Should I make my debut?

yes yes yes and yes
Opportunities knockin, you opened its door widddeeee open, do not but’s, if’s, what’s
BRING IT !

Go for it. Be confident.

Do it! Play your tunes, make mistakes, realise few people care and are more interested in what you play, learn from the experience and, above all else, enjoy it.

95% of any mistakes you make will be unnoticed by the people there. Only you, and maybe the other DJ’s in the crowd will know. Go for it!

It just made be think back to my first time (or one of the first times). We had two different turntables, an amp with two phono inputs with rotary dials, two shabby living room speakers. Our music was a well-constructed (not) collection of 7″s (had no clue about 12″s at the time) and albums (a lot of the K-Tel = extremely low budget/quality compilations). We had literally never practiced actually setting up like a DJ before. The “gear” sat at the attic of a friends house, on the floor. We’d sit on pillows next to it and “play radio” for hours (rudimentary volume mixing and song selection, the latter being discussed to death). And we had an awful sounding microphone.

Then we got to play our class-night at someone’s house. Nobody asked us, we just pretty much told the girl at whose house it was we would come and play the music. At the time (1977 or so) not everybody had (access to) turntables/stereo’s and (sort of) large quantities of records. So us offering was appreciated.

We went, had a blast, kids from skool loved that they could dance and someone was taking care of the tunes. I am not gonna go into the whole “you’ll make mistakes” issue, the whole night was a concoction of “what were we thinking” and “one big cluster-f*ck”, although that’s in hind sight. At the time we were enjoying the h*ll out of party like we never had before. We were doing something we discovered we really liked, select music and play it for dancing people.

We had needles bounce all over records, scratched records that made an awful noise at slightly higher volumes, we have pressed stop buttons on playing “decks” and at several times turned the wrong knob to play the next track. Just to name a few. And we had a blast as did everyone else. Oh, did I mention we had no inkling of stuff like slip mats (not that they would have worked with those rickety belt-drives) or DJ needles. No backspinning there :-).

Today, all the gear, the software, the home setups to mimmick real life DJ-ing, the countless hours of practicing. It’s all changed dramatically. The downside to that is that it puts a lot of strain on you. Because of the expectations you THINK others will have, the unrealistically high standards of perfection you think you have to achieve as a starter.

I am not saying you could go in with just a box of CD’s and simpleton gear anymore, nor should you want to, but the only way to get anywhere is by being out there, battling whatever stress and anxiety you might feel.

Have that “f*ck it, I am gonna do this and try to give those guys a great show, as good as I can” attitude. If they like it great, if not you either look for other audience or adapt your style, but don’t let it stop you from doing what you like and going were you wanna be.

Greetinx and break a leg!
C.