your clothes or your music or whatever your gear. I mean, keep on doing it. But I guess this is always going to be my point and my message to everybody that owns a DJ company that the more people you have working under you is truly your legacy and your longevity, because I know that I'll still be 70 or 80 years old running some sort of a DJ company.
Joe Bunn:Am I going to be out there doing shows? No, probably not. But I don't have this age Originally I thought it was at 50, but why? I still love doing it, never dread putting on that suit. On Saturday I go out and play the party, have a great time and make some good money and then have all my other DJs out playing as well and eventually in the future it's just them out there and I'm just booking the shows or sitting on the beach, whatever it is. I don't have an exit strategy, I guess sorry, I never really got to the end of the question. I really don't have this exit strategy. I don't know that Bunn DJ Company, and not just because it's named after Joe Bunn is sellable without Joe Bunn part of it.
Brian B:Selling a DJ company, I think, is a tough thing in general. Anyways, it's very niche. It's not like you're, you know, selling a fast food restaurant or you know something that's got name recognition or tons of assets right.
Brian B:To sell your company for something that you can live off of, you're going to have to have scaled it pretty significantly to be able to do it. I don't know if this person's a single op, but that makes it even harder. So to your point, I mean, I agree with you. I'm in my forties at this point and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I love it, but I've also, I think, just like an athlete, you kind of have to adjust your rhythms and the different things. Like I can't work as many shows as I used to, and it not affect me. Can I still do a triple? Absolutely. Will I be wrecked on Monday? Absolutely.
Joe Bunn:I'll be tired, right.
Brian B:But you know you adjust. It's kind of like you know, I think of like the great athletes out there their game changed. They could still be super effective, but they had to change the way they did things To your point, staying up on trends, whether that's clothing, all of that, and if you really do love it, like that's the other thing, you can't fake passion. And when I get out there and and I see that I'm affecting it in a positive manner, like that could keep me going for years and years Till the point where it's like, oh, this guy's playing all the old stuff and like nothing current, Then you know, at that point I can probably see the writing on the wall and you kind of probably know, I think so I don't know.
Joe Bunn:I'm always a fan of having multiple revenue streams in general, so I don't think want to walk away. Hopefully you've got some other things you can kind of get into. That would be my other suggestion. I agree, I think you can do this for as long as you want, but I would have other sources of income Again, whether it's Amazon store or affiliate links or content creation of some sort. I definitely think there needs to be other revenue streams, but man, I don't know, 46 still seems like a young man.
Joe Bunn:I don't know. The exit strategy for me is not probably the same as other people. I just don't feel like I need to quit doing this. Do you transition in roles, from becoming the entertainer to the owner? Sure Right, but I still think you can run a DJ company until you're no longer on this earth. You know what I mean. I really do Good question, shout out Chris Ortlieb in Powell, ohio. I hope everybody enjoyed this episode. Where can they find us? Brian B, if?
Brian B:they're listening. Website's the best place to look.
Joe Bunn:You're right by the way, we need reviews too, don't we?
Brian B:Yeah, isn't that what we need? And some comments, yeah comments, reviews.
Joe Bunn:Let us know you're watching when we post the links. Please keep doing these things to make sure that you guys are listening and loving it. So again, beyond the DJ boothcom, you can see the video version at YouTube on my channel and um that's it.
Brian B:It's a wrap on this one. See you on the next one.
Joe Bunn:Thanks y'all you.