[Dixielandjazz] encores

[Robert Ringwald]

Encores are simple to handle. If you think you are going to get an encore, or you think you can milk the audience into wanting one, just time your set accordingly, leaving time for the encore. 

In 1968 I played the Monterey Dixieland Festival. This was some 5 years or so before the Sacramento Festival started. The Sacramento Festival, sort of  set the standard for format of most of the US OKOM Festivals to come. 

At Monterey, all the acts went overtime. Thus the last act came on way late. It was not fair for that act and not fair for the audience. Remember the old showbiz saying, “Always leave ‘em wanting more.” In this case, the last act was Louis Armstrong and his All-stars. Louis was not in the best of health. It was an outdoor stage and very cold. I am sure Louis didn’t appreciate coming on at 2 or more hours late, and either did the audience. 

Shortly after Sacramento started, one year a couple bands played overtime. The next bands, rather than get their time cut, also played overtime. With at the time probably 15 or 20 venues, this caused a ripple effect throughout the festival with bands not being able to get to their next sets on time. It was chaos. Thus, bands are instructed not to play overtime and to do as I suggested above, plan their encores accordingly.


-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

The crime of taxation is not in the taking of it. It's in the way it's spent.
--Will Rogers March 20, 1932