Anyone do the "dueling pianos" thing?

[Ed Coury]

I've always been curious about the dueling piano bar acts. Never seen them in person, but have heard about them -- the comedy, wacky songs, etc.

 

Does anyone here do this? Are the wacky off-color songs "standard", or does it vary from bar to bar and act to act?

 

Are there charts for this type of thing? Sounds like a lot of fun for a player with a secret desire to do comedy :-)

[Clifton]

Neither have I, though I've heard about them, and lol, seen one in that delighful film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[midinut]

Seen one in Myrtle Beach a while back. I thought it would be kinda cool to do but I think it takes a certain type of "stage personality" to pull it off well. I think for one you need to be a little cocky and full of yourself. I did enjoy watching it from a players perspective though!

[Brad Gregg]

I did it for four years while in medical school. The off-color and audience participation stuff was pretty scripted. The club had been open for about five years when I started there, so there was a pretty good repertoire of established material, and the owners owned some other clubs in different parts of the country and would import players/material from them. We also all tried to write new material and parody stuff as much as we could.

 

I've done some more "prestigious" gigs, but this was incredibly lucrative vs time put into it, and it was genuinely a lot of fun. Probably the only gig I've ever done where I could literally play anything that came into my head at any time, no matter how ridiculous, and have it go over if I could sell it. It also made an enormous difference for me in my ability to interact with a crowd, and also in my ability to put a high-energy tune across convincingly with just piano and vocals.