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
Pre-Workout Vows and an FBI Agent Mic Drop
Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at weddings when traditions take unexpected turns? Brian B and Joseph Bunn pull back the curtain on some of the most bizarre wedding rituals they've witnessed throughout their careers as private event DJs.
The episode kicks off with a jaw-dropping story about fitness enthusiasts who skipped the traditional beach wedding sand ceremony in favor of mixing their pre-workout supplement powders together – which they then proceeded to drink! This unprecedented moment perfectly illustrates how modern couples are personalizing their ceremonies in increasingly unique ways. The hosts also share fascinating cultural wedding traditions they've observed, from Persian salt ceremonies with bilingual officiants to foot-washing rituals that carry deep religious significance.
Perhaps most cringe-worthy is the tale of an FBI investigator who, after giving a heartfelt speech about raising the bride following her father's death, concluded by ominously warning the groom while leaving everyone in awkward silence. These authentic, unscripted moments reveal the unpredictable nature of wedding ceremonies that no Pinterest board could prepare you for.
The conversation shifts to practical advice for fellow DJs working outdoor summer events, with both hosts singing the praises of the Lasko industrial fan as an essential tool for surviving Florida and North Carolina heat. At just $74, this simple piece of equipment has proven to be a game-changer for comfort during scorching outdoor gigs. They also discuss the crucial importance of building company culture for DJ businesses through staff gatherings that focus on connection rather than business.
Whether you're a working DJ looking for insider tips or simply fascinated by the human stories that unfold during milestone celebrations, this episode offers both practical wisdom and entertaining anecdotes from two veterans of the private event industry. Have questions or stories of your own? We'd love to hear from you on our social channels o
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's up everybody. Brian b here and my co-host, joseph Bunn. There we go. We are with Beyond the DJ Booth podcast Podcast, your favorite podcast for your listening pleasure For private event DJs worldwide. That's a great intro. I don't know. We're going to find out at the podcasting conference if that is the appropriate way to open it.
Speaker 2:They're probably like man, what are y'all doing? Y'all burned through 50-something episodes and you're absolute trash. Anyway, we're going to the podcast convention.
Speaker 1:It'll be during this batch of recordings when they come out, so you might get some new stuff.
Speaker 2:Maybe we will get some new stuff, new ideas and new listeners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had talked about gigs that we had been doing. Yeah, and one of the stories I was going to share with you is this wedding that was on the beach. These were two fitness enthusiasts who have moved over into the supplement game. Okay, so I'd never seen this before at a wedding. This was them. Instead of doing a sand ceremony, which we do at a lot of beach weddings, they'll take, like the brown sand, the white sand.
Speaker 3:They'll pour it in there.
Speaker 1:This was them taking two concoctions that they had put up of pre-workout stuff in one and sharing it. Wow, I didn't know this was going to happen. So, as he's talking about this, I'm taking out my phone and I'm filming this segment, because I've never seen this ever at a ceremony before.
Speaker 2:Nobody's ever done it before.
Speaker 3:It was crazy, so I brought this little video sample for you to see so, as you guys know, we've got uh, we got fitness enthusiast and dustin quietly running a supplement empire. We've got two pre-workout powders right here and each formula is very, very different, selected for each of you guys. One of them has packed full of stimulants and energy and focus and intensity, and one of them is non-stimulant Pump and endurance all that stuff, because you know you don't need any more stimulants, that's for sure. All right, so we're going to go ahead and we're going to combine them together here and go ahead and unscrew I got one got one.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep, yep, stop, All right, just dump them in slowly one layer at a time, one layer at a time. A little bit over here, oh God, A little bit there. No, oh my God, we're drinking though.
Speaker 1:By the way, that's all coming from the efficient microphone plug.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what is that green apple? We're dry scooping this and, just like these two pre-workout powders can no longer ever be separated, these two souls now share the same love, heart and life together. How much do you think this thing will go for on the street there? Bud? Did they actually drink that? They did drink it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So they put the powder in water and then shook it and drank it. Yeah, wow, dude. So I've never seen that before. I've not either. What's one of the craziest things you've seen? Maybe not to that extent, but something that you've seen at either a ceremony or reception recently. Anything come to mind. We did that.
Speaker 2:Persian wedding recently they rubbed like yeah, it was a whole ceremony. They sit down. Okay, a couple bride and groom during the ceremony, during the ceremony they sat down and they put this lace thing over their heads and a couple of ladies came up and like put salt it was like different. Yeah, like minerals or something.
Speaker 1:Salt over their heads. You're playing music as this is happening.
Speaker 2:No, because they were talking. One officiant was talking in English and the other officiant was saying it again in Farsi.
Speaker 3:But then they were doing something where they were like how does the bride like, oh, that's right. And then the crowd was doing like this call and response. I had never seen that, wow.
Speaker 2:Is the bride here or something and all these ladies would go? No, she's not here yet.
Speaker 3:It was a call and response.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hard to explain, but they knew exactly what to say about it. Of course, that culture did. The other people were sitting there going what's happening.
Speaker 3:She's right there.
Speaker 2:It was some ancient tradition blah blah blah. I'm trying to think of other things that we've seen. I've definitely seen somebody wash the feet of the bride.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what culture, that was oh man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it was at that Grand Marquis ballroom place, on that staircase he washed her feet. Fair case. He washed her feet Again. I don't know what the culture was, or what the religious? Implications were yeah, it's just like a Christian thing.
Speaker 3:Definitely some interesting ceremony stuff, interesting things said you know the Jewish culture, the bread.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right the holla for that. But they do the. You know the breaking of the glass. I feel like I've seen that a trillion times now. I don't know, man.
Speaker 1:I, I don't know man, I'll give you one other one. You have another one. There was a bride this was a recent, this was like about a year ago, so her dad did not raise her Either. He died. I think he died actually, okay, from when she was really little.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 1:So a friend who was an FBI-like guy basically raised her. He was just a friend of the bride and the family. So during the ceremony they had a segment for him to say something. Usually you'd think it's to be during a toast of a reception Now during the ceremony.
Speaker 1:Okay, and he said you know, I've I've basically raised her and she's someone that I'm always going to look out for. And he said you know, I've been in the private investigation world for over 30 plus years. I'm telling you all right. And then he goes and sits down and I'm like the groom, yeah, he named, he name checked, but did he say it straight face, straight face? And so I'm sitting back there. I'm like was that a joke or is he serious?
Speaker 3:and I'm looking at the couple like did people laugh?
Speaker 1:or? No, everyone's just like awkward, and so then he sat down and it's back to the officiant, and so the officiant's like I don't really know how to segue this, but by the power invested in the S, whatever.
Speaker 3:And they basically it was so weird.
Speaker 2:That's a terrible joke.
Speaker 3:I hate it.
Speaker 2:It's making me cringe right now.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine thinking that that was going to go over Me.
Speaker 2:Neither Do you have an update on this couple.
Speaker 3:Is she living? I'm like what intel do you have? Did you do a?
Speaker 2:background update on this couple Everything okay.
Speaker 3:Is she?
Speaker 2:living.
Speaker 1:I'm like what intel do you have? Did you do a background check? It made me think of the movie the Fockers. Like he goes back, he's like the FBI guy.
Speaker 2:He's done all the research on him. Right, right, de Niro's character, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that was one of the crazier ones I've ever seen. Yeah, greg, he kept going, greg.
Speaker 2:I love that movie. It's such a great one. You've seen that movie. Yeah, that movie's great. It's a classic.
Speaker 1:I mean, what's happened to all of our comedies, man? I feel like they're all gone. I don't know, can't say anything.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'll tell you what is really good that I've been watching on Apple TV Stick with Owen Wilson. Okay, I got to watch the last episode, but it's been good All right, and it's short, it's like 30 minutes. It's not a movie, it's a show. Okay.
Speaker 1:Hey Brian B here. Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast, but let's be real, you're here because you actually care about your DJ business and if you've been nodding along like, yeah, I should totally step up my game, then let me make it easy for you. I for you. I've got a coaching platform, the DJs creative edge, where I help DJs like you stand out, raise their prices without feeling guilty and actually get paid what they're worth. We're talking one-on-one coaching, a killer course option to help you define your uniqueness, and a group coaching option with other DJs who actually get it the the website, thedjscreativeedgecom. That's thedjscreativeedgecom because you know repetition works. And if you want to just lurk, for now, hit up Instagram at the DJ's creative edge. All right back to the show. Before Joe starts yelling in his extra thick North Carolina accent about how back in his day, djs used CDs and still had to walk uphill both ways to a gig, let's hit our gear. Oh, gear corner. Yeah, we got a little.
Speaker 2:The gear's here. The gear is here. Oh, this is clutch. This is an absolute game changer for outdoor weddings. Brian and I were both talking in previous episodes about the last two or three weddings we've done in June or July were outdoors, which is insanity in the South, and it's even more insanity.
Speaker 2:In Florida, where he's been, this thing has saved me multiple times. The brand is Lasko. It's basically an industrial fan. It sits on the ground and I just plug it right into the DJ booth and then this top part pivots like that you can hear. And so I've got it on the ground right by my feet and I can get this blower pointed right at my face which is obviously the hottest part of my body.
Speaker 1:But if you're using the mic, what do you do with that? I obviously the hottest part of my body.
Speaker 2:But if you're using the mic, what do?
Speaker 1:you do with that.
Speaker 2:I either just step back a little bit or two so that it's not blowing through the head of the mic. I think that's all I did, or maybe it caught it a couple of times, but it wasn't enough to where people were like. What the hell is that? This thing saved my ass at that beach wedding we recently did, oh yeah. Dude, it was so freaking hot yeah.
Speaker 3:It also keeps bugs away.
Speaker 1:Yes, it does. I did use that for a bug situation. I'm curious do they make it in any other color but black?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, don't know, I did have Saquon, I think. Look it up as I'm looking.
Speaker 1:I know they make it in yellow. No Yellow why? Because it's industrial right, it's for like construction or whatever, but I'm curious if they make a white one. That would be a clutch.
Speaker 2:Do you think it is more of a personal thing, or is it like helping like paint dry or when, like your carpet gets wet?
Speaker 1:I don't know. Probably drying floors. Yeah, even though it's not true, ac, it does its job man. I'm telling you Like it moves the air enough where it feels pretty darn close. A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:It felt great. Pretty darn close, a hundred percent, it felt great. Yeah, I used it at that birthday party last weekend, at both of those beach weddings, and it was just right down by my feet, blowing up in my face and it made me feel a lot more comfortable where do you hide it?
Speaker 1:it didn't hit, so it's like literally in the picture.
Speaker 2:Here's the beauty of it from your bun gear command center. You could literally hide it in the bottom and point it right up at your face okay I just have it down by my right foot, just blowing like that.
Speaker 1:But next to a speaker, so it's kind of hidden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would be kind of next to a speaker.
Speaker 1:I mean, why do you have that? I mean, the whole point of the command center to an extent is not just functionality but it's also the look right.
Speaker 2:So like think you could put it in the bottom, I think it's discreet enough in the fact that it's black when it's dark. Yes, when it's dark, not really. Yeah, you're not really seeing it, right? Yeah? How much is this thing I'm going to?
Speaker 1:guess $64.99. Close $74.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Getting almost as good as you are.
Speaker 2:You're good Glasgow fan is a game changer. Get it, leave it in your vehicle or just make sure you pack it every event that you do outside, Because other than having, like you said, some sort of an air conditioning unit or portable fan that we talked about in the previous episode that you just gifted me, I mean, I think it's a game changer. This thing is badass, by the way.
Speaker 1:So we're going to be releasing this in August. Okay, what is August for you? Is it dead? August is dead.
Speaker 3:So are you?
Speaker 1:guys just doing, like, what is the office doing for bun DJ co specifically? Are you guys targeting the holiday parties? Is this a big lead time for you? What does the office work look like for bun DJ co in August?
Speaker 2:I don't think so, man. I mean, I genuinely treat July and August like summer should be treated. I try and go to the beach, I try and go fishing. I just went to that Cray Acker convention Me and you were going to the podcast convention Me and you were going to the DJ Expo in Atlantic City You're doing your dinner thing with.
Speaker 2:Jan and I there and then I think I'm going to the beach with some friends from Chicago. I think I'm going back to the beach with Dom Aaron and Glenn at the end of august and then the next thing, you know, it'll be labor day and then the fall public school starts back, or maybe private school as well in the box. Yeah, yeah, it's before labor day, right, so davis will be going to back to school. Colin will be starting college back in atlanta.
Speaker 1:Like dude, summer goes by fast right days so you encourage your guys to do the same. Like is this when you do your group?
Speaker 2:absolutely man yeah, we, we always try and do like we did last night. We we did it at my house just because I have a new house. You know it's? It's a year and a half old now. Nobody had really been over there, didn't you go to the durham bulls? We've done the bulls. That is hot, though, man. That is a miserable ass experience and I hate baseball I just I rain is like.
Speaker 1:What do you?
Speaker 2:think about that and I go, nah, we ain, we ain't doing that again. Uh, one of my DJs does have a pool, so we've done that the two years prior. One of my DJs is a chef. Okay, he did all the food last night. Ooh, I mean brisket, pulled pork, baked beans, corn on the cob, I mean he made he stayed up all night smoking this.
Speaker 1:You're probably looking for somebody with some chef experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. So when you're hiring, looking for a new DJ, make sure you have one with chef experience. Yeah, that would be a great asset to have. I think the culture thing is what is so important and I think that a lot of DJ company owners miss it, like just miss it altogether. And then again, you know it's already August, we'll do a huge dinner at Christmas, we still have a quarterly Zoom meeting. You know, we still do something. I mean, I just feel like so many DJ company owners I know, especially since the pandemic, that have gotten rid of their offices. They're like man, I don't ever see my guys. That would drive me crazy, man, and I don't see them very much because they all have their gear, they all.
Speaker 1:You know, we used to make them come pick up up lights, but we got so many.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they used to come pick up checks Right. Very rarely do I see a DJ. You know, every once in a while they'll come grab a CO2 cannon or one of those audio guest books, just because they don't own those, but at the end of the day, man it's. It's very, very rare that I see the guys unless I make a true effort to either book a staff meeting where I need to go through you know what are you doing right? What are you doing wrong, right, right. Or a cookout or a dinner party, or ran out of movie theater or go to a baseball game, like. If you're not doing that, if that's your only takeaway from this episode, please start doing it. I don't care if you have three DJs or 25 DJs. You have to build culture. Even though this isn't a full-time job for any of your DJs, you have to treat it like a real company.
Speaker 1:The other thing I would add to this is it doesn't always have to be about business. In fact, it's actually better when it's not right, when it is just like hanging out having food and, you know, doing the thing you did yesterday at your house like I don't think you probably talked about a ton of business. We didn't talk shit.
Speaker 2:We didn't talk any business yeah, you know what I mean. I didn't go through the numbers.
Speaker 2:I didn't say we're up, I didn't say we're down. There was no mention right of any sort of business whatsoever, right, and I didn't even take the three guys that we had trained. So me and randy did training from one to five and then at 5 30 the cookout started but I didn't mention during the training because I'm like I don't know if these guys are going to work out and, to be fair, they hadn't earned a delicious barbecue dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm like these dudes hadn't made us any money yet All they've gotten is a master class from me and Randy. They ain't earned a barbecue day yet. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1:I get it, it's for the soldiers. Well, let's hit the question. Let's hit the question.
Speaker 2:Hey DJs, are you still showing up to gigs with a flimsy facade or, worse, a banquet table? It's time for an upgrade. Bungear DJ booths are built for serious, mobile DJs who care about presentation Lightweight, durable and designed for speed. Our aluminum booths look pro and set up in minutes. If you want compliments and referrals before you even drop your first track, head over to bungearcom and level up your setup today. This is from our boy, Richie Stedman, one of our favorite people out in Salt Lake. What is the biggest risk that you have ever taken? Unapproved, that hadn't been approved yet by the bride and groom at a wedding? And subsequently, how did it go Unapproved? That's rare, yeah, I know, Because you're the king of what I call the advance call or that final meeting.
Speaker 2:I mean, could it have been a song pull? I mean, like we were talking about that in the earlier episode, about how you just put a random ass song, get silly out of the balloon.
Speaker 1:Maybe that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean I can say that one where it was still kind of unapproved. I didn't tell him the script, but we had a a situation where they had a lot of married people at this wedding, not a lot of single people. I basically said, hey, I'm gonna make an announcement because I actually had talked to the bride ahead of this of like, why don't we see what their favorite, what their wedding songs were? If you can get me that list, I'll curate it during dinner, and you know they're going on a sunset picture thing, so I said I'll play some of that then I may mention their name.
Speaker 1:I may even mention, but it was still approved. It was approved, but the way that I set it up on the microphone, I didn't give them the script I didn't know I was gonna do it.
Speaker 3:I'm like is this gonna bomb, right?
Speaker 1:I have no idea it did actually work out really well because her mom and dad did not have a traditional wedding. They got, they got married at the courthouse. So I said, hey, you know you probably. I told the bride. I said do not tell them why you're asking them for these songs. Let me kind of set it up and use that as a setup, because we don't want to, you know, forecast this ahead of the reception.
Speaker 2:And they trusted you. They did it's all about we've talked about that ridiculous amount of times on this podcast about trust building, trust, having trust. They trust you, they paid you. You know. It's all about trust.
Speaker 1:And some of these clients are getting, because I think they're watching so much of this stuff on TikTok and Instagram. They're worried that it's not going to go flawless. And yeah, there's always that risk. But I think if you are good at what you do and you've prepped and you've done your work, they always come back. I had one recently who she was in New Orleans. She's like they don't hire DJs for the entire receptions here. Like they don't hire djs for the entire receptions here. We hire bands. Djs are after parties.
Speaker 1:I'm picking you because I know you can crush this for the entire reception right, but she was nervous the whole time and I'm like, don't worry, I got this and afterwards I mean she couldn't say enough good things, but it's still. There was a little bit of nervous energy in me too, of like, can I pull this off? I don't have a band behind me, can I make this work right for this big old stage? And I'm just gonna have to like bring more energy than I ever brought. You know. But to this question I'm very rare doing anything.
Speaker 2:That's not I think you know he. I'm curious to see what he would answer this as and I'm sure when he listens he'll kind of reach out to me and you. But I'm the same way man. I don't like to surprise couples. I feel like I've planned this thing. They've planned this thing. They know my style, they've seen my videos.
Speaker 1:We had an incident I was about to tell you that one time with With old girl. It was the bride's mom, that's right.
Speaker 2:We had a lady come up to me. This was recent wedding.
Speaker 2:And she was shit-faced and the toast had already happened and she goes. I deserve already happened and she goes. I deserve to speak. I'm the mother of the bride and I go um, you know, I pull out my ipad or whatever and I'm well, I don't see you. Let me go talk to the planner real quick. And she kind of got belligerent with me. Wow, and luckily, either the bride or somebody I think it was her sister, somebody came up and was like and walked her back to her seat, yeah, and I kind of went up the bride and the bride was like absolutely not. The planner was like absolutely not, and I was like man, I'm so glad I didn't just go oh, mother of the bride, shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, here's the mic. Could have went back, she would have gone, absolutely. It didn't seem like she was like she was very bitter, I think.
Speaker 2:Remarried yeah younger woman.
Speaker 1:I could tell it was just whatever was going to come out of her mouth was going to be just pure filth or bait. You know what I mean, yeah, she was not. Well, the unapproved risk level is very low. Absolutely, I'm not going to, I'm not hitting a hundred, then I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Like I've, I've worked too hard to get this reception to this point right of like. Now let's open the dance floor to take some unapproved risk. Sorry, richie, I wish I had a better answer but, I'm just not a risk taker, I guess. No, I will say this Somebody else said this to me the other day and you've said it to me as well. Somebody was talking about pre and post pandemic, joe Bunn or Joe Bunn's set, and they were like dude the pandemic.
Speaker 2:the one good thing that came out of it was like you play better, you're more risky is what you've said yeah, you know, because I would play it just very between the lines. Yeah, super, same set every time, if anything, the streaming and the pandemic made me go outside the box.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's great when you hear that from shit people who are working with you every 100.
Speaker 2:You know somebody else said it. Somebody said it at the hacker hotel. I've heard you say it before. That's the one good thing that came out of that shitty year.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, good stuff yeah, let's shout out our uh sponsor dj event planner. Thank you for always being there for us on that. As far as the planning goes and tracking leads things like that, if you If you're not on it, you should be. If you have questions for us, we're running low on those, so feel free to send them our way, however you do it, whether that's fan mail or through Instagram or commenting on the YouTube videos. Any way you want to do that.
Speaker 2:Leave us a review too, by the way. Yeah, yeah, we love reviews. You can leave them on iTunes or wherever you're watching this. We have a website beyondthedjboothcom. Please leave us reviews, it helps.
Speaker 1:We hope you're enjoying it. Yeah, we'll see you guys soon.
Speaker 2:See you Thanks.
