When I sent tapes of my one man show to Comedy Central in 2002 (yes, I’m old enough to remember sending tapes) they not only told me that I ‘wasn’t a name act’ – they assured me I would never play in their space (The Hudson Theater) in Hollywood.  Since then Comedy Central has flown me to Los Angeles several times to perform my play in their space for various industry performances, public showcases and development deals.

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A major airline refused to allow me to upgrade because I hadn’t flown the required amount of miles within one calendar year.  By the end of the phone call they had upgraded my frequent flyer status two tiers and offered me free access to most first class lounges in N. America and the UK.

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During my three year stint performing nightly at Caesar’s Palace I couldn’t get any agents to come and see my show.  So I called the Mirage and asked for Bill Cosby, who has performing there at the time, and invited him.  Spoke to him for almost an hour. Luther Vandross and Drew Carey too.

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The battery on my laptop died and the folks at the Vancouver Apple store refused to replace it because batteries aren’t included in Apple Care.  I walked out of there with another battery – free of charge.

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Jesse Warren’s web series The Bannen Way was turned down by every major studio and even some minor ones.  With 13 million streams since January 6th and a production deal with Sony that includes film, television and a book, The Bannen Way is being called the future of television, taking the world by storm as the most successful web based series in existence.

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Life is a game.  You don’t get what you ask for, you get what you negotiate. Learning to get past the word ‘no’ is crucial to getting what you want.

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Jesse Warren could have stopped when he got turned down again and again.  In his words, he got tired of waiting for agents to call.   He got together with a trusted collaborator, maxed out two credit cards and called in a lot of favors to get The Bannen Way on its feet.  Because he put in the several years of work to educate himself on leveraging the power of social media while creating a quality brand, once it hit the web Hollywood came calling.

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So maybe you don’t have two credit cards to max out or enough contacts to create a web series.  Maybe you don’t have the resources to create a one person show or fly around the world.  What does that leave you with?

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Desire.  You gotta start somewhere.  If you want something bad enough the word NO is an invitation not a rejection.

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The rest is up to you.       -Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

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