Seven questions to ask when booking a singing telegram

Seven questions to ask when booking a singing telegram.

Greetings! I am The wandering Minstrel and today I am on a quest to talk about
seven questions you should ask when booking a singing telegram.

Firstly, let me say that I can talk about this because I believe that I performed the very first singing telegram
in the UK, a long time ago and I am still performing today. I am probably the UK's most experienced singing telegram,
as I have performed over 1000 personalised greetings songs over the years.

So whether you are here because you are thinking of booking a singing telegram, whether you are here
becasue you would never book a singing telegram but you are intrigued, or whether you run a singing telegram company and
want to learn from my experience, I hope that this will be helpful to you.

1) What effect do you want the singing telegram to have?

Well, if you are paying money for a singing telegram for someone you love.
I think you will want to surprise them, make them feel special and show them that you love them.

I don't think you will want them to be humiliated or embarassed.
This is a mistake that some singing telegram performers make, and it just leaves the people thinking
I'll never do anything like that again. So listen out for the clues if they tell you that they want to embarrass
your loved one, just say no thanks.

2) Who do you want to perform the greeting? Could it be "bloke in suit" "pretty bloke in suit" or "a Costume"
Well. I have learned over the years that costumes do not surprise people characters do.
Many singing telegram performers make a big deal out of the fact that they can do this costume or that costume
but unless they have thought about who the character in the costume is, it is unlikely to work.
Listen to how they describe it to you, do they say a chicken, or do they tell you who the chicken is.
What is the chicken's back story, how did he discover he could play guitar and sing, A character who had delivered
many singing telegrams would have all kinds of characteristics that had built up over time. This is the character who will
deliver a singing telegram well. Not someone who had just put on a costume and turned up to sing a song.

Now, I will say that there is one character with another singing telegram company in the uk, who works really well at "bloke in suit"
but this is because he has been doing this for a long time and has built up his own persona.

One character that I think works really well as a singing telegram character is someone you know. Yes that is right doing the
singing telegram yourself, or someone that the person knows is a great character to perform the greeting, because they will recognise
the character straight away.

At minstrel Greetings we can write the fully personalised song from your information and then send you a karaoke DVD, of the song,
with full band production backing track, and on screen lyrics plus a vocal version too, so that you or someone you know can
work with the song and perform it live as a surprise. You can do this from anywhere in the world.


The character I play is The Wandering Minstrel, most people know that minstrels travelled from town to town, telling stories
in song. That is what I do. I tell stories in song but the stories are about the person I am singing about.
The minstrel is the perfect character for a singing telegram because it is romantic to be serenaded by a minstrel.

And minstrels often serenaded ladies for other people.

Once again Costumes do not surprise people characters do.

3) Who is the performance about?
All too often a singing telegram can be about the performer not about the person.
Many singing telegrams do cover versions of famous songs, and after the initial surprise the performance becomes about
the performer not about the person. Make sure that your singing telegram will be about the person not the performer.

4) What is going into the performance?
I have been performing personalised singing telegrams for a long time, I've lived through the boom of the greetings industry,
I've seen companies come and go, and I always know which companies are going to go. When the Kissagram came along I knew
it would not last. Why? because there was no content, someone arrived in a costume, gave the person a kiss and a certificate
and left. On the whole there was no content at all. Those that did this are long gone. The kissagram is no more.

Even the singing telegram companies that are left only do cover versions of famous songs, there is very little personalisation,
and this will also fall by the wayside. With a minstrel Greeting the content is decided by you, you tell the minstrel anything
at all, and he puts it in the song. You can make it romantic, sentimental or funny, or even all three. The funnier the
information that you give to the minstrel the funnier the greeting will be. Funny things that they say or do, and funny things
that have happened to them, you will know the private jokes that will make them laugh out loud. With other singing telegrams
they have one surprise, the entrance, watch the reactions in my videos, there is a surprise in every line.

5) How long will you remember this event?
Will people be talking about this for long time, they may talk about the entrance and what song they sang, and what the performer wore
but what else will they say. With a minstrel greeting they will talk about every funny line that came out in the song, and all the
reactions of the person when the funny stuff came out. What will they give as a gift, a certificate?. Isn't it better to give a
full band production audio CD of their full song. They will remember the greeting for a very long time as they will be able to play
the song anytime they wish and relive it. We also record every greeting on video, and upload the video to the internet, so you can watch
it anytime and share it with your friends. When people give feedback they often tell us they have played the song or watched the
video over and over again. Why shouldn't they it is all about them. With a Minstrel greeting people may also talk about the fact that
the greeting was broadcast live on the internet. Or that the very special family member from the other side of the world sent a special message.

6) Are all the legal aspects covered?
It may surprise you to know that with some singing telegram companies it may be illegal for them or you to record the performance on video,
even for private use, without buying the appropriate licenses from PRS / MCPS. If the performance contains copyright material,
you will also not be able to upload a video recording of the greeting on to the internet. Sure some of the singing telegram comapnies
around today, do upload illegal material onto the internet, but it is only a matter of time before these videos get pulled off youtube, and
it is even possible that the copyright holders may sue too. At minstrel Greetings we believe in a songwriter's right to get paid for their work,
but our business model is different, we get paid for writing the song, lots of songs. This means that we can give you, free, the license to
record the song on video and upload it to the internet without fear of prosecution.

Do they have public liability insurance?. Could this be another way a company is flouting the law. Always ask.

7) Is the performer an experienced and professional performer?
Well, I was not sure whether to put this one in or not because, to be honest it is not a problem in the UK greetings industry.
I think most of the greetings performances I have seen on the internet have been performed well, even with the lack of personalised
content. One thing I will say though is that you should make sure that you see a video of the performer before you make a booking
just to make sure.

http://www.minstrelgreetings.com
to use this article feel free to use images from my website and videos from my youtube site http://www.youtube.com/minstrelgreetings