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The Red Balloon

10325 W. 75th St.

Overland Park, KS 66214

913-962-2330

Tucked away in a blink-and-you-miss-it strip mall off 75th Street just west of Interstate 35, this legendary dive offers karaoke every night its doors are open. The Red Balloon�s main man on the mic, Olly, isn�t your typical KJ; the metalhead with the lion�s mane looks like he�d be more at home bouncing at a biker bar. But he runs his operation like gangbusters, catering to the lively crowd of local suburbanites and venturing midtowners, none of whom want their karaoke served with a heaping side of hipster irony. Singers hungry for face time on the Balloon�s odd little stage are advised to flip Olly a couple bucks if they want more than a couple of star turns. Around midnight, when bar traffic peaks, previously sedentary spectators leap from their folding chairs and turn the tarnished red-and-white tile into a pulsing dance floor.

Best Of 2005: Best Neighborhood Bar, Johnson County

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Overall:

The bar is dark and rickety and folding chairs are plentiful. I didn't think I'd find a bar with a rougher crowd in snooty JOCO but I managed to do it!
Review by Octo
Overall:

So the Karaoke Clique took a trip to celebrate a birthday at the Red Balloon Bar & Grill in Shawnee, Kansas. This bar is a hole-in-the-shopping-center joint off 75th Street and I-35. Typically these kind of places scream friendly, down-home fun, and after reading a few reviews on the net prior to the occasion, I was eager to see what this place had to offer.

Now the Red Balloon is strictly a karaoke bar that offers the joy of amateur singing 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It was even voted as the Pitch's Best of Kansas City 2006 for karaoke bars. You would think this would be the karaoke junkie's heaven! Well the clique and I agree that this is a place that any true karaoke fan should NOT go.

Is that harsh? Perhaps. But so is sitting at the back of a cramped little bar for 3 hours, watching people singing 3 and 4 times and never getting your chance to sing even once. Now I know there are people who just go to karaoke once in a while and enjoy letting loose and singing in front of everyone. However, there are those people who are diehard karaoke participants. They go weekly, sometimes daily and expect to be able to sing at least 2 or 3 songs during the course of an evening. The Karaoke Clique is obviously one of those that truly go to karaoke bars to sing while releasing some social butterflies and enjoying a few drinks. We do not go to a karaoke bar to sit and watch the regulars and the Johnson County yuppies who paid the KJ to move up on the song list sing repeatedly.

Now I will say that the wait staff was incredibly nice. They were prompt and friendly with our bar orders and interestingly enough, they do not get an hourly pay, but simply work for tips. I guess that might explain their kind nature. After hours of sitting and waiting to sing though, I asked our waitress why I have seen some people sing repeatedly and none of us have been called to sing even once. She informed me that the karaoke DJ (which in karaoke terms we call a KJ) allows singers to pay him in exchange for a quick move up the list. Now, I am not sure if the bar owns the karaoke system and the KJ works directly for them or if they hire a company to come in and handle the karaoke. It appears to me that the bar would own it because any respectable karaoke company would not allow such greedy practices to take place.

So for all you true karaoke lovers, the Karaoke Clique does not recommend taking a trip to Shawnee and investing in a rude KJ�s five-year plan. The crowd was diverse and the wait staff was friendly, but the behavior of the KJ makes it impossible for someone to come off the street and enjoy a night at the Red Balloon.

THE LOW DOWN
KJ: Rude & greedy
SONG CHOICE: Large selection
ALCOHOL PRICE: Average
WAIT STAFF/BAR STAFF: Friendly & prompt
ATMOSPHERE: Cramped
BATHROOMS: Tiny & dirty, though pleasantly scented and apparently there was a pair of panties tossed in the trash (those naughty JoCo girls)
FOOD: N/A � Grill had already closed
CROWD: Very diverse

www.MySpace.com/KaraokeClique
Review by Karaoke Clique Writer

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