Karaoke or trivia night can add to an evening out.
Like with anything else in life, it's pretty easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to going out to your favorite club or pub.
You find something comfortable and familiar and pretty soon you're doing the same thing week in and week out. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We all tend to like routine and scenarios where we know what to expect. And when you find one in the entertainment field that provides a sense of distraction and release from your everyday work and problems, that's great.
And while there's certainly nothing wrong with sticking to what you know, especially when it works for you, it also makes you lose your sense of adventure. And while this happens somewhat naturally as one gets older, it doesn't have to.
So, because the new year is upon us, I'm going to suggest a few New Year's resolutions for people who are clubgoers and pub mavens. None of these are revolutionary, but rather they are offered to suggest some possibilities you may have shied away from or never even entertained before. Some of them may be out of some people's comfort zones, and that's fine. But I heartily suggest that you take a look at the following suggestions and maybe pick one or two to try out in the new year, if you haven't done so already—or if you haven't done so little long while. Life is short, as they say, and if you haven't sung a Van Halen song in public yet, you might want to give it a go. Which of course leads us to item number one:
• Try your hand – or voice – at karaoke:
The number one fear of most people is speaking in public. So I can imagine how bad the fear of singing in public is for a lot of you. And I get it. Even though I've sung professionally for years, I didn't really try karaoke until 2009, And that was doing a duet with someone and the song wasn't in my range. My first solo karaoke attempt didn't come until 2011. And that went fairly well. It really doesn't matter if you're a great singer or not, because I guarantee you there'll always be someone worse than you are any given night. Sure there are some real ringers who can belt out a tune with verve and panache, but don't worry about them. Just go up and have fun. You won't regret it. I think.
Form a trivia team and go to one of the many trivia challenges in the area:
Oh, I know you think you're really smart because you win at Trivial Pursuit a lot. Well, guess what? Try playing pub trivia against a bunch of other really smart teams. You'll be humbled pretty quickly. The better pub trivias are really challenging and you'll find yourself scrambling for answers. My favorite of course, is the one put on at the World War II Club in Northampton on Thursday nights, run by Cloud 9 productions. My team, the Infinite Jesters, was the championship team in 2010. Why not form a team (of up to five people) and come out and challenge us? We're hoping to make a comeback this year and reign once again. But there are many other trivia nights out there in the area if Northampton isn't your scene. Check them out.
• Open mic/open poetry nights:
Now, granted, you have to have a modicum of artistic talent to participate in these, but if you do, it's a great thing to try. Audiences are usually very supportive, if only because half of them are going to be up on stage themselves. So if you fancy yourself the next Allen Ginsberg or Bob Dylan, why not venture out to one of these nights and see what kind of reaction you get?
The point is to try something new. Any other ideas?