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Acting isn’t working.

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By that I mean it takes more than auditioning and waiting for the phone to ring if you want to stand out in this industry.

Thanks to Weston McCready for saying this so succinctly in his guest post, below.

Be sure to follow Weston on Twitter @westonmccready and subscribe to his blog.

-Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

Weston’s Wisdom:

You will often hear the phrase “Right place, at the right time.” It can happen at any moment in the most unlikeliest of places. It is like getting struck by lightning. Some people find a job by talking to some random stranger who happens to own a company and is hiring. You find that perfect gift for a loved one while standing in line and someone puts it down and leaves and in that moment you were “In the right place, at the right time.” And some actors managed to launch their careers by being in the right place at the right time. But that doesn’t mean you should go through life with blinders on like a driven horse and accept what happens just hoping to one day be “In the right place, at the right time.” You can improve your chances.

What am I talking about? How can this happen? Okay, I’ll give you an example. I am sure most of you know Harrison Ford but do you know how he got the role of Han Solo? Well he was in the audition room…..as a script reader. He would sit there setting up actors for their lines by reading the opposite part in the scene. This ended up leading to Harrison getting an audition for Han Solo. The rest is history. He was “In the right place, at the right time.” He took the job as a reader and so put himself in a better position to meet producers, casting directors and even directors.

If you want to make it as an actor you need to focus on your career and try and put yourself in the right situation for success. There are very few actors who just happen to get discovered off the streets these days. Everyone knows someone. You need to stand out from the pack. So what do you do? Here’s some advice. Ask peers and fellow performers you have worked with, “What are my best attributes? What am I best at in your eyes?” It could be the stage, or comedy. Maybe you play a great straight man/woman. Figure it out. Then focus on that attribute and try to promote it. Make a video and post it on YouTube. Come up with a short play with some fellow actors and see what theater festivals run in your area and get in on the action. Check if casting houses in your region need readers.

If I have said this once, I will say it a thousand times. Talk to people. Network with people in your field. Attend screenings and plays and industry functions. Let people see your face. Get in the action. Improve any chance you might have of being “In the right place, at the right time.”

If you think that by just auditioning and doing nothing else that you will make it, good luck. It may happen. And you might get struck by lightning sitting in a lazy boy of your fifth floor apartment of a 20 story building while watching Chelsea Lately! eating Cheetosin your underwear. Or you can improve your chances and walk to the top of a hill in a thunderstorm holding a lightning rod screaming out lyrics to Ava Maria and your chances will be very conceivable. Although I do not recommend doing this.

I may not be household name or act for a living, but I can promise you every day I plan and ask myself, “what do I have to do to make my break?” I know one day I will be “In the right place, at the right time.” The only question is when.

This is a guest post by TJ Dawe, an award winning (and published) writer/performer/director, whose solo credits include Totem Figures , The Slipknot and Tired Cliches, and whose credits as a collaborator include Toothpaste & Cigars (in development as the film The F Word), 52 Pick-up, The Power of Ignorance, Dishpig and The One Man Star Wars Trilogy.

Check out TJ’s presence in the world of podcasting, blogging,facebook, youtube and twitter.

Most artists I know work multiple projects. They might overlap, or you work them one after the other, but there are a few sitting around in your head most of the time, each calling for attention. So what do you do? Do some of them deserve more attention and effort than others? Should you give certain projects your best and coast through the ones less likely to make a splash?

I recently read an interview with comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis which addressed exactly this.

First, a bit of context. Bendis writes five superhero comics (all different titles) every month (a pretty incredible output). For the past handful of summers, Marvel has had a major cross-over event involving basically every character they have, the story playing out in individual titles but mostly in a miniseries (which Bendis usually writes too).

So a journalist asked him about “event fatigue” – fans getting overloaded with world-at-stake stories that shake up the whole Marvel Universe. He responded:

“I will tell you my philosophy that I have not wavered on one bit: every story is an event. Every one. Every story I write I feel has dramatic ramifications to the characters I’m writing for. I learned this the first year I was writing Ultimate Spider-Man. Every book matters. Every single one. These events are so much fun to write and market and get people wound up about. It’s so much fun. But every single book I write to me feels that important or I wouldn’t put it out. When people say they have event fatigue I say you have fatigue over awesome things happening in the books you spend money on?”

This philosophy has done Bendis well. He started out writing and drawing his own crime comics in Cleveland, then Marvel noticed him, picked him up, and now he’s the leading writer in the industry.

In addition to his Marvel stuff, he writes two creator owned titles (crime fiction), one of which (Powers) is being turned into a TV series at FX (he’s an executive producer). In February he put out an all ages graphic novel he cowrote with his daughter. These other comics are incredible too. He does dialogue and story like Aaron Sorkin (one of his idols) or David Mamet (another one).

He also answers emails and letters at the back of each issue, he tweets like Kevin Smith, and does endless interviews. And he teaches graphic novel writing at Portland State University.

He’s passionate. He loves what he’s doing. He throws himself into it. And it’s paying off. He’s won a shelf of awards, his books are all top-selling, and Hollywood’s been bringing him in to do story consulting on superhero movies. But he still commits himself to the small projects just as much as the big ones. And the book that’s being made into a TV series – he co-created it before he’d gained any mainstream following at Marvel. And he’s still writing it.

Anyone who wants to make a splash as an artist can (and should) adopt this approach. Every time you create something, you’re representing yourself. Who you are. What you have to offer. Every project you work on is important. Every single one. Why devote any of your energy to something you don’t believe in? Every chance at bat is an opportunity to hit a home run.

-TJ Dawe

This article originally appeared on Seth Godin’s Domino Project Blog, and in it he referred to authors. I’ve substituted the word authors for actors, and writing for acting, but you get the idea.

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‘Many successful, serious actors are in love with the notion that they get to be serious and successful merely by acting.

There was a brief interlude in which it was possible for a talented actor to be chosen, anointed, promoted and paid for her work. Where the ‘work’ refers to the acting.

This idea that people could audition, get hired, and periodically cash checks is now dying.

Actors of the future are small enterprises, just one person or perhaps two or three. But they include fan engagement specialists, licensors, new media development managers, public speakers, endorsement and bizdev VPs, and more.

No one has your back.

Sad but true. The actor of today (and tomorrow) is either going to build and maintain and work with his tribe or someone is going to take it away.

That whole thing with the ‘Casting Director Workshops’ didn’t last forever either.’

-Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

My friend Angie Johnson has the world at her feet. An appearance on Ellen, a viral video on YouTube, and every major media outlet in the US fawning for her attention.  After seeing her YouTube video, Carson Daly got her a private audition for The Voice on NBC and Perez Hilton has blogged about her.

Here’s an excerpt from her website, where she describes how it happened:

‘…on August 8th, 2011, while I was deployed on my 7th tour performing for the troops in the Middle East, an audience member from one of our small acoustic shows posted a YouTube video that changed my life. (R.P. I believe God sent you from above!) Now here I am! Watching a wonderful, new path unfold before me. And I am so happy to be sharing it with YOU, the people who have made it all possible.’

Angie didn’t spend hours and hours in front of a camera, posting video after video, hoping somebody would give her a break.  She went out and did the only thing she loved, she performed.  She sang her heart out.

Artist Dan Dunn got 13 million hits on YouTube with this video and also appeared on Ellen.  His teenage daughter posted it without him knowing.  Dan is one of the most generous and talented people I know, and by his own admission, this father of five didn’t even know how to use YouTube when everything took off for him in August of 2007.  Since then he’s performed all over the world, from the Superbowl to Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday and now he has bigger things on the horizon.

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At first glance it would seem that YouTube was the catalyst for these people to ‘hit the big time’.  And that is partly true – it doesn’t hurt to have exposure.  But there are literally thousands of talented people posting videos every minute on YouTube with very different results.

If there was a formula to becoming a YouTube sensation, someone would have found it by now.  The fact is that by the time Angie posted her video on YouTube, she had put in a stupid amount of time in the decade before, honing her craft.  Dan Dunn had been a caricaturist and illustrator for 30 years before his daughter posted that video of him performing in a variety show in Atlantic City.

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Most of the artists I scout in my work at SL Feldman & Associates are looking for that magic bullet, that one thing that will help them get over.  The answer to becoming a YouTube sensation is the same answer that applies to becoming a sports sensation, a cooking sensation or any other.  It.Takes.Time.  DeBeers doesn’t flood the market with diamonds, so don’t flood the internet with your wares.  A few succinct and polished gems will do the trick.  And don’t forget, it takes at least 10,000 hours.

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

If people who don’t know you love what you’re doing, don’t ever give up.  If it’s only friends who tell you you’re great, hang it up.

-Anonymous

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com