“I have been in the audio/video field most of my adult life, in one form or another. I began by selling high-end home stereo, car stereo, and pro audio equipment for numerous different stores in Illinois, California and Texas. I have an ear for sound… so much so that I can usually hear a problem before an analyzer machine can identify what it is. I’ve designed some amazing sound systems in my life, folks.
When I started entertaining, it was doing karaoke in the winter of 1992 at a decent-sized club called Scotland Yard in Saint Charles, IL. We would have 250 people show up for karaoke every Friday night. You couldn’t walk through the place – it was jammed. With that many singers, I had to do what was essentially ‘Gong Show’ karaoke. If someone was really bad, they had to go. I would lean out of the booth and give a thumbs up/thumbs down and if enough people boo’d I’d get on the mic and say ‘well, that’s about enough of that… next up is___’!
Of course these days you can’t do that because people are so sensitive – you’d get shot, stabbed, sued and sent to the Russian front. But I digress. As you might guess, that gig went a long time and I ended up being pretty well-known in the area. I can’t say I did a lot of private parties at that time, but every single time a local bar had a shindig they would call me.
When I moved to California, I parlayed that experience into a job managing the DJ department at one of the largest and most well-known booking agencies in Northern California. I hired, trained and booked a whole stable of good DJs… and of course I learned a lot of their tricks too. I also went out as an entertainer for the agency myself, often doing two or three gigs on a given weekend. I took the hardest gigs that nobody else wanted to do, or nobody else had the skills to make it work. I must have done 100+ Bar Mitzvahs and 150+ weddings during this period, as well as corporate events, Christmas parties, birthday parties, pool parties, anniversaries and more. You name it, I’ve worked it.
That’s why I can honestly say, I can do any kind of party imaginable and still guarantee you’ll have a great time. Believe me! Anyway, after several years in California, I decided to move back to Chicago and finish up my college degree. DJ/KJ and car stereo work paid my way through school, and I’ve been entertaining ever since. I’ve had club gigs back here that have gone 5+ years – some as DJ, some doing karaoke and lately even some music video (VJ) work.
Thanks for visiting… there’s a lot to see here. I hope you enjoy it!”
— MC Tomkat
