What level of interaction does your client want?

Okay, many of us work teen events, HS dances, Father daughter dances, elementary events....so here is my question. How do you decide at what level of interaction you go with at your events? I feel like one of my strengths is crowd interaction but sometimes I leave a gig feeling like I never connected with the crowd and "gave up" and just pushed play. I think the teen events especially can be tough to interact but not be cheesy in their eyes. Sometimes it's next to impossible to read the crowd and what they think about you on the mic. We've all talked about what we do so maybe we can share some more with what works and at what level (elementary, middle school, teen).

Here is one thing I just started doing. I like to play a certain song for the boys and one for the girls throughout the night. Recently I've annunced that the songs that get the most requests for the boys/girls song will be played towards the end of the night. They get into requesting the song they really want and with the build up they get after it on the dance floor. Sometimes I end up "lying" about the song with the most requests if for instance 30 boys want to hear "Bodies" when the chaperones are worried about "moshing" songs...and play someting else instead (I think it was paralyzed by finger eleven for my last substitute song). The girls get after it the most - I think my last girl request was Lip Gloss - they freaked out.


Any ideas, thoughts?

Being a teen- I have the luxury of being able to quickly get on their level, while still maintaining a professional position. Typically when I open a show, after a couple songs i'll fade out of a song, take the mic and walk to the center of the dance floor. Lets say i'm at a high school dance. I'll walk out and say "whats up Stratford High School, if your here to get low tonight, let me hear you scream" *hold mic up* and then i'll continue with my few opening remarks and then go into a popular dance like either Cha Cha Slide or Soulja Boy etc. I've interacted with the students on their level, standing amongst them not behind the DJ booth, using big words and at the same time i've commanded the attention of the students without asking, thus proving my professional position to those to whom it matters.

Our interaction is pretty strictly slam it in gear and full throttle to the end. Not a lot of mic work, little forced fun, just straight out keep it pumpin start to finish.

Our interaction is pretty strictly slam it in gear and full throttle to the end. Not a lot of mic work, little forced fun, just straight out keep it pumpin start to finish.

Same here, Very little mic time from me except introductions, announcements and dedications.

Only mic work I do is announcements, a few dedications and saying goodbye... I tried one time to get the kids to do a snowball dance... Was such a pain in the but and didn't end up doing it... So now, I just stick to play the tunes loud...