I encourage and welcome requests and it forces the audience to dig a little bit mentally instead of just sitting there letting me do all the work. It engages them and tends to bring the audience a bit closer than if they didn't and ups the energy.

I'd say 15-20% of all my retirement communities shows are 100% requests. Sometimes I'll divide the room in half, or by gender or by tables and work my way around ther room soliciting requests.

I love that kind of a show because its different.

Another twist that everyone seems to have fun with is where the room is divided into two halves. One side makes a request, but the other gets to request the style that I'll play it in. (No, they don't get to know what song was requested...)

It keeps me sharp and takes us places musically that we would never go. I wouldn't do that for a whole hour, maybe 20 minutes or so, but its a lot of fun...

The biggest irritant for me is when someone asks me to play a song. Within a few minutes, I play the thing and then after the gig is over, the requester comes up and browbeats me for not playing their song.

Sigh, lol...