I may have told this story before, but there is an object lesson--

Many years ago, I lived near a college in the East Bay, and occasionally frequented a bar/pizza place on a street of bars, pizza places, cheap restaurants and used record shops (I told you it was many years ago).

This bar had a minimally attended, but congenial, weekly open stage in a downstairs dining room.It was cheerfully watched over by the shop's manager, who play and sang, and tended the bar himself. The cash register was seldom opened.

A couple years later, one of my band mates announced that he'd gotten us an audition at this very place. It seemed odd, because I did not recall that there was ever any paid entertainment.

We arrived, for our appointment and found the fondly remembered dining room packed with cheering patrons, and with a "list" of about ten performers and acts. We took the stage and, to our surprise, got no reaction from the crowd a all.

The new manager came over, and said, "The crowd was a little cold tonight. I'd like you to come back a couple more times, and and if you can get a good audience response, we'll definitely consider you for the weekend(paying) gigs.

We were not discouraqged, and bought a couple beers and stood over by the back door, where some of the other musicians were jamming.

A waiter who I recognized, came over, took me aside, and tipped me off.

It seems that, owing to the proximity of the college, there were many aspiring bands, all with enthusiastic dorm mates, and the new manager booked "auditions" on open mike nights several nights a week--promising gigs to the bands that got the best response over several consecutive weeks.

Each band brought it's own cheering section, which is how the place got so full, and they all drank a lot of beer. After a few weeks of auditions, the dorm mates would get tired of coming, the response would grow tepid, and the manager would blow the band off.

In reality, there was seldom entertainment on weekends,and when there was, acts from the open mike nights were never booked. However, the place was packed on weeknights--