Knowledge is King!
Indeed. The most important thing in any actor’s pursuit of work is… EDUCATION! This blog and these articles, simply put, are aimed to educate actors and their parents all over the world on the realities of the actor business needed for show business.
My Focus
“Kevin, why should I listen to you or read you or… whatever?” Look, I totally get it. I’m not for everybody. Like a lot of actor business coaches, I do have professional credits. I’m not going to make these posts very long. I want you to get through them in 10-15 minutes. Then, find something useful, apply it and move on.
My Authority
What I will share with you is not only from my “in-the-trenches” 30+ year acting career, but it’s also from very lengthy, comprehensive topical discussions I originated as the founder/CEO of The Actors Network right here in Los Angeles.
Let’s Get To It…
What do I mean by Acting Philosophy? Very simply, it’s not only my philosophy but it’s also key industry philosophy as well. Acting, in general, is such a very noisy space. Everyone has a thought or opinion about what to do. Often, it comes from folks well outside the industry circles.
Listen, I encourage you to absorb as much information as you can from wherever you can. Just because there’s a lot of it doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. Focus instead on someone’s practical experience where they took another person’s advice, show how it worked (or didn’t) and how now, more importantly, they’re sharing that honestly with you.
My Prism
I’ve been doing this since the late 80s. I’ve had 44 representatives in my career. I started out doing stand up, improvisational and sketch comedy all at a level for which I was paid to do it for a living. From that, opportunities came and I branched out into half-hour television, daytime television, independent and feature films.
I’ve been talking to our acting peers since 1991. Believe me, we all ask a lot of questions, and back then, the answers were sometimes found in actually heading out to get it. Today, the process by which we share that information: text, email, FB post — really can make information dissemination more confusing and overwhelming.
Some of this might be “Hollywood-centric” or might not correlate to your present day. Regardless, “other-market” matters will be specific and clearly rendered for you. I started in a smaller market — Atlanta. Today, Atlanta and the state of Georgia routinely pop up in closing movie credits since it has become an enormously popular place to film.
One of my core philosophies — this entire process might remind you of another process we’ve all likely had experience with — dating. I use dating analogies frequently because it correlates so well with the digital Tinder/Bumble approach we similarly seem to go through with managers, agents, casting representatives.