- All right, Jason.
- [Jason] Yeah?
- [Man On Microphone] 99, 11.
- What? Is this a karaoke bar or a bingo hall?
Did you just hear that?
(all laughing)
(man singing off key)
- There's the epitome of bad karaoke production.
This is a nice guy.
He came here to spend his money and his voice is terrible.
This is where you make the guy sound good.
♪ Take me on. ♪
(energetic music)
So, there's Steve behind the bar
and there's Mami working the karaoke room.
- All right. Here's the sanitizer wipe for everybody.
Here you go.
- Steve and Mami got married about three years ago.
Right about the same time they opened a bar.
- Oh, that's fresh.
- Nick, can you prepare five cups of the water?
- [Jon] They're dancers.
So, they love the arts.
So, they bought this karaoke bar.
It has a beautiful outside area,
a main bar, karaoke rooms to rent out.
And there's nothing quite like this in Las Vegas.
It's really potential.
- After that, can you go check the karaoke room?
- Actually, I gotta take one more order here.
- Now, what's amazing is there are no employees.
- No employees?
- They've lost them all, Derek.
They can't afford to pay anyone.
- Can I help you guys with anything tonight?
- [Female Customer] First of all, I've been.
- They're doing everything on their own.
- [Mami] Now, take order from them.
- [Steve] Yes.
- [Mami] Okay.
- [Steve] What can I do for you guys?
- I'll try the Godzilla.
- All right. I'm a huge fan of Cherry Blossom.
So, I would love to try that.
- [Mami] Do you need help?
- [Steve] Yeah, yeah. You wanna?
- Should we really see what the fish bowl's going on?
- Go for the fish bowl? - I wanna try the fish bowl.
- [Mami] All right. - Let's do it.
- [Steve] I'll make the fish bowl if you make the Godzilla.
- [Mami] Thank you.
- Look at how they work together.
- [Derek] It's perfect.
- There's no resentment between them.
- No, they're communicating. They want it to happen.
- [Male Customer] Are those your fish, goldfish?
- [Jon] They got a nice fish bowl drink going.
It looks like he's throwing some gummies in there.
- [Derek] Nice.
So, they understand that they need
to be vibrant and fun.
(upbeat music)
- Oh, boy. Wow.
- Oh, the heavy pour.
- [Woman With Straight Hair] Oh my goodness. Wow.
- [Jon] Oh.
- Yeah.
- [Jon] Oh, there's the water.
Yep. There's a lot of booze in there.
- [Derek] That's a lot of booze,
especially with blue curacao,
it's gonna be overly sweet.
- [Jon] Look at how they keep going back and forth
and back and forth.
Everything is back to that cooler or back over.
The trips. There's no organization.
There's no workstation set up.
- [Steve] I'm gonna drop off one of the fish bowls,
and then the room wants to see the order for the ramen.
- [Mami] But, before that, can you take their order?
- [Steve] Yes.
- So, they're so backed up in the bar.
She hasn't been in a karaoke room
to take care of any of those people.
- [Derek] And now people feel neglected.
- [Jon] And they're losing sales.
'Cause they're only in that room for an hour or two.
So, you gotta get those drinks out there,
as many as possible.
- I'm sorry. I'm gonna serve you first.
- [Jon] Okay. That's a nice looking drink.
- [Derek] It's a nice, it's fun.
People see that they wanna buy
that because it looks pretty.
It looks fun.
- Let's see how it tastes now.
- [Male Customer] I don't know.
- It's both bland and too sweet at the same time.
- [Jon] But the color is appealing,
if they didn't make it so sweet.
- Cherry Blossom.
- [Woman With Straight Hair] Thank you.
- [Mami] And then Godzilla. I hope you like it.
- All right, Godzilla.
- Look at the color of Michael's drink.
- It pops, it pops.
- It looks neon.
- All right.
- Cheers, you guys.
- [Together] Cheers.
- See what we got here.
- Okay, here.
(customers chatting in background)
- I taste the tequila.
- Oh, that's not good.
- Congratulations, Michael, your teeth are now green.
(all laughing)
- I'm so sorry! What would you like?
- They're hustling.
- [Jon] She's making a drink. She's bringing a drink.
She's busing the table.
Look, Steve's back there making
the drinks as quick as he can.
Yeah, but he can't keep up.
- [Mami] Thank you.
- [Jon] She still has to go back and make her own drinks.
Then she has to run back out,
serve the room, clean the room.
Then go back, make the drinks, again.
Then, go back and do it all over again.
(dramatic music)
- [Mami] You want anything else?
- And then just can't get ahead of this.
Can you imagine if all five karaoke rooms were going?
I wouldn't see her for an hour
if I was in one of those rooms.
(dramatic music)
Okay, here we go. Start the clock, 30 minutes.
- [Mami] Hello. Welcome, welcome.
- [Steve] Hi, how you doing tonight?
- Good.
- [Mami] Tonight, we have special cocktails.
You can scan these and you get the drink menu.
- [Jon] Let's go. Watch those counts, Lonnie.
You can do this. Come on accuracy, right?
- Yeah.
- [Derek] This right here,
I can tell you this is light,
for that automatically says
that there's not enough jam in there
or there's not enough grapefruit, so visually, no good.
- [Jon] Let's do them right.
- [Mami] Okay.
- [Jon] You guys been waiting a little while, right?
- [Together] Yeah.
- [Jon] Okay.
- [Steve] Oh, they didn't give you the QR code.
One moment. Let me get you it.
- [Jon] Come on, guys. We gotta go faster than this.
We got a full room, no drinks.
- [Mami] I'm sorry. We are making the drink right now.
- [Derek] This is short.
You see how these are even right here?
That is short.
- [Jon] One, two, three, four.
- [Derek] No good.
- [Jon] Okay, guys. In 10 minutes,
we've gotten about seven drinks out.
So, that's obviously terrible.
So, let's make the next 20 minutes more than that.
Let's go faster. We've only satisfied 30% of the room.
This is truly an incredible failure.
- [Steve] We have to get better.
There's really no other option at this moment.
I have to get better. We all have to get better.
- [Jon] You can't get those drinks out there, Derek.
- [Derek] It's like they forgot about them.
- [Mami] Where is this going?
- [Derek] You have no idea what these drinks are going?
- [Jon] Come on, guys.
Let's serve these people.
We have nine drinks to get out.
This should be easy.
- [Mami] I felt stressed.
I thought I can handle it.
I can't handle it at the moment, but I learned the lesson.
And then, I stopped.
- [Steve] Here you are, my apologies for the delay.
- [Jon] So, did you guys not get any drinks?
- [Male Customer] Yeah, no.
- I mean, they're not able to serve 18 people in 30 minutes.
This bar staff has been out of work for so long.
They're not used to rushes like this anymore.
Come on, guys. Let's go.
- [Derek] You gotta hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.
- [Jon] It's incredibly disappointing.
They have no skills back there.
- [Derek] Final stretch. Let's go.
- [Jon] Help me out here, guys. Ten, nine, eight.
We have an unbelievable amount of work to do tomorrow.
Seven, six.
Las Vegas goes a hundred percent in just a couple weeks.
Five, four. And they're not ready.
- [Together] Three, two, one.
(crowd cheering, upbeat music)
- [Mami] Oh my god. This is beautiful.
- [Steve] Oh my god. Yo, it's sick.
(group cheering excitedly)
Oh, this one, too.
- [Mami] Oh my goodness. Wow.
(group cheering excitedly)
This is amazing.
Jon definitely got a sense of love.
He definitely brought more love to our business.
(all cheering and banging on counter)
- Great bars have culture to them.
In this bar, Mami brought the culture from Japan.
I just had to help her execute her vision,
and now her vision has become a dream again.
Mami has a chance and she'll have
that family before she knows it.
(crowd chatting in background)
Look at your bar. Have I set you up for success?
Are you happy?
- I am happy. Thank you.
- Okay. You guys get 'em back, okay?
Okay, good night.
- [Mami] Good night.
- Good night, buddy.
♪ We've got to hold on to what we've got. ♪
♪ It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not. ♪
- This carpet's disgusting.
- This bar is a failure from the street.
I can only imagine what the inside is like.
(all laughing)
Look at this guy.
(energetic music)
- [Vic] The (beep) is that?
- What the (beep) is that?
- Wow.
- [Jon] What the hell are we looking at?
- I felt like (beep) earlier. I still kind of feel weird.
- There's Rod. He's the owner.
He's 250,000 in debt.
He doesn't even know how much longer he has.
- It's crazy.
The money that these guys are getting.
- That's Tony.
Tony's the entertainment manager.
So, Tony is responsible for
the live music program at this bar.
- Hey, who's the (beep) singer?
Okay. You get the (beep) mic, then.
- There's Joe. He's our production manager.
Joe runs the actual live show.
- Okay.
- Feel like something I had to make.
- [Jon] So that's Ian, he's your cook, Vic.
- I don't remember off the top of my head, though, now.
- You see that? Look closely.
- What is that?
- [Vic] Those are bugs.
(LisaMarie giggling uncomfortably)
- [Ian] All right, by the time I get back
that mac and cheese should be done.
- It's like a college party.
They're serving the hoagies
and then she's just picking what
she has on the shelf and throwing it in the glass.
- It's like a big frat party.
- [Ian] You guys need anything else?
- No, we're good. Thanks.
- Awesome, enjoy.
- That's a pizza hoagie.
- Look at her face.
- What do you think? I love all this stuff, but.
- I don't like it.
- [Male Customer] I'm not hungry anymore.
I've had better food from the Roach Coach.
- Is this what happens when an owner just focuses on music?
- [Jon] He's not watching anything.
Does this guy not care?
Oh, here comes the band.
- [LisaMarie] This is the band that he booked.
- He's got a horn on his head and his ass
is showing in a room that is completely empty.
Now, what man wants to be in that room?
Look at them looking at him.
- [Vic] It's like an accident.
You know, you don't wanna look,
but sometimes you have to.
- I love you all, God Bless America.
And this song is called, "Under the Black Flag."
(aggressive rock music) (vocalist screaming lyrics)
- [Jon] She's the only person there.
(aggressive rock music) (vocalist screaming lyrics)
- They're leaving.
- You blame them?
Guys, this is a fricking mess.
Rod focuses all of his energy on the music.
Find out what's going on in the kitchen.
Find out what's bad behind the bar.
Now, let's get this ass outta here.
(microphone feedback) (dramatic music)
(aggressive rock music)
- Is there anybody in the bar at all?
- Hardly at all.
(aggressive rock music)
- You're in the hole $250,000.
And this is what you're banking your future on?
Are you (beep) nuts?
How (beep) moronic is that?
Shut them the (beep) down and get 'em off that stage.
I won't be in the same room with this bull (beep).
Let's go talk.
- Thanks, gentlemen.
- Yes! Bra-(beep)-vo!
- Why is this bar failing? Talk to me, Joe.
- Because the bar doesn't stand on its own.
Any show, you're hoping that it does well.
Well, that's great if you have a viable bar, Rod doesn't.
- So, what you're telling him is his bar sucks.
- I am telling you, your bar sucks. Yeah.
- So, the fact of the matter is if we make everything
about music in this venue, you fail.
If we create a great bar that has music,
we can succeed, but you don't (beep) get that.
- [Female Customer] Something's not right here.
- [Male Customer] No.
- I feel like a man.
- And I live in football locker room
and I still don't think it smells as bad as this bar.
You can't get much worse than that.
- [Female Customer] It's definitely dirty behind the bar.
Actually, that light socket looks like
it could kill somebody at any moment.
You should have worn a condom into the bar.
- [Jen] Do you guys serve food?
- [Bartender] We're working on trying
to get a kitchen in here,
but for now we don't have one.
- [Jen] Oh, it's fine.
- [Jon] From what I understand,
Dave wants to add a kitchen to his bar,
but if he can't get anything right,
what makes him think he can run a successful kitchen?
- Exactly.
- Oh, good. The band's arriving.
- [Man On Microphone] Hello Black Light District,
how are you doing tonight? Wow!
(man singing aggressively to rock music)
- Oh, man.
- [Jon] Okay. Jen's covering her ears.
Punk rock should be loud, but it can't be piercing.
So, when you're bringing volume up,
'cause the system stinks,
it becomes intolerable for you.
It creates an unsafe environment
for the customers and staff
and could lead to irreversible ear damage.
I mean, it's unprofessional.
- Right.
(aggressive rock music playing loudly)
- If it's gonna be like this every night,
I'm not gonna come back.
As a musician, I would not want to play here
because the bar's not designed to have live music,
it is amplified like that.
And it just doesn't look like anyone's gonna survive
this way because in a punk rock world,
the scene here is too limited to be successful.
- So, you know me with my online reviews and research.
So, a guest posts,
"I gave this bar a one star rating on Facebook.
The owner, David sent me harassing messages."
So, here's what he wrote back,
"Thanks for the one star and going out of your way,
like a (beep) lame, you and your hipster friends
shouldn't be here to begin with.
It's a (beep) punk rock, dive bar. You (beep) cry baby.
- What?
- That's (beep) punk rock right there, dude.
(Phil scoffing) (band members singing off key)
- The acoustics are really bad,
so it just became blaringly loud.
And the vibe itself was very sausage festive.
- [Jon] Look at that.
There are only three customers
that are actually tolerating this noise.
I can't subject my spies to
this headache of a bar anymore.
I say, we go in together.
You hit the bar. Let's see what we got.
- Yeah. Let's do it.
- Yeah. (loud rock music)
- Come on over. Jon Taffer.
- David.
- David, I'd like to meet some friends of mine.
Jon is the punter for the Seattle Seahawks.
- David.
- Hi, I'm Sarah.
- Sarah Colonna is a dear friend of mine.
Sarah's a comedian.
- [Sarah] Hi.
- Jennifer Allen is local,
and Joe Escalante is the bassist for the Vandals.
- Oh, really? Wow.
- Did this bar work for you?
- [Sarah] It didn't smell great
and the drinks were very strong.
- Did it work for you?
- No. it doesn't work. It needs help.
- I'm told you're about 160,000 in debt?
- Yeah. This is why we kind of challenged you.
We didn't think you were able to meet
the challenge of a punk rock scene.
- Oh, really? Joe, is there any punk bar
that can fill up 365 days a year?
- Not playing punk rock.
No, no, it's just not a business.
And I've been in the punk rock business most of my life.
- You can't flounder in here in a sweater
and just say "I'm punk rock," doesn't work like that.
- David, listen to me, respect somebody
who's legendary in the punk rock space,
who grew up playing in venues like this.
- You guys flew in on the wrong plane.
We don't want you here, anyways.
This is not an emo bar or a house music bar.
- If you think you can run a punk bar
and make money 350 days a year,
I suggest that you don't know punk music at all.
- I think it's a crock of (beep).
- Well, you guys don't need to hear me argue with an idiot,
so I'll let you go, Joe.
- Thanks, Jon.
- Would you rather be in the punk business or make money?
- Honestly, I'll shut it down
knowing that we did the punk rock thing
other than selling out the punk rock scene.
- You want to not be a sell out?
Don't be a (beep) sell out, then.
- I'm gonna keep it punk rock, dude.
And see, if it's not punk rock then (beep) fly home, dude.
Get the (beep) out of our bar.
- There's Tony.
- I don't even know how to make a damn drink.
- [Together] Cheers.
- That's a character.
- He looks like he should be doing karaoke
in a budget hotel somewhere, doesn't he?
- He certainly has a very specific look.
- I can only handle one question at a time. Hang on.
- If he put the time he puts into his hair,
into his business, maybe the guy wouldn't be failing.
- I think you're right.
- [Tony] I need to close this one out.
It split it and I don't know how to do that.
- [Rylie] That's just (beep) great.
- And there's Tony's wife, Dani.
- We've seen a part of him that I've never seen before.
(beep) idiot.
- So, his wife is not very happy.
- I'm losing my mind, Tony.
- There's Rylie.
- [Rylie] I'm doing too much at once.
- That's Tony and Dani's daughter.
- Oh my God, you guys.
- Tony was an entertainer.
A year ago, took his life's savings,
a quarter of a million dollars and bought this bar.
His son, Nick was running it.
Tony and Nick had a fight. He pushed Nick out.
He's pushed his wife out of the business.
- I don't know if we can recoup from it.
- He's almost pushed his daughter out of the business.
- [Rylie] I can't do this.
- And now this family is completely destroyed.
- I'm going. No, I'm serious, babe.
- That's sad.
(crowd chatting) (Dani sighing sadly)
- Arriba.
- [Customers] Arriba!
(Tony speaking Spanish)
- So, look at Tony, behind the bar
but he is not making drinks, is he?
- He's drinking drinks.
- Mike, what would you be doing
if you were losing $15,000 a month?
- Definitely not drinking while
I'm trying to fix the operation, that's for sure.
- So, look at this guy.
(Tony dropping glasses, cursing)
- Must've been those shots, again.
- And Tony has really put his own choices
ahead of the best interest of his own family.
- You guys, is anything happen with the menu?
Nobody's getting food.
- You guys love serving my food cold, huh?
- It's been how long?
- At least 30 minutes.
- Have you ever been in a restaurant
where a stranger came up
and asked you where a server was?
- So, there's our server.
- That's not even the right ticket, but whatever.
- Tattoo girl, you put my order through, right?
I think she's ignoring me.
- [Jon] And what's Tony doing?
Oh, look at that, is he entertaining?
- [Tony] All right, ladies and gentlemen,
may I have your attention, please?
- Whoo!
- I may have had just one too many tequilas
and the drinks and I over poured, I had to drink them.
(Tony and crowd laughing)
- Anybody in here Irish?
("Danny Boy" playing in background)
♪ Oh, Danny boy. The pipes, the pipes are calling. ♪
- This is his passion.
- Now, facilitating his own ego
is more important to him taking care of his business.
- Yeah.
- I have nachos, wings.
Did you see the wings, though? They're Remy.
- [Chef] Order up!
- Look at those chicken wings.
Is that a fricking pencil holder from elementary school?
- That's what it looks like.
- It is plastic for sure.
- [Jon] But that's not even a food service container, is it?
- [Mia And Michael] No.
- Thank you. Sure.
- Okay.
- This looks correct.
- Oh, Rylie.
- [Rylie] What?
- New one.
- [Rylie] What's wrong? (gasping)
- There is a hair in the wing.
- [Rylie] (Beep) I wanna shoot myself in the (beep) face.
- [Jon] So, there's a silver hair.
- Oh, God.
- On his food. I wonder where that came.
♪ Coming back when summer's in a meadow. ♪
- So, here's a guy who likes to drink
because he's the life of the party.
It pumps his ego.
He likes to buy everybody drinks, Mike,
because it pumps his?
- Ego.
- Look at how well dressed he is,
because it pumps his?
- [Mia] Ego.
- [Jon] Look at how he's just focused on
being a man on stage because of his?
- [Mia And Michael] Ego.
- I'm not sure if he's salvageable.
Why don't you guys go in and let's see
if his ego is more important than his business, okay?
- Okay.
- Let's see what happens, guys. Thank you.
I gotta end this.
I'm gonna send my experts in the pull to plug,
literally, right now.
♪ Oh, when the valley is hush and white with snow. ♪
♪ Yes, I'll be here. ♪ (microphone feedback)
- What happened?
- [Michael] Come on down, Tony.
- [Mia] Show's over, Tony. Get down here.
(dramatic music)
- There it is, guys, "Dimples."
But that's supposed to be
the oldest karaoke bar in America.
It doesn't say karaoke anywhere. It doesn't.
- No. - No, God.
It's like they've just added on layer after layer
and didn't think about what it looks like.
- There's Sal, he's our owner.
- [Christopher] Mr. Dimples.
- [Jon] What's interesting about Sal
is he's been doing this about 50 years.
Because you've done something for a long time
doesn't necessarily make you good at it.
- Yeah.
- [Jon] There's Roberto.
- Roberto.
- [Jon] He's our head cook, Brian.
- [Brian] He's a young lad himself.
- Also not a spring chicken.
- Sure.
- [Jon] There's Terry, the DJ.
I understand he's worked here 12 years.
- Let me just get a burger.
- How do you want it cooked?
- Medium.
- Okay. So, we got a club sandwich.
- There's no POS system, so they're handwriting checks.
So, is there a concern of how long the check's been in?
- All right.
- Okay, cool, got it. Great, great, cool.
- Oh, at least we're gonna cook our bacon.
- [Jon] You know what this guy's doing?
- Right after he touched the raw bacon,
there's our onion. - Oh.
- [Christopher] That's contamination.
- [Jon] Now, the raw is on the cutting board.
Bingo, health violation. There we go.
- There's the patties. - Frozen burgers.
- No, it's frozen.
- [Jon] Look at it, it's freezer burned.
Did you see the white?
- How long does it take to cook a burger patty?
- A medium burger? - Medium.
- Eight minutes.
So, the burger has yet to move.
- Hasn't even touched it yet.
- All right, Jason.
- Yeah?
- 99, 11.
- What? Is this a karaoke bar or a bingo hall?
Did you just hear that? (all laughing)
- How's everyone doing out there?
- Come on, show me what you're gonna do
to the burger there, brother.
Leave it where it is.
- [Christopher] Just right there.
- You don't touch that. Good, you're good, man.
♪ I'm walking away. ♪
- Turned in two.
- Turn. Please turn the burger, Roberto.
- [Jon] Dude, flip the burger.
- Flip the burger, Roberto!
♪ Take me on. ♪
- This guy won't flip this burger.
- Oh my gosh, is he flipping the burger?
- [Brian] Yeah, so now that you've got all the grease
and all the fat and we have a burger,
that's a medium burger,
that's been on the grill for 13 minutes.
- I'm dying to see when he takes a bite of that burger.
- I wanna hear the crunch.
♪ Take me on. ♪
- Here's the epitome of bad karaoke production.
This is a nice guy.
He came here to spend his money
and his voice is terrible.
This is where you make the guy sound good.
♪ Take on me. ♪
- Love you. You rock, man.
- I love you because you rock,
because you have a 24 minute check time.
(dramatic music)
- [Female Customer] Okay.
- Quite a bit overcooked.
- Maybe 'cause it was cooked for 15 minutes.
- On one side.
(dramatic music)
- Little confused. Eight tracks?
What function does it actually do back here?
- Nothing. Nothing.
- Gather dust.
- It gathers dust. Okay, let me get a singer up there.
Let me see you guys in action.
- Elle, we're gonna start on you.
- All right. Let's bring up Elle, our waitress.
(microphone distortion)
♪ You like to laugh at me when I look at other girls. ♪
- [Fred] The sound system inside that place
has not been updated since the eighties.
I have no idea how that man can
push any sound outta that thing.
You hear the static in the back room.
So, if you have bad equipment back there,
do you just keep pushing it out there
and make it a painful experience?
What do you do?
- No, I turn it down.
- Let's be proactive.
- All right, guys. Come on in.
Oh my God.
(dramatic music)
Sing, work the pole.
- Oh!
- [Sal] Come on, I want some action.
(upbeat music playing)
- [Fred] Come on, bring 'em up.
The audience has gotta hear that singer.
(customers singing "I Love the Nightlife")
(microphone distortion)
- The sound system here needs more work, honestly.
I can already feel the music.
♪ If you could only see the way you love me, ♪
♪ maybe you would understand. ♪ (microphone distortion)
- All right, nice going baby.
Nice going. You didn't use the pole, though.
All right, bring up Jason. Jason.
- Sal is a disaster as a karaoke host
and candidly, it was a boring, unexciting karaoke bar.
- Come on. They are on stage.
I want to start the song and Sal won't let me
because he wants to take a photo first.
Which breaks the music.
- Stay in charge of this thing. You run this show.
This bar lives and dies by what goes on that stage.
- You guys wanna see what's going on inside, don't you?
(censored beep)
(upbeat music) (people cheering excitedly)
- [Jon] Look at these sight lines.
The ceilings are all 12 to 14 inches higher.
So, when you walk in, it's very, very different.
- [Terry] Are we in the same building?
- [Elle] Oh my God, awesome.
- [Jon] We set up the back bar
with the bottles properly lit,
so visually it's very different.
- The bar looks great. I can't wait to get back there.
(woman singing "I Love the Nightlife")
- How's Terry doing, Fred?
- He's doing really well.
I thought we'd have a problem with him
being able to adapt to the new technology,
he's taking to it very, very well.
- How's Elle doing?
- Elle's doing great.
She's got the crowd energized.
She has actually got them up there dancing.
- You know, it goes to show karaoke hosts
are all about personality.
(woman vocalizing) (crowd cheering)
(energetic music)
Hi, this is Jon Taffer.
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