I think Donny just hit on the real issue. If I EVER found myself out in the audience putting a chicken hat on someone, the embarrasment level would be so high that the origin of the background sound (or whether I was naked or not) wouldn't matter. This kind of act would empty out EVERY venue I play. Actually, the act would be manually ejected. It's just the difference, as Chas has pointed out, between audiences and expectations. In the kind of situation Donny describes, anything that works is fine. For an awards dinner for the president of a state university who happens to be a jazz buff/historian, or the local Jazz Arts Foundation...no way. The chicken hat may work at an assisted living facility or nursing home...I don't play those places, at least not for money (that's a whole new issue...not for here).

Donny has found his nitch and I've found mine. The approach is drastically different, but we have both "survived and prospered". The difference is not so much laptops, sequences...whatever, but venue and style. I use what's appropriate for me and he does, too. He does whatever it takes to succeed. I have things I simply won't do...songs I won't play...venues I won't work. We've both been doing it for a lot of years. We've raised families and enjoyed or lives.

And, that's what's important.

Russ

[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 07-10-2007).]