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 events.
Beyond the DJ Booth
S2, Ep.5: NYC Lingo, DJ Insurance Tips, and Interactive DJ Trends
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Are you ready to navigate the world of private event DJs with a dash of humor and a touch of New York City flair? Join us as Joe navigates post-surgery recovery while Brian B challenges him with a New York City vernacular quiz. From iconic street pronunciations to the labyrinth of NYC abbreviations, you'll get a taste of Joe's southern assimilation and a light-hearted connection to New York culture. Meanwhile, we tackle the importance of individual DJ insurance, a shift from the traditional umbrella policy, ensuring you're adequately covered when event season starts.
We don't just stop at local lingo and insurance; we're also dishing out advice on evolving "interactive" DJ trends. The wedding scene is changing, and so must we, as we debate the decline of traditional activities like bouquet tosses and the shift towards more personalized and interactive DJ roles. Honesty, integrity, and staying true to your skillset are our guiding stars here. So, whether you're a DJ looking to hone your skills or just in it for the laughs, don't miss this episode - your ears and eyes (if you're watching the YouTube version) will thank you!
If you're a true Booth Head (super fan of the pod), join our Patreon for all the extras and one-off goodies. You can get there by going to: patreon.com/BeyondTheDJBoothPodcast
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 is up everybody? Welcome back to beyond the DJ Booth, Season 2, Episode 5. It's been a minute, bro.
Speaker 2It has been.
Speaker 1We're the Batch Kings.
Speaker 2We are the Batch Kings. Let's talk about what this podcast is for First of all welcome.
Speaker 1If you've never listened. My name is Joe Bunn. Terrible intro. We're rusty, we're a little rusty. My name is Joe Bunn. That's Brian B. This is the podcast for private event DJs. I guess, yeah, the people that are out there rocking the corporate events weddings, birthday parties, mitzvahs, quinceañeras.
Speaker 2We're in January, I don't think there's a lot of people rocking shows unless you're in like Phoenix or Miami Florida, places like that, florida yeah of people rocking shows, unless you're in like phoenix or miami, places like that.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's okay. Anyway, yeah, um, so that's what it's for. And we talk about gear, we talk about shows we've done, we talk about music. We usually answer a question, so if you ever want to submit a question, just do that through the proper channels. I can't even talk, man. I got stitches in the side of my neck from a light skin cancer battle, so luckily you guys are not seeing my right side uh, but everything's okay everything's okay I'm gonna be just fine so anyway, welcome last episode.
Speaker 2Yes, I wouldn't say you threw me under the bus, but you were trying to with some like north carolina town talk I was I was.
Speaker 1I mean, I wasn't trying to throw you under the bus, I just wanted to see if you had assimilated into the Southern lifestyle. There we go.
Speaker 2For those that don't know, I lived in New York City for 11 years and that, I guess, puts me into the locals category of a New Yorker. When you get past the 10 year mark, that's what they say.
Speaker 1Okay, all right.
Speaker 2So I had to learn some New York speak and I thought you know what I'm going to test this guy's knowledge. Let's just see how well you are with this. I mean, you visited quite a few times, but I feel like this is going to put you on another level, because now you're going to feel like a local when you visit. You know what I mean. Okay, so I'm going to throw a couple of street names. This is a variety of different things, just New York talk. So let's go with the first one here Saquon.
Speaker 1Okay. So, by the way, we have the video version. If you're listening to this on the podcast, wherever you stream the podcast, we have the full video version on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 2So this street name for those that are just listening only is M-A-C-D-O-U-G-A-L Street. I'm going McDougal, that is correct. Thank you sir. Thank you A Thank you sir.
Speaker 1Thank you A lot of people say MacDougal, yeah, it's McDougal, yeah, mcdougal. I don't know why, I know that.
Speaker 2Okay, you're one for one, one for one. Let's go to number two here. So this is spelled G-R-E-E-N-W-I-C-H. How?
Speaker 1do you say this?
Speaker 2I think it's Greenwich. It is Green.
Speaker 1Man, two for two. New York is so iconic and it's been on so many TV shows. Yeah, I feel like that's the only reason I know these.
Speaker 2It's going to get tougher. I don't think it's so easy All right, let's go with this next one here L-A-F-A-Y-E-T-T-E.
Speaker 1Lafayette.
Speaker 2That's how the French say it, that's tough. It is a toughie. That's when you know you're a local, though it's when you get it like that. So you're two for three. Two for three, let's go. Let's go with the next one here. This is going to be tough. This is S-T-U-Y-V-E-S-A-N-T.
Speaker 1I know Bed-Stuy so I feel like it's Stuyvesant.
Speaker 2It is.
Speaker 1A lot of people say the only reason I know that is Bed-Stuy.
Speaker 2Let's switch it up from street names to just like food items here. So we'll start with an easy one. This is B-A-G-E-L Bagel. How do you say it, bagel? Yeah, you got to put a little attitude to it, bagel.
Speaker 1Let me get a bagel.
Speaker 2You can flip the bird All right. Let me get a little. All Coffee Coffee, you got to get a little coffee, not coffee.
Speaker 1All right, this is going to be an iconic one here.
Speaker 2Let's see if we get this. This is spelled G-Y-R-O.
Speaker 1Man this one is weird because I see people say gyro.
Speaker 2I see people say hero and I see people say like euro, okay, out of the three, I'm gonna go euro. Euro is the probably the most common okay, but there is also accepted in very new yorker neighborhoods gyro. Okay. So the second one heroes that fail okay, okay, fail, all right. So now let's go abbreviations here. This is the long island expressway. How would a new yorker say they're getting on the long island expressway? Lie, lie, the lie. You just spell it out, right, all right. Brooklyn's queens expressway. How do people say this? One bqe. The bqe nailed it. We got one more here.
Speaker 1So let's say you're taking a train yeah the one train how do you tell people is it train the same thing as a subway? It is?
Speaker 2it is yep. Is it above ground or below the ground? Both. Some of them are above, some of them are below, some of them are a combo. But if you're going to take the one train, how do you tell people you're going to take the one train? Just say the one, just say the one. You delete the word the train. Take the one.
Speaker 1Take the E.
Speaker 2And where am I going? Uptown is going. It could be either or.
Speaker 1Okay, well done. I did pretty good, dude. That was TV help, tv and movies. I think yeah, all right.
Speaker 2Well, I feel like now you know I'm not going to be as embarrassed as I thought I was going to be bringing you along if we go out that way, when do I have to go back up there?
Speaker 1I don and went over to the city.
Speaker 2Well, I got you some gear finds, some things I've bought in the last little bit that I thought I'd share with you. Okay, so another power bank, different style here. Okay, this is by Anker.
Speaker 1You haven't even taken the label off.
Speaker 2Have I not? Yeah, I probably should.
Speaker 1That's very satisfying when you peel those.
Speaker 2I don't like to get it scratched up, though I kind of enough.
Speaker 2but this one I like because a it's got a handle, yes, but is also, you see that it's got the cable right there too, so you just do a little usbc, but it's also got another one another usbc in here, okay, and on the sides it's got an a and a c so you can do three c's and an a all through the same one and it it's the super fast one, so you can power up your computer in 25 minutes. If you want to hit the button, it'll show you the display, not turn it over. There it is, so it's showing you 100%. It's heavy enough, but not crazy heavy.
Speaker 1You think this will power a laptop?
Speaker 2Oh, it definitely does, because I used it for that already. Really yeah.
Speaker 1MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.
Speaker 2I don't know about the Pro, but an Air I mean they're an M2. I have an M2 one, so it should do it for a Pro. But the fact that it shows you, kind of like, what you have left on this to charge and also how far your other ones or devices are coming on, you just literally just push that little cable into it, that's all good $ 100 bucks for this piece and I'll link it in our thing below.
Speaker 1How do you find this stuff?
Speaker 2we're helping y'all find it through brian's banking. How do you find targeted on ads? Or just me looking for stuff? I was actually looking for one that was a supercharge and I have so many more usbc things that I didn't need the a as much and so I was like well, hey, I need to find something. I looked it up and this one was rated really well and so far it's held up. So and I like the fact that's got the handle you know what I mean.
Speaker 1It's kind of anchor makes good shit they do anchor makes good shit all right, one more.
Speaker 2Yeah, you ready this bad boy. This is a tiktok shop. Okay, situation which is possibly going away, I guess tomorrow is it tomorrow, two days? What that is? This is to pump up your car tire no way I've seen that.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I haven't. Mine is small, but it isn't that small isn't this crazy. Yeah, mine is not nearly like.
Speaker 2Mine is still like a little pump yeah, so it charges usbc on the back so if it were ever to run out. I mean, you're not using it that much.
Speaker 1No right, it should be good for a while, it's normally here, when it gets cold that first day, your tires go down. Yeah, and then I get that warning on the dash that I've got low pressure on my tire.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you just hit this power button here and it will basically tell you the PSI that you want it to charge to.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2You hook this thing in, yeah, and it starts doing it Damn Pretty good, it tells you the battery With the flashlight. With the flashlight, if you're in the dark, you can kind of see this thing, so check it out.
Speaker 1I mean it's pretty, you're going to die when you see this price Shit, I'm going to order one, I guess the only if I had to say the only negative to this.
Speaker 2Here's the price, just so you can see that I'm telling the truth here $42? $42. I feel like every DJ needs to have this in their car. Here's the only thing.
Speaker 1I can say in the car Right, I go out my tire's flat, I go to grab this. It's dead, it charges very fast Okay.
Speaker 2That's the only, thing, yeah.
Speaker 1Mine is like a little pump. It's small.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1And it goes into what used to be called the cigarette lighter.
Speaker 2Right, whatever that's called now Right.
Speaker 1So mine is ready to go at all times.
DJ Equipment and Insurance Discussion
Speaker 2According to the website, you, if you had a long enough cable, it could literally charge in your car and work at the same time. But I just feel like this is a good little thing to have in your car. You never know when this could come in handy yeah especially if you're headed to a gig.
Speaker 2All of a sudden you get a flat tire. You don't have time to wait for triple a. You don't know how to change a tire in your spare. You can at least get there with this bad boy I dig it all right, super dope.
Speaker 1well, I need one, you're right, right For $40.
Speaker 2Right, speaking of emergencies. Oh man, great transition You're getting good.
Speaker 1If you're having trouble keeping up with your leads or your follow-up sequences, guess what you should be using.
Speaker 2I think I know where you're going with this Go on DJ Event Planner.
Speaker 1DJ Event Planner, our first official sponsor, yeah, so shout out to Troy and his team over at DJ Event Planner no bullshit. Brian B and myself, totally. I don't even I've been on it for.
Speaker 2How long? I'm curious. I can tell you how long mine has been. You can, I can. I know exactly when. 12 years, probably More than that.
Speaker 1When did I come to see you in Florida? Because I think I was. I was on it 15 maybe, I.
Speaker 2I mean, I thought we were talking about it when I came down there and that was I think you were because I wasn't totally utilizing it to its full capacity with, like, the e-signature contracts, which was so stupid, like why I wasn't doing that. Right, talk about a, a program that has never gone down. I have never had that thing go down in 16 plus years knock on wood, ever. I mean like and like the updates. If they're doing an update like it's pretty seamless, like you're not going to lose any, and that, to me, is everything.
Speaker 1If you got your leads and everything in there, you gotta have a system that works portal for the planning and everything. We'll talk more about it on future episodes, I'm sure, but shout out to dj event planner if you're looking for a crm to take care of your leads and your follow-up sequences and even to be a portal for your clients to log in and pick all their music and plan their event. Check it out, dj event plannercom. Speaking of knocking on wood, I don't even have to shout this guy out. He made me pay for this table, isn't it cool?
Speaker 2the podcasting table I literally googled podcast table yeah and it's like podcast tables dot shop.
Speaker 1I think the dude's name was Jason. He makes these.
Speaker 2Did he have a bunch of different styles?
Speaker 1Oh, he had a hundred.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And I think he builds most of them custom, not like stock. This happened to be in stock. It literally goes with these Elgato low profile podcasting arms right to what else? The EV microphone.
Speaker 2So let's talk about those, because we haven't talked about the gear. You want to talk about it? Yeah, why not? What are we using here? Because we got two colored? No, we have three different ones.
Speaker 1Mine is a RE20. I think yours is a RE23, maybe.
Speaker 2Yeah, this is the one I use at home. What do you got? You're the RE20?.
Speaker 1Yeah, re320. You they're actually different models Got it. So you know Saquon's on the 320, 20 for me, brian 23. But shout out to EV. They just gave us some great mics to try out if you like the way it sounds. I know that you know every once in a while we'll get a comment oh, you're coming off the mic or whatever when you're looking over at Brian. That's kind of why we got the table. I'm trying to be a little bit more on mic, mike. These are pretty. I don't know what the word is like centric to hear.
Speaker 2Well, and I didn't even know they made podcast mics for a long time, and so when I found out that they did, I was like oh, I got to start.
Speaker 1First microphones on the moon.
Speaker 2What.
Speaker 1Really Did not know that. I didn't either until a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2Interesting Wait what.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's what they said. I don't know if they meant like in the In the 60s. That's what EV says.
Speaker 2That's a Monopoly question.
Speaker 1Sequence question.
Speaker 2Yeah, use the Google.
Speaker 1Should we talk about me going to the NAMM show next week? Yeah, or should we move on to the question?
Speaker 2Well, actually I was going to ask you one other thing. Okay, go on, this is business-wise, so it's kind of moving to some business stuff here.
Speaker 1We haven't even talked a ton, but anyway go on.
Speaker 2Well, you gifted me a show over the holidays a holiday party for Epic Games.
Speaker 1Yeah, shout out to Fortnite, shout out to Epic Games.
Speaker 2So because that was the first, you know one I've done with you like officially Did.
Speaker 1I not pay you.
Speaker 2No, you did, you did, you did. I mean it took a while, but I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, no, but I thought it was interesting because I was in the workflow of getting all your emails as a bun DJ and I just thought this was super interesting. And I'd love for you to kind of explain your rationale, because we never really did talk about it. You just sent me a quick text like yo, you got to handle this which was COIs Right. The way I've always run it for my guys and ladies on our team is as the company owner. I just have always handled that. I've always like it to every venue. They deal with the office for that. And I thought it was super interesting because immediately when they asked me for it, I said, hey, let me get in touch with Bun DJ Co because that's who I'm working for, let me get that from these guys. And you said to me all the DJs have to provide their own. I was like what I've never heard of this. So give me the 30,000 foot view.
Speaker 1I'm not going to give you too deep into it because I don't understand it myself, but I'm telling you up until six weeks ago.
Speaker 2Oh, so it's that recent. I didn't realize that Okay.
Speaker 1Like I did exactly what you said. We sent out our what I thought was our COI, which covered our DJ. Right, they were working for us and, to be honest, I don't. But we use Peep Insurance. Shout out to Peep P-E-E-P, dale Wittig. I don't remember if we were having a conversation. One of my DJs left something in the room, that's what it was. It got ruined and so he had to, I guess, file a claim. Somehow this conversation comes up to where Dale's like no, that's not really how this policy works. Your DJs need to have a policy which is super affordable. Dj insurance is super affordable and out of the 25 guys everybody basically we had to tell them hey, guys, this is part of being a contractor. Several of them went to like their agency and got like an inland marine policy or something. The majority of them went to Dale and he wrote the policy.
Speaker 2And are you saying that because you use subcontractors I know we're not going to get in the argument of that and employees, but is that why, man?
Speaker 1I don't know we don't have guests on this podcast. Yeah, maybe we should.
Speaker 2Yeah, and how are your DJs Cause? I mean, it's what? 500 bucks or whatever it is for the year, is it?
Speaker 1Okay, the reason I thought we recovered is I thought on the insurance application. It was like how many shows a year do you do? How many djs work right? How much gear do you have? How much is your music library?
Speaker 2and then exponentially, the amount of the policy went up right, based on the gear, the premium yeah, I was very confused, but we definitely changed that policy like interesting. Well, I bring it up just because, if anybody else is listening, it's's the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1You might want to revisit that right, like check with your insurance person, check with your insurance person and just know that almost every place you play now is going to require you to give a COI, a certificate of insurance. It is very, very common that three or four times a week when we get in the busy, randy is getting a request for us to send and now we basically just tell the DJ hey, send him your COI. So if you're not number one, if you don't have DJ insurance, look into PEEP, p-e-e-p. Tell Dale that we sent you there. They make it very simple to get that COI. It's a quick, easy turnaround for them to send it to you and then you're going to have to forward it to the venue. Probably it was nothing other than mandatory you know what I mean it wasn't like I was making money on anyway.
Speaker 2All right, let's get to a question then you want to get one sure this is coming to us from byron, michigan, mr bill young. Do you know, bill I? Think so okay, I don't, I don't think I do shout out bill young but hey, nice to meet you, bill, virtually.
Speaker 2What are your thoughts on asking the bride and groom if they want an interactive DJ or a traditional DJ? And he gives us three examples. Example one is doing a sing-along. You play I Want to Dance with Somebody. Go out in the crowd with the mic while the guest is singing the song. Have the guest sing into the mic. This will be only for one song. Example two is doing mic work. You start in the song, started the disco craze voice over the music and then you shut up. So maybe this is a second way of being interactive. Or the third way leading skits and bits hand over hand. This is the last time the group oh God.
Speaker 2Yeah, this will be the last time you have the upper hand. This is the last time you'll have the upper hand. People still do those in toasts, absolutely, I just and the room cracks up. I know.
Speaker 1But maybe it's just because me and you've done so many ways. Yeah probably.
Event Customization Trends and Boundaries
Speaker 2I mean, do you get A? Do you get bride and grooms asking you how interactive you are, or do they even request? I don't really get this question really means, I guess, no mic work. Maybe you use it as a selling point for or against.
Speaker 1Every once in a while I'll get it and I think it would probably be in the initial inquiry before it went to the DJ, like if Randy was going through this and what style are you? Or whatever you know for my guys. We had a staff meeting two days ago or Monday night on Zoom. I think everybody showed up. All 25, 24 guys were on it was a two-page Zoom.
Speaker 1It was a two-page Zoom, it was a two-pager and everybody showed up, whereas even if you say mandatory in person, it just somehow people get out of it. But on Zoom it's pretty hard to get out of, especially 8 at night. People get out of it, but on Zoom it's pretty hard to get out of, especially 8 at night. So everybody's on. And we talked specifically about being accurate in your description of what you do and who you are as a DJ and an MC, because we had either one or two incidents and incidents are pretty rare here of somebody expecting one thing and getting another. I think we had a. You know, I was telling them the way that Raleigh is your, your case in point. If you're calling yourself at some point a New Yorker, the reality is everybody ends up in North Carolina or Florida right.
Speaker 1Nobody wants to live up there forever. They end up here, right, which is great for business, for the city. But we're getting more New Jersey people, philadelphia people, new York people and I think they have a different expectation of what a DJ is going to be. And in that initial consultation you have to be completely honest with what your skill set is or what you're good at. And I think these people oversold themselves as being a hype DJ or an interactive DJ, and they are not. I don't even consider myself an interactive DJ. I don't know that I would be good at being an interactive dj, to be honest, going out in the crowd or kind of radio, introing songs or what was the other thing? Yeah, doing the bits and the games. I'm not very good at that and I probably would be very transparent and forthcoming in that delivery of it?
Speaker 2have you had an instance where you didn't know it on the initial inquiry? We're a week out when you're your planning and they're like, hey, we want to do this game for sure. Yeah, how do you talk about?
Speaker 1that I think one time on here I mean I do. At that point I'm you know, I'm already committed, I'm doing it, I'm doing it. I can't say it's going to be great, but I'm doing it.
Speaker 1You know what I mean yeah I think we all, you know, we kind of get, you know, sometimes sucked into these, these parties, parties, or you know, things come up in this 12 month leading up to the wedding when they booked it a long time ago and they didn't say it in the consultation or you didn't ask about it, and then boom, you next thing. You know you're two weeks out and you're you're doing the damn shoe game or the, you know the hand over hand comment or whatever. But what are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2I think one of the biggest things that's changed for us is that we don't push it right. We don't push the interactive bits or any of that stuff. I think where we found ourselves doing more of it is when we asked those questions on our forums like would you like to see the shoe game or would you like to see bride and groom trivia, those kinds of things. If you give them the option, they may pick it. If you don't give them the option, then they're probably not going to bring it up unless they've seen it somewhere or they really, really want it.
Speaker 2So, I feel like the amount of interactiveness that we're doing as a company has gone way down over the years. I think it's a combination of a just the events changing the landscape of what people are wanting to get right to the party, and less formalities, and includes interactive games and stuff like that. Secondly, I think you know the fact that we have it off the forum has also contributed to that. And third, honestly, like a lot of our djs are more mixers than they are, I wouldn't want to, to your point, push them into doing something that they're not comfortable with I mean that used to be a huge part of our training program for djs was showing them these games right, we've cut all of that out.
Speaker 2Right, it's like none you know different, everything's different.
Speaker 1Man, I was talking. I just had a bride consultation, just booked a wedding for a thursday in october and she and I were talking about how things have changed. Bouquet and garter are going away, the yeah, the cake cuttings often becoming private, the you know, formal introductions are out the window. Are people still doing like love story and whatnot? I mean I know there's people teaching that. I mean I've never done one. No, me neither.
Speaker 2So I I wouldn't know, but we don't get them requested. I think it's one again one of those things where, if that's a skillset you've developed, you probably do want to push it, and so you're bringing it up in various places.
Speaker 2Sure, I just think there's other ways to customize events and make them unique and different, where you don't have to necessarily do that. I think people look at that, by and large, as being kind of not their vision of what they're looking for in their wedding, and so we just don't do it, wrap it up.
Speaker 1Going back to this question, bill, the simple answer is if you can do it, pitch it Right, right. If you don't think you can do it and they ask for it, just be completely transparent and honest and say I'm not very good at that skill set, we may need to find you another DJ, you know whether it's in your camp or you recommend somebody else in your city. Just, please, don't take shows that you're not comfortable doing. Right? I don't take mitzvahs, I don't take Latin shows. I don't. You know, I'm not good at that stuff. I'm not here. I'm just I'm not going to take the show. Yeah, it's just my sanity and my integrity and my reputation is more important than making four or five thousand dollars on a show.
Speaker 2I just know I'm not going to be good, and if you need help with these things, you go to the DJ's vault, look up in there and see some things there, right?
Speaker 1wwwthedjsvault man. Good episode, yeah, good episode. Thanks everybody for listening, for watching. We appreciate you. The best thing you can do for us, the most helpful thing you can do for us, in that we're only in season two, is please, please, please, leave us a review on any of the streaming platforms that you listen on and back next week, new episodes every Wednesday morning. Thanks y'all, see ya.
