If you want to see where magic leads...

Late in the summer I was feeling overwhelmed and under-stimulated. In short I was feeling stuck and uncreative. I had lost inspiration for the myriad of personal and professional projects I had been working on. In a lapse of judgement I posted about it on Facebook, nothing maudlin or depressing. I just needed to let the world know.

There was some encouraging responses. There were also a couple snarky inappropriate ones. I’m going to blame Lester, an old colleague of mine. I’m not sure if he was the culprit, but he tends to leave snarky comments on Facebook. Whatever.

I got a personal message from an old friend of mine. She had read my status update and decided to give me a shout out. She quit her job and went to school. She just finished and is now a certified Life Coach and is in the process of building clientele. Meanwhile she has decided to get back into performing. She offered a barter: She would help me get unstuck if I would help her get back into the theatre world.

About a week later we meet up for coffee and a chat. She addled my brain with questions that I should have answers to but never do. I gave her pointers on the things she needs to do to return to the Business.

With it being September and school starting, and new actors arriving into major cities like the “Star-to-Be” from the musical Annie, I thought it would be a good idea to give some helpful hints to all those newbies. I also thought it good to give some reminders to those old dogs returning to the Business. It may be time to learn some new tricks.

I subscribe to a bunch of casting sites who are helpful in making connections between actors, casting directors and agents. Almost every day there’s something in my inbox about a seminar or a webinar, a class, a meet and greet or a workshop. Sometimes there are helpful tips. One such list of tidbits came from Tom Lapke at Actors Launch Pad.

I’ve never actually met Tom or participated in any of their offerings, so this isn’t a testimonial to support him and or Actor’s Launch Pad, but I thought 99% of the things he said bared repeating, especially for any new or returning actors (and dancers and singers and performers and...)

The email I received form Tom was him celebrating his 38^th birthday. He thought to share 38 things about performing that are a must know.  I’m not sure what kind of order he put them in, but I’ll be taking some of them out of order. In fact I’m starting with his number 9, which is the very thing I told my friend during our coffee chat:

         9.    It's 2017. You need a damn website.

I think this is self-explanatory. Websites are not expensive to build or maintain. The domain name and hosting are what you have to pay for. In fact you can do the designing and updating on your own with little computer knowledge. There are tons of do-it-yourself website builders where all you do is drag and drop. And everyone should be able to do that. It’s 2017.

1.      CDs want you to be amazing. If you walk into the room and kill it, they can move on to casting the next role. You have no bigger fan in the room than the CD.

This is true. I’ve been a casting director for several shows. We (they) want you do be amazing, they hope and dream that you are amazing. It makes their job so much easier if you're amazing. It really does. So be nice to casting directors because they truly are rooting for you.

2.      Acting is a marathon, not a sprint. Marathons take a lot of training. Are you working out your actor muscle every day?

If you don’t use it you lose it. My bestie Thurston is up in New York City staying with me. He has a contract lined up for the winter, but he wants to do two things. First he wants to see where his career is in terms of employability (did I just make up a word?). Secondly he wants to work out his audition muscle. Down in Florida there isn’t the same number of opportunities to hone your skills. So he came up and has been going to basically an audition a day. Smart man.

3.      Stop complaining how hard this is. Everyone knows. Everyone told you. You still showed up.

Hey, a calling is a calling. That being said, if you’re in the Business to simply become rich and famous with no regard for the work, please stop showing up.

4.      Your headshot is a marketing tool, not a glamor shot. Even if you look amazing in the photo, if that is not what you look like when you walk in, you are wasting everyone's time.

And even more importantly, after the audition has finished no one will remember who you are because there is no physical representation to remind them of who you are. And you want the people behind the table to remember who you are in a good and positive way. Outside of training, it’s the third step to getting hired. The second is showing up. And the first is getting a headshot that looks like the person who is going to walk through the door.

5.      You went into business for yourself when you decided to be a professional actor. Treat it as such.

This is the hardest for some artists to grasp. There are books and books about the Business of show. I can say nothing succinctly about the subject except read those books. My personal favorite is “Acting, Make it Your Business” by Paul Russell.That is a plug cause I think it's a great book.

6.      Give yourself a break for not being famous. Most of us aren't.

See my answer to number 3.

7.      Stop trying to be everything for everyone. Casting wants you to be YOU. That is why they called you in.

I’m torn. Being a character actor I have a hard time agreeing with this. When I’m sitting behind the table looking for non-character actors, I totally agree with this. Strange huh?

8.      A 9 in Kansas is a 7 in NYC and a 6 on TV. Realize that we aren't all made to play the romantic lead. Most of those roles are boring anyway.

In my opinion a 9 in Kansas is a 6 in New York and a 5 on film. This principal also applies to level of study. If for example, a dancer is in the advanced Ballet class in Iowa, with classes going from beginner to intermediate to advanced. That same dancer should target the advanced beginner class In New York. That doesn’t sound like a big difference, however it is when knowing how the level of NYC classes are ranked. It goes from absolute beginner to beginner to advance beginner to intermediate to intermediate advanced to advanced to professional. A performer has to know where he or she fits, if they are looking to transfer to the larger city markets.

10.  You also need a reel.

A reel is a compilation of clips from movies, TV, concerts, webisodes, sitcoms and whatever other forms of captured moving images there are, highlighting a single actor’s work. In this case you. See number 27.

27.  Your reel should never, ever, ever be more than 3 minutes long, and even that is a bit indulgent.

I disagree. That is totally indulgent. Unless you’re the star of major network sitcoms, or movies, your reel should be no longer than two minutes. Keep the clips short and concise. Don’t feature anyone else and put your best most recent stuff at the top of the reel. If they want more they’ll ask for it or they’ll call you in for an audition.

29.  Don't start your reel with clever montages set to music. Casting doesn't care. Just cut to the chase. See number 27.

11.  CDs Facebook stalk you when they are considering you for a role. If you are an ass on social media, they will reconsider you.

And so will agents and managers. Keep it clean and keep it cute or keep it off line.

12.  There are 1000 reasons why you didn't book the role, 999 of them had nothing to do with you.

Outside of auditioning, your job is to not allow them that one reason out of a thousand. Show up. Be prepared. Be polite and see number 24 and number 11.

13.  You should meet CDs to get an agent, not the other way around.

Every agent I auditioned for or interviewed with asked the same question: which Casting Directors know you, by name. They want you to be doing the work as well. And you should be.

14.  If you are reading this email, you probably don't need an agent and a manager (25% commission is a lot, y'all!).

I kind of feel like this is a bit self-aggrandizing. Help is help. A connection is a connection. The more people you have in your corner supporting you, promoting you and working for you, the better. That being said, 25% of your gross salary is a lot of money. Most of us can’t afford to lose that much right off the top. We got bills to pay!

15.  When you start missing auditions because of your survival job, it is time for a new survival job.

Now this one I don’t agree with. Here in New York City there are hundreds upon hundreds of auditions. Missing one or two, or even a few, because you have to make money to pay your rent or your student loan or credit card bill is acceptable. It’s called Life. And there are things outside of theatre and auditioning a person needs to do to be living it. However if you’re in a city or town that has only a handful of auditions a year, you can’t afford to miss even one that you’re right for.

16.  CD's don't really talk to each other. You would have to do something that made the papers for them to hear about your screw up in the room. Don't sweat it. No one knows.

I don’t know about this one. I would have to believe at certain times Casting Directors do talk to each other, especially those working in the same agency. I would think it would take something monumental for them to talk across the boards. So I’ll take his word on it.

17.  Same thing goes for agents and managers.

It’s my feeling that agents and managers are far more territorial than CDs. Also if an actor screws up royally it reflects poorly on their agency. Why would agents want to promote negative things about their clients?

18.  "If you can do anything else, do it instead of acting" is bullshit. Do what you love, but do it smart.

Another one I kind of disagree with. If there is something else you think you love as much as acting, DO pursue it. You’ll know within a short time frame of leaving the Business whether or not that was the right choice. And the beauty in almost all choices is you can always choose again.

19.  If you need to take some time off to regroup, do it. The industry will not notice if you are gone for a few weeks.

No they won’t. And being healthy physically and mentally will only help your business. Be wary though. If you take too much time away, whatever contacts you have made, may forget you exist or they may no longer exist themselves. That only means you’ll have to start all over again.

20.  The actors union is great, but make sure you are ready to join

This was the subject of one of my earliest posts. It needs to be amended...perhaps next month. But for now please know that you must be prepared to not work once you join the union. It’s hard to get your card but more harder to get your second union gig. (And I said that sentence exactly the way I meant to say it).

21.  Know what you are selling.

It’s about knowing your type and what you bring to the table. Outside of this simple statement, there lies a complex and convoluted issue. In short take a good hard look at who you are, physically, mentally and professionally. Take a look at how others perceive you, especially those who don’t really know you personally. Now add your performing skills into the equation. All these things have to add up to one product. If they don’t there could be difficulties in getting cast. A lot of difficulties. (I think it may be time to dedicate an entire post about this one).

22.  Don't worry if your resume is a little thin. Everyone started somewhere.

I made the mistake of “beefing up” my resume once. I got called on it in the room by the director. Needless to say I didn’t get the job. It’s also needless to say that I "un-beefed" that sucker real quick.

23.  An agent makes 10%. That means you should be doing 90% of the work.

Yes, yes, yes. I tried very hard to convince a colleague, Arthur, about this. We’re out of contact now so I don’t know if he ever took my advice. I hope he did and stopped sitting around waiting for his agent to get him an audition.

24.  This is a small business. Don't act a fool in the holding room. People will drag you on The Bitching Post.

Forget about the Bitching Post (an online spot to do exactly what the name implies). This is a business. You should conduct yourself accordingly. You can never know who is in the room or the building for that matter, that has some connection to the project you’re auditioning for or even your next audition.

25.  Don't let the misconceptions of civilians that are not in the industry bring you down.

Read my post There's a lot I am not certian of...

26.  Have more than one headshot. You should have multiple shots that sell you for different projects. The days of one good picture are long gone.

This feeds right into number 21.

28.  If someone emails you for a modeling gig that you didn't submit for, and you are not regularly modeling, it's a scam. It's always a scam.

‘Nuf said.

30.  If you "don't watch a lot of TV or movies," then you have no right complaining about not booking those gigs. Know what is going on in your industry.

The same goes for musicals and straight plays and dance and whatever other artistic pursuits you are currently pursuing. You have to know what’s going on out there in order to be competitive in that market. And yes it can be expensive. There are ways you can cut that expense considerably. My bestie Thurston has amazing luck with winning the lotteries for shows. He's in town, so I've seen a few more Broadway musicals than I would have. He's been here for 6 weeks and won four lotteries,including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No Hamilton yet. We're still working on that one.

31.  Same thing goes for the trades. Brokers read the Wall Street Journal, doctor's read the New England Journal of Medicine, you should be reading Deadline and Variety.

And Playbill and Broadway World and all of them. But I don’t do this one and I know I should. So I’m not going to say anything about it. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.

32.  Don't just submit for roles that meet your age range. There is a reason there are other adjectives in that breakdown.

I’m torn about this one. Yes, an actor shouldn’t type himself or herself and submit for everything in the range of their talents. However there are people of every age in the Performing Arts. If the top of your age range is 30 and you submit for a 45 year old role, you have to realize that there is a 45 year old somewhere who can play that 45 year old role. I’m not sure the large percentage of possible rejection and heartbreak outweighs the small percentage of possibly being cast outside your look. Also see number 21.

33.  When leaving a note on an Actors Access submission, don't write a novella and just cut to the chase. "10 years horseback riding" or whatever they are looking for is all you need to write.

A casting director wants to give everyone who is legitimately qualified for the work a chance to audition. It makes their job easier and makes them look good in the eyes of the people who hired them. But there are hundreds of people submitting for a handful of roles. Sometimes it’s impossible to get through them all. Which is why Actors Access says to submit as early as possible. In my own personal experiences, I have to admit that if I didn’t read what I needed in the first handful of words on a submission I stopped reading and moved to the next one.  Also see number one.

34.  Don't submit to a CD on their personal social media.

If you aren’t personal friends with a Casting Director then you should not be on their personal sites. If you are personal friends with CDs then you should know the difference between work and play. It’s called boundaries.

36.  Don't ever make physical contact with your reader at an audition unless specifically instructed to do so. This should be obvious, but I've heard soooooo many horror stories at this point.

I was just visiting with an old friend of mine who feels he lost out on a major gig because he touched the reader without consent. This puts the reader on guard and changes the dynamic and energy of the audition. When inclined to manhandle the help, ask first.

37.  Pay for professional headshots. I'm sure your friend's DSLR is great, but you're a professional. Get professional shots done.

Besides going with the person who take great shots, go to someone who doesn’t know you that you connect with. That photographer will have a better chance of capturing the person who walks into the audition. See number 4.

There are two points Tom for Actor’s Launch Pad makes that I want to end with. I think they’re very important to know, remember and live each and every day:

          35.  There is room in the industry for you. Just put your head down, 
                do the work, and grind it out.

And:

          38.  Acting is an ancient and noble profession with the power to 

                change the hearts and minds of the people. Be proud of what 

                you do.

Be proud because you create something where there once was nothing. You breathe life into air. That’s amazing.  That takes strength, stamina and business acumen. And all the suffering and studying and networking and heartbreak that comes with that is the price you pay. For me it's worth it because when it’s all said and done...

“...There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.”