Five suggestions!!!

Karaoke is a great way to have fun with friends. After a few drinks, nobody cares whether you’re a good singer or not, and you can just sing along to your favourite songs (or the ones you’re scared to admit are your favourites).

But what do you do in those interludes when the lyrics stop and you’re left with nothing to sing? Here are five suggestions!

1. Beatbox
Many’s the time I’ve found myself with no lyrics to sing and fifteen or so seconds to fill before they return. A good way to keep your friends – and yourself – amused is to start beatboxing with your mouth. Bear in mind this can result in a higher than usual amount of saliva being deposited on the microphone, so the next person to sing may not fully appreciate your efforts.2.

2. Play Air Guitar
You don’t need an inflatable guitar for this, but it does help. And it still counts as air guitar, because what is an inflatable full of if not air? Plus, since they’re unsmashable you can have fun pretending to destroy your imaginary set at the end of your performance. Avoid mimicking Jimi Hendrix and setting light to your guitar, though – if it’s an inflatable it will just melt, and if it’s an imaginary air guitar you’re basically just trying to set fire to nothing.

3. Do a “spoken word” interlude
The choice of the karaokeist who can’t bear to have attention taken away from them. You can talk about anything: how “you” got the idea to write the song you’re singing; the person to whom you’d like to dedicate your performance; your shopping list. All that matters is that people’s eyes remain pinned to you, and do not start looking down at their phones.

4. Start a hand-clap
Tricky one to pull off with a microphone in your hand, but I’m sure I saw Mariah Carey do it once – and her hands are tiny. Start clapping to the beat, encouraging your compadres to join in. However, if it doesn’t take off on no account should you start berating people just because you have a microphone. If a hand-clap is too complex, try kicking off a Mexican Wave.

5. Climb on some furniture
This won’t be for every venue, but if you’re singing at home using a karaoke machine or online karaoke I suppose it’s up to you. Climbing onto a couch – please, ensure first that it’s not occupied – is the domestic version of climbing the lighting rig, and almost certainly less dangerous. If you’re in a public venue however, you may want to prepare for some kind of disapproval, which could range from a stern telling-off to being physically ejected from the premises.