No More Emtpy DANCE-FLOORS You Are the Entertainer Not Just the DJ

0:01 Jonathan Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor here

Right ladies and gentlemen, Jonathan Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor here. I hope you like my t-shirt by the way. South Soul, if you're not familiar with the South Soul genre, it's a mixture of soul and salsa. It's from sort of the late 70s, early 80s and believe me, it is the beginning of dance music. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have loads of dance tunes today because there's thousands that are being sampled. Anyway, I digress. Now, let's imagine you're walking into a gig. You're in a nightclub or you're 10 minutes, 20 minutes into your mobile gig and the crowd aren't up for it. They're just not up for it. Now, if you take this advice, trust me, because I've been doing this DJing thing for a long time.

All right, and it works. It's very difficult, but it works, period. So you're there and you can just sense that the crowd are not up for it. Now this really sorts an old term, the wheat from the chaff. Now you don't want to be the chaff. Wheat from the chaff, the term is years ago, you know, you had... The farmers would go out, they'd cut the wheat, there was no machinery, they'd use a scythe and they'd have to separate it by hand so they'd sort out the good stuff from the bad stuff. So what I'm getting here is this is where we're going to sort the good DJs from the average or bad DJs because you've got to have a set of balls for this, alright? Now, when I say balls, it doesn't matter whether you're male, female or whatever. You know exactly where I'm coming from. You've got to have charisma and you've got to have a backbone. Now, again, back to what I'm saying. You're in the venue, you know, you've started and the crowd just, they're not having it. They're not into it. Now, in the past, I would get into this negative energy. I think, oh shit, man.

2:18 You have to remember, okay?

Now, you have to remember, okay? Put yourself in the position of being in a bus driving people to their destination. You are in charge of these people. You're the one taking them on the journey. You can take them as fast or as slow as you want, but they're not driving, you are. And as a DJ, you are in the driving seat. So by definition, if The energy is low and flat, and you can tell the people aren't up for it. It could be because they genuinely aren't. Or it could be because you're playing the wrong music. And if they aren't up for it, as an entertainer, it's your responsibility to get them to be up for it. Because that's what you're paid for. If you think as a DJ you're there just to play music and that's it, right, sod you guys, I'm going to play the tunes and you're going to dance.

Forget it. Okay, go and take up some other industry. As an entertainer, as a DJ, you are in charge of making sure that crowd enjoy themselves. So the first thing to do is change your whole outlook on the evening from negative to positive. Secondly, start to smile and move around and have fun yourself. Now thirdly... This is where we get from you being a DJ to a physical entertainer. Now there is a big difference and I have seen lots of DJs and I class them as DJs. Then again, I've seen DJs who I class also as entertainers and they are damn good at their job because they will not only play the music, they will entertain the crowd. And then once you have the two, you're just on an upward spiral.

4:34 My advice is very simple

So my advice is very simple. Start to learn to become an entertainer as well. So let's get back to this room. It's dead, no one's interested. What do you do? You do not act as though it's dead. Get out there inside the crowd. Just move around. Even if it means you... I know this sounds crazy, it sounds ridiculous and you may think you look ridiculous but you don't. If... You put a good tune on, like for example, say just to get the crowd going, the Macarena or something like that, you know, Wigfield Saturday night. If you know the dance moves, you know, the cha-cha slide. I mean, get out there and dance. Go to a table, find someone and ask them to join you. Play a part with the crowd. Now, believe it or not, but they're going to love this.

They love it. They love the fact that you're getting involved. Use the microphone. Target someone in the audience. Talk about them. Big them up. Make them feel good. That is going to help. You are the entertainer, OK? Now really this is mainly for the mobile DJ. Now, this sort of would work with an 18th or a 21st birthday party, but mainly this is sort of for the older generation. Because you see, in every single gig, you've always got the people who just want to get drunk. They're not interested in the music, they want to stand by the bar and get absolutely frigging hammered. You've got a few people... I want to go outside and do their business. You've got a whole bunch of people who want to sit there and talk. You've got a few people who've turned up, they never go out, and all they're interested in is having the buffet, complaining about the loud noise even though it's probably not even loud, talking to someone, and as soon as they've had their food, they bugger off home. But generally, there are a whole bunch of people who want to dance and enjoy themselves. And sometimes...

7:09 Feels down, depressing and boring, you know?

Like a firework, if you think about it. The firework is there to explode, to give off some kind of fantastic explosion that just looks great. But it needs a spark, it needs a light, and you have to be that light. And once you light it, light the fuse, the chain reaction is amazing. So just try it next time you're at the gig, at your event, and it just... Feels down, depressing and boring, you know? And you then think, oh, I just can't wait to get home. Just reverse psychology. Just think, no, hold on a minute. I'm here. I'm paid to do a job. I have been paid to be the DJ and the entertainer. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. So just follow these rules. Use the microphone. Smile, dance around behind the DJ booth. If anything, get on the dance floor and dance. Also, just get the crowd involved, alright? Wear funny wigs, have a fancy jacket on, just do crazy things, you know, because you're the entertainer.

Try it, alright? Now in a comment, please let me know if you've done this kind of thing. Also in a comment, maybe you don't want to do this. Maybe you feel a little bit embarrassed. You know, I'm not going to get out there. I'm the DJ. This is my barrier. My screen is in front of me and I am not going to go past that. If that is your attitude, you need to change it. For a mobile DJ is a radio mic, is a handheld microphone without a lead because it means you haven't got to worry about carting the lead around. You can just walk around from table to table and enjoy yourself and try this as well. You play a certain track, you know, a really big, well-known track in your area. OK, I'm not going to give names because a well-known track here could be something that you don't know in your area.

Get a really well-known track, get your microphone and start walking around tables, getting people to sing along to it. That helps as well. So it's about getting your crowd involved with you. So have the mindset, it's no longer you're the DJ entertainer, they're the crowd. What it is, is you're the DJ entertainer and the crowd is part of you. It's symbiotic, you work together. Let me know in a comment what you think. Don't forget to like, subscribe, hit that notification thing and all that stuff that everyone wants you to do. Thank you very much for watching. Practice and enjoy. Nice one.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.