Clever ways to reference your tip jar?

[dwasifar]

When I was a kid I ran pizzas for extra money. Our delivery area ran from cheap apartments at the western limit to high-dollar country-club homes at the eastern edge. The cheap apartments would always tip well. The country-club sub-mansions were crap tippers. I remember one guy tipping me a nickel with a look on his face as if he'd just given me a krugerrand.

Today, as an adult, I tip generously.

[ebick]

I used to frequent an open mic with another guy who played piano. He would always play Piano Man and half-kiddingly sing it this way....


"and they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar.................<pause> They put bread in my jar............<pause, then more emphatically,> they put bread in my jar"

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by ebick

I used to frequent an open mic with another guy who played piano. He would always play Piano Man and half-kiddingly sing it this way....


"and they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar.................<pause> They put bread in my jar............<pause, then more emphatically,> they put bread in my jar"

I have a friend who plays Piano Man in his set even though he doesn't play piano. One time when he got to the "bread in my jar" line I went up and put an actual piece of bread in his jar. He almost lost his, uh, composure in front of the audience.

[LSemmens]

It must be cultural, but tips, to me, is an American thing. Tipping IMO is for exceptional service. However,and this is not to belittle any, for whom, tips are their primary source of income. I'm trying to understand it. To me, if a tip is part of the cost of going out for the evening, e.g. at a restaurant, then you may just as well incorporate the cost into your food, tat way, at least everyone may derive some benefit from good service. I know that's what it is intended to encourage, but, I wonder if it has become a "right" as opposed to a genuine appreciation for good service. Question: how do you tip the chef who prepared the wonderful meal, yet you never see him, or the laundry maid in the hotel who managed to get that nasty stain out of your wonderful dress? So many other "unsung heroes" who perform the thankless tasks behind the scenes just so you can have a great night out, yet the waitress gets the "credit" for a good night.

What about a notice like: I you want me to keep singing, please ignore the tip jar. If you want me to give up and go home, make it worth my while . In my case, I'd be rich with a sign like that.

[leew3]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

I told my playing partner we need to build a stand with a big three foot red arrow pointing at the tip jar and set it right next to it. He liked the idea.

The large can covered with the band logo, contact information and a sign at the top saying 'Please Tip our Musicians, Thanks!" Seems to work for us. The sign implies that the venue is encouraging patrons to tip us (which is accurate) and we don't generally reference the tip jar during a performance.

[MikeBmusic]

Originally Posted by LSemmens

It must be cultural, but tips, to me, is an American thing. Tipping IMO is for exceptional service. However,and this is not to belittle any, for whom, tips are their primary source of income. I'm trying to understand it. To me, if a tip is part of the cost of going out for the evening, e.g. at a restaurant, then you may just as well incorporate the cost into your food, tat way, at least everyone may derive some benefit from good service. I know that's what it is intended to encourage, but, I wonder if it has become a "right" as opposed to a genuine appreciation for good service. Question: how do you tip the chef who prepared the wonderful meal, yet you never see him, or the laundry maid in the hotel who managed to get that nasty stain out of your wonderful dress? So many other "unsung heroes" who perform the thankless tasks behind the scenes just so you can have a great night out, yet the waitress gets the "credit" for a good night.

What about a notice like: I you want me to keep singing, please ignore the tip jar. If you want me to give up and go home, make it worth my while . In my case, I'd be rich with a sign like that.

I understand that Australia (and some other world areas) are different than North America - here's the difference: the chef, or that laundress, are getting paid regular wages. The wait staff isn't. Wait staff in the US are typically not even making minimum wage - getting paid $2-3 an hour PLUS tips. In many restaurants, the wait staff have to share their tips with the bus staff, too.

[Al Acuff]

I used to work with a chick singer who had a battery powered artificial rose that lit up. She would put it in her tip jar and in a dim lounge or bar set it to blink. It wasn't bright enough to be obnoxious and it worked well. Folks noticed the tip jar. We made good tips.

Small white Christmas lights wrapped around a small round fishbowl made a great tip jar for me back in the old days. After a customer stole money from my tip jar while I was on break I switched over to a large pastic sun tea jar with a screw on top. I cut a slot in the top big enough for money and too small for a hand. Has anyone else here had theft from their tip jar?

I don't gig much these days but when I did I kept copies of my set lists by my tip jar. Customers could take one to their table and make requests off the "menu". When you play requests you make good tips

[DaveKell]

For some reason this reminded me of of a trip my wife and I took to Cancun years ago. I had changed our money into pesos right after arriving. We walked to a small cafe where we were the only patrons for most of the time there. A guy with a classical guitar soon wandered to our table and played and sang a few songs. I took out a bill and tipped him even though he bordered on mediocre. He got a very surprised look on his face. You could see him struggling to remember every song he ever learned in his life, which he proceeded to stand there and play for us for the next 10 or 15 minutes. I really wanted him to stop. Finally he went and sat down at another table. I can still recall the very satisfied look on his face! When we got back to our hotel and began budgeting money for the various things we wanted to do I discovered my mistake. I had tipped him the equivalent of a little over $30.00. This was in 1982, which would probably be more like around a $75 tip now. Oh well, I made someone's day.

[billyfamilyvide]

Mine is always kept behind the bar.

I let the audience know that it is there in a joking manner.

I remind the audience to tip the bartenders every couple of songs. The rest takes care of itself

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Exactly. I always salted the till.

I remember once on this forum when we were discussing this topic, when I mentioned that it was a good idea to put a couple of bills in the jar to start with, somebody else on the forum just became enraged, and really jumped down my throat about it. My explanation that it was out of simple necessity enraged him further.

I would love to read that. Can't find it searching though, because you're such a prolific poster. Do you happen to have a link to the thread?

[zhunter]

Our singer used to introduce the 5th band member, Phillip from France. His last name is De Bucket. Philip De Bucket. She was non-sighted and couldn't see the eye rolls of the patrons so she didn't mind saying it every set.

hunter

[ChrisE]

I posted earlier, but I didn't mention that while my tip bucket is in a conspicuous place and has little twinkly Christmas lights in it, I never reference it during a performance or ask for tips. If someone drops some $ in there, I always try to make eye contact and say "thanks" if possible. If it's in the middle of a song it's usually a wink or a nod as acknowledgement. But like I said, I never ask for tips or mention the tip jar in any way.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[M Hayden]

Instrumental music doesn't always stimulate the tip jar. Playing solo jazz guitar provides background and ambiance, and patrons don't always notice it. And since some of the places prefer to avoid having a mic unless absolutely necessary (e.g., avoid the performer talking on mic, and breaking the fourth wall and the ambiance), it's easy to be overlooked.
At some venues, the bar staff will keep a tip jar on the bar for me and point out to patrons that the music is live, and that helps....

[BBWW]

I had, for many years labeled tip jars - mason jars for each table. The labels also had mention of CD's and prices. For some gigs I would have CD's at each table (beneath the Tip Jar) and they could leave the $15 cost in the jar.

I never lost any CD's but I did see one young child take a dollar OUT of those jars once. :-)

[Goat Mick]

Right now we're just using a clear jar with our logos on it a some lettering that says something like "thanks for tipping" or something generic. It's my partner's so I never paid any attention. But we named it Phil and make a joke sometime during the evening about it being named Phil the Tip Jar. Always gets a laugh or two. There's a guy that plays the Smokey Mountain Songwriter Festival (don't know his name) that has a tip jar with a clown's head on it and makes it a game of seeing who can toss money into the clown's mouth. He's got it rigged so that everything that gets tossed at the head falls into the jar. People line up to try to toss money into the clown's mouth. He's a genius.

Back when I used to play some of the rowdier bars I had a tip jar just for those venues that said "Just put the TIP in and see how it feels!". That one got a bunch of attention and filled up really quickly. Can't take it to respectable places though.

I have another one for solo shows where I'm billed most of the time as The Goat that says "Goat Tipping Encouraged".