Been cruising 3 years.(Musician 37 years on piano) Done crew job, now guest ent)..Sacrifices.. Lots! Money good if continuously working without big gaps etc. About $1000 per week as guest entertainer (piano bar) on the better lines. But expensive to buy drinks even with 20/50 per cent discounts. CD`s don`t sell well if the shop obscures them. However doing 2 CD sets do very well. ($20) Guest ents can have family visit`s on many better ships with better cabins. I have seen all the ports now and so life on board has lost some of it`s excitement. I enjoy seeing much personal improvement working every night. Often there is tension in relationship with crew. The perception being that we don`t have to do drills and have a nice cabin and work so little etc. And we are very close to the guests, so are `watched` behaviour wise. Not fair, and a very difficult pressured position to be in sometimes, so you have to be on your guard. Guests might complain over the least little thing. Like if you go for a bathroom break just as Mrs complainer walks into your bar.

my question to them all being “how long did it take for you to get ready for work tonight?” It`s taken me 45 years! Really life ashore in comparison can seem a very nice dream sometimes. But hey that`s me! On stage, my lights come on and that is the reason I stay on ships, plus a reasonable income. SO long as it`s steady. And yes pa is supplied, but be prepared to arrive after 24 traveling, go straight on stage and start, even if the pa sounds awful. You may not get help to sort it out.

I’m also interested in short contracts. Do you make it a condition to your agents that you will only do short-term gigs?

Paul

As a sax player (and lifetime keyboardist) in the process of building up my piano-bar repertoire with the goal of working on ships,I was relieved to hear from at least one of your readers that the pay is close to the $1000 range. Any less than that would not be much of an incentive to work that hard and leave home for months at a time. I live in a great city (Toronto) but I would love to open new professional doors, especially as an alternative to the cold Canadian winters.

My first question is about electronics. I enjoy playing along with drum machine for the rock & roll and latin tunes, or anything really rhythmic or drum-oriented. Do the cruise lines expect the piano-bar people to be strictly acoustic?

Second question: Since I’m a sax player who plays along with tracks, do you think I should promote myself as someone who can do both, or should I try to fit their piano/vocal model?

Thanks,

Paul Lamoureux

And yes, there are female piano bar ents, and some lines allow you to use backing tracks, but I don’t know of any who require it.

Thanks
Maryanna

The fact that the guy makes as much as he does is infuriating. The fact that he brags about it by name is unconscionable.

Shame on you, Ahern. You’re a lame pianist! And you wear too much jewelry.

I have been a sideman for a number of years and played with very mediocre guest ents to very talented ones. I think its a little harsh to say Ryan’s playing is terrible as the video is not the best quality to hear another musicians work, I have played his show on the side and I think in terms of most guest ents on ships, he is good, with a Liberace style, not the Bill Evans kind of playing that I prefer, but good for the audience.

I am surprised to hear how much someone makes to play very little amount of time on stage, and I have seen much worse talent on stage with some companies that I thought would have much better talent.

Guest Ents also tend to play similar set lists with some variations here and there but the audience doesn’t really care. I think for the cruise ships, audiences are trapped, they didn’t really pay to see any particular show as most normal audiences would on land, rather they’ll accept whatever it is on stage. Thus many outside the cruise ship circle might not be able to understand how guest ents are selected. Probably because they have connections to those who hire! Talent helps as well. So basically, there is no set path in how talent is selected. Just send in the demos and hope for the best!