Look out for yourself...

The impact the internet has had on the modern actor didn’t begin to manifest itself to me until I signed with an agent.

I got my agent through an unsolicited snail mail submission. Yes those still happen. Every so often I would go in and chat with my agent about upcoming projects, past auditions and personal stuff as well. One day while I was waiting to meet with her I noticed the assistant/secretary/intern at the reception desk was surfing the web. I thought I want a job where I can sit and play on the internet all day and get paid.

When my agent’s phone call was finished, she came out. The assistant/secretary/intern called her over to the computer to obviously look at something interesting. Then they called me over to take a look as well.

They were looking at the MySpace page of an actor who was interested in working with the agency. (Yes MySpace…it was that long ago.) There were pictures and words and music and likes and dislikes that were offensive to almost everyone. Whether or not this person had an ounce of talent didn’t matter. His resume went into the trash and his name was put into a “do not call in” file.

You see, one of the jobs of the assistant/secretary/intern was to track potential clients on the internet: to read their blogs and their MySpace and Facebook pages, to look through their online profiles and pictures to determine if he or she was deemed acceptable to represent the agency’s good name in public.

As an industry professional we need to present ourselves in the best possible light…in real life and online. It all starts with your email address.

Now most of us are partial to our cool email addresses. They mean something personal to us or to our personal friends, make us smile, or define who we are. Growing up or at school it’s adorable to have an email address like tinydancer@aol.com or the8risgr8@hotmail.com or soulfulstepper@gmail.com.

As a business professional, “it aint cute.”

Email addresses not personally connected to you are hard to remember. An agent or casting director sometimes deals with hundreds of them a day. As an actor your name is your brand. It’s what you’re selling. It’s literally what your “product” is named. The email account associated with your business should be just that, your name. According to Equity and SAG, each actor has to have a distinct name. That is how important and vital your name is to your business.

It’s like buying soap. If you see a commercial for soap and the way you have to ask for it at the grocery store is “cleans real good”, when shopping how do you know you’re getting the right soap? They all “clean real good”. An email sent to a perspective employer is just that, a commercial. It’s aimed at getting you represented or getting you work. When the agencies go “shopping” for new clients how do they know they are getting the right client? There are plenty of people who are “diminutive dancers” and who think “theatre is great”.

If you have a fairly common name it may already be taken, not only by an Equity or SAG actor by also in an email address. If your name is taken, then be a little creative while keeping your name/product intact. Addresses like DavidGreenComedian@yahoo.com , BenWheelerStringmaster@ocu.edu or even 567ChandraWilson@aol.com still accomplish the same as if it were just your name alone.

This type of email address works because if a potential business partner (theatre, agent, casting director) has met you and or read your resume, they’ve gleaned something about you…David Green is a funny guy, Ben Wheeler plays violin, viola and upright bass and you guessed it: Chandra Wilson dances. It makes it easy when the agent or casting director goes “shopping” to find “that kid Ben who plays the violin”…

IF they have learned nothing about you from your resume or from meeting you, those are other issues to be dealt with in separate other blog posts.

Since everyone wants to keep their fun, funny, kooky email address, use it for your personal email. Having two email address also makes for a bit of a security blanket. You avoid submitting an email meant for your mother, your new sex partner or your therapist, to a potential employer. That would be highly embarrassing and you know it happens. We read about it all the time and laugh. With one slip of the mouse it could be you that we’re laughing about.

I’ve gotten flack from my friends about having more than one email account (and more than one name for that matter) but it’s a must for me. It makes things so much simpler in my world. I never have to worry about inappropriateness. Ever.

Email account names however are small potatoes in the world of career killers.

Everyone thinks they can use one Facebook account for business/networking and personal endeavors. But even the most seasoned professionals can be blinded by emotions sometimes. I think some people believe that by being “real” on Facebook it shows depth and character…I would gather they’re the same people who watch reality TV for the “realness”. (More on how watching reality TV can keep you unemployed as an actor on another blog).

This is an actual status update from a guy I worked with a few years ago:

WARNING: ANGRY MUSICAL THEATRE RANT
1. "WE ENCOURAGE PERFORMERS OF ALL ETHNICITIES TO ATTEND THIS CALL" and "This is a totally interracial piece" are statements in a breakdown that INVITE minorities to come audition. DO NOT PUT THIS IN THE BREAKDOWN IF YOU'RE GOING TO CUT EVERY SINCE PERSON OF COLOR FROM YOU CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its a waste of everyone's time.
2. Tap shoes are VERY heavy. Asking for them in the breakdown and having no intention of using them in a call is RUDE. We don't to tote heavy tap shoes around all day.
3. Why bother doing a ballet cut for EVERYONE if only ONE person is required to do a ballet combo in the show. That's what callbacks are for. POOR USE OF EVERYONE'S time, once again.
4. Shetler Studios and Nola studios are red flags for dancers. If you hold auditions here we know that there's going to be something wrong. And...Look.

This was posted by a very talented, intelligent, young, up and coming Musical Theatre person. He’s having difficulty breaking into the next level of his career.

Would you hire him for your show or any job for that matter? There are some who would say maybe. Now add into the mix a lot of suggestive photos; photos at bars, photos drinking, and a lot of posts about how late this person was up partying and carrying on with so and so.

A major Broadway production costs at least $10 million to mount. Each person hired for a show is an investment, hired with the hopes that he or she will help to recoup these initial costs. Does this performer seem like sound investment to you?

It makes me wonder if "the powers that be" have Googled him.

Does your Facebook have pictures of you in “compromising positions”? Drunk or drinking alcohol? And the “I’m so cool I’m giving you the finger” photo?

Does your Facebook specifically list your political affiliations, religious views or lack thereof?

Do your Facebook posts and or status updates contain graphic language or sexual innuendo?

Do you argue or fight with people through posts?

Do you play copious amounts of Facebook games?

If you answered yes to even one of those questions then might I suggest having a professional Facebook account?  And since you have already have a professional email, you can link up the two.

Use the professional Facebook account for show pictures, and job announcements and networking. Keep the conversations, the photos, the posts and the status updates all about working and what you’re doing for your career. And always find a positive slant on every situation. Keep this account open to the public, so that anyone can find you and friend you. (It goes without saying not to put any personal information in the profile of this account: your address, telephone number, social security number, etc.)

Your headshot makes a wonderful profile picture.

Keep the fun personal Facebook account. But keep it on the highest level of security and privacy, blocking anyone that isn’t a close personal friend from finding you or seeing anything on your pages, posts and photos. Then say and do whatever the hell you want. There are ways you can still be found, but it takes a lot more effort and a lot more time.

In our Business we rarely get feedback. Rarely does someone tell us how we sounded, how we looked or how we came across, professionally or otherwise, during auditions and interviews. And if they do, it can sometimes not always be totally honest. In the end we only know whether we did or didn’t book the gig. And we want to book the gig.

Most of us originally got into the Business because we wanted attention; we wanted people to look at us. Well they are…and now they’re looking at us online as well. The virtual world is just one more variable, among hundreds that goes into getting an agent or casting a show. If you can do one simple thing that can tip the balance in your favor, like having professional Facebook and email accounts, doesn’t it make sense, good Business sense, to do it?