In a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher Chris Rock was joking about why so many people who suck make it.  He was asked if there is room in the entertainment industry for people who are actually nice and just work hard.  His answer was an emphatic yes and in true Chris Rock style he explained why (I’m paraphrasing here):

‘So many people fuck themselves out of success.  They think the world owes them something so they go through life blaming everybody else for their shortcomings and never working hard or sticking around long enough to really make it.  When I was on Saturday Night Live there were so many great comedians that wanted the gig and even better comics who got the gig but spent years just writing the skits.  Conan OBrien was a writer on Saturday Night Live when I showed up.  That’s how tough the competition was.  He couldn’t even get on stage.  I remember the day I got called in to audition for (Executive Producer) Lorne Michaels.  It was between me and another black comic who was much funnier and well known than me at the time.  So there we were at Rockefeller Plaza waiting to meet the man who discovered Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey and many others.

Lorne Michaels has this thing – everybody knows it – he makes you wait at least six hours.  And you can see him through the doorway sitting there chillin, and his assistant comes to you two hours later and says ‘he’ll be right with you’.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that it was a mind game.  The other comic left after the first two hours, saying ‘this is bullshit I’m outta here – I don’t gotta take this, I’m a professional comic’.  A few hours later I finally got called in. The interview lasted two minutes.  Lorne Michaels said ‘yeah you’re funny’ and that was it.  I got the gig.   Needless to say I wasn’t great at first and I had a lot to learn but let’s just say I’m doing okay.’

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My experience is that dealing with doubt builds perseverance and perseverance builds the survival skills a performer will need to weather the storms of the business.  Thinking about going to that audition?  Do it.  Thinking about calling that agent?  Do it.  Thinking about writing your own show? Do it.  But thinking that success is owed to you is a dead end.  Deserve’s got nothin to do with it.

It’s not easy to stick it out when things get tough and goodness knows I have my doubts sometimes but this story helped me put things in perspective.  I hope it helps you too. 

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Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

 

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When I auditioned for Cirque du Soleil on April 16 2010 I had one thought in my head:  I am prepared to fail.  I wasn’t going to accept failure but if I didn’t make the cut it wouldn’t be because I didn’t give it all I had.

When I arrived at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in 2005 and began competing for audiences with the thousands of other unknown shows I was prepared to fail.  The first night I did my show at the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh there was no one in the audience.  Zero.  For the first two nights I performed my 60 minute show to an empty theater.  The average audience at the Edinburgh Fringe is 5 people.  By the end of the second week the show was selling out.  I had won the Fringe First award and we were turning people away.  Why? Because I stayed up until 2am handing out flyers.  On the fifth night there were 8 people in the audience.  One of them was from The Guardian.

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Since I began performing on stage in 1988 I have learned a few things about perseverance and expectations:

1. It is impossible to succeed without failure.

2. It is impossible to fail without trying.

3.  If I don’t at least try, everything is impossible.

Which told me that as long as I don’t give up, I’m a success.  Right?

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I wish I could say that people expected me to get this far in my career.  A severely abused lower class black kid with a high school education and a two year degree from the Community College of the Air Force?

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The high school psychiatrist (with a Doctorate) gave me my projected career choices when I was 15: Addict, jail or dead.  Michael Jordan inspired me to try and my wife gives me strength.

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Who inspires you?

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

There is a very good reason things have slowed down on the blog lately:  I auditioned for Cirque du Soleil. And got through!

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It was absolutely grueling, I won’t tell you what we did because it’s a secret and they said if I tell anybody they will cancel my birthday and kidnap my pets.

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I auditioned for them back in 2002 and it was an unforgettable and very educational experience.  I made it to the final three and that was the end of the audition.  Not sure what happened after that, apparently they didn’t have a show that I fit into.  If you haven’t seen a Cirque du Soleil show you’re missing out – talk about a display of amazing talent.  Acrobats, clowns, drag queens – it puts the Halloween parade in the East Village to shame.

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Today’s audition began at 9am and ended at 6pm and it was non-stop!  I have done some very physical things in my life but nothing quite as challenging as a Cirque du Soleil audition.  There were about 30-35 supremely talented actors when we started and when we finished there were 7.  And I was one of them.  Needless to say I’m sore from head to toe but if it’s worth having it’s worth working for right?

Now I wait.  And celebrate!

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

If you’re really interested in seeing the inner workings of a talent agency I highly recommend an internship.

Bathe, brush your teeth and comb your hair real nice-like and go to any talent agency and offer to work for free for a certain period of time.

It won’t take long for you to see what makes these people tick and how high the stakes are when it comes to signing or not signing an act.

You may be super talented, your mother may think you’re gorgeous and your friends might keep telling you you’re funny but if you can’t convince a talent agency that you’re worth their time (which translates to money) then it’s going to be a long day.

Instead of going into the numbers and statistics about what sells and what doesn’t I’ll keep this post short:

If you are not actively doing two things every day to leverage social media and get your brand in front of more and more people you’re wasting your time.  How do you do that?

Start here and then go here.

-Kahlil (at) GigSmacked (dot) com

GUEST POST – This week’s guest post is by Gordon Ogden.  Gordon has built and led an award-winning Web development agency, driving profitability for online brands and Fortune 100 companies. He’s an innovator who leverages cutting-edge technologies to design and implement popular, revenue-generating Web-based applications. He’s become an expert at assembling high-performance virtual teams, utilizing offshore talent to decrease Web design and production costs. To sum it up Gordon is a direct marketing and social media expert with proven results.  You can follow him on Twitter @gordonogden

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A fan site, whether you perform solo or you’re a member of the band, is a great way to reach out and engage your existing fan base and actually grow it. More people show up for your gigs, a web site creates word of mouth (WOM) and serves as an outlet for audio downloads.

Yeah, but who’s got $5K to pay some pricey web designer? That’s cash that could be spent on a better sound system, or money to repair the bandwagon. Fortunately, you don’t need a site designer. You can build your fan base without blowing the budget out the back door – if you do it right.

Here’s how.

1. Go with a quality web host. There are freebie host sites, low-ball host sites and web hosts that provide all the tools you need to create a slick site complete with a blog, forum, performance updates and even videos.

The freebie hosts post their ads on YOUR site. And the low-ballers don’t provide a basket full of site building software. Quality hosts give you everything you need to build a good looking site for about $10 a month. You also get 24/7 tech support. It’s worth it to keep your fans in the loop.

Spend a little extra; get a lot more.

2. Build interactivity into your site. Add a blog, a forum, a bulletin board or some other means to enable fans to post their comments to your site. This builds your performance creds. Nothing builds WOM like referrals from existing fans.

3. Update regularly. Post performance dates. Answer posts to your site’s blog. Reach out and make a personal connection with those people who “talk up” you or the band. Regular updates also create site stickiness – keeping visitors (your fan base) coming back to see what’s new and where you’re playing this Saturday.

4. Provide free downloads. Some fan sites sell downloads. When trying to expand your fan base, give it away. One fan downloads your signature song, rips a CD and passes it on to a friend. You can’t put a price on that kind of advertising. Make your gigs viral and build a fan base organically.

5. Integrate your fan site URL into all other marketing. Posters, business cards, head shots, band shots, performance videos – all of these should have your professional URL prominently displayed, i.e. www.ourbandsite.com is EVERYWHERE! It worked for Amy MacDonald. It’ll work for you.

6. Keep it simple. Keep web site nav tabs simple and clearly labeled. If new, curious site visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, they bounce. Oh, and they don’t become fans.

7. Employ a “look” that appeals to your existing fan base. If you’re fronting for a thrash metal band, the site look should be edgy – bright colors, scraggy type fonts and eye candy. LOTS of eye candy.

Conversely, if you’re playing weddings every Saturday, the look should be toned down. You can even include a play list from which the bride and groom can pick their favorite tunes.

8. Provide all contact info. Your telephone number. The number of your booking agent. An email contact, Skype IM – everything site visitors need to reach out and touch you in a profitable way.

9. Refine your site. Google, Yahoo, Inktomi, Bing – all the major search engines employ similar protocols to drive traffic to a site. Keywords – the words search engine users enter into the Google search box – should be refined over time to more specifically target the listeners you want to attract.

10. Add stuff for sale. T-shirts, coffee mugs, thumb drives, bumper stickers – walking, talking advertising for your next gig. Give this stuff away if you can, award it to the “Fan of the Week.”

A web site is a great tool for building a fan base AND a site community. You’ll see the same user names posting over and over. These repeat visitors know you, they like your music and they want to be a part of your success. So, give it away.

It’s the best, lowest cost advertising for gigs. Use the web. Post to YouTube. Show performance footage on site. Make your expanding fan base family.

Then, watch as the gigs start coming to you!