By Sept 2002 I had lived in LA for over a year, had been to a crazy number of auditions, and I wasn’t getting anywhere.  I was working a desk job to ‘pay the bills’ and ‘fall back in case acting didn’t pan out’, but I reached a point where I realized I didn’t move to LA to hide behind mediocrity and everybody else’s expectations.  So I quit my secure, 9-5 well paying job.  Since then I’ve been working towards a future that I wasn’t sure about, never really knowing how it would unfold, nor how long it would take for me to realize my dreams.  I just knew I didn’t belong behind a desk.

This journey began with me facing my fears and inadequacies (I was a stand-up not a writer) by writing and staging the seminal scenes of my bare bones solo show Basic Training during acting classes, the first of which was taught by Jeffrey Tambor.

The success of Basic Training has taken me to more cities than I can remember, won more awards than I can name and sold more tickets than I care to count.

But it wasn’t an agent or a manager, nor was it some gatekeeper ‘discovering me’ that made the difference.  It started with me creating an opportunity for myself.  Broke and on the ropes, I had to create to survive.

People see the names attached to the recent Humanitas New Voices television development deal based on my show and they assume that these well heeled and famous television execs came on board early on and whisked me away to Hollywood board rooms and pitch sessions with the greatest of ease.  I won’t list the names of the execs here because the name dropping isn’t necessary, but suffice to say you know their work.  And that’s not the way it happened.  I had to build it, and build it…and build it.  And then I had to seek them out.  Yes, there were introductions along the way.

Here’s what I learned:  If you want a break, create it.

I had to get my ass kicked in acting class, take the show out on the road to Fringe festivals, go back to class, listen to countless agents and casting directors tell me that it was time to write something new, and then keep writing and rehearsing while working four shitty jobs like stocking shelves at Albertson’s Grocery Store on midnight shift with ex-cons, sometimes sleeping in my truck or wherever I could crash.

Whether you’re an actor or not, waiting for someone to give you a break is a dead end.  Will yourself to failure, seek out people smarter than you and listend to them but don’t worship them, and mediocrity won’t become your legacy.

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Pick yourself.

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

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

Resumes are useless.  I don’t even know why they ask for resumes at auditions any more – they’re just going to Google you when you leave the room anyway.  And if you haven’t proven yourself in the room you’re not going to book the gig, regardless of how many times you’ve been a unicorn on Battlestar Galactica or ‘Cop 1′ on SmallVille.

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It used to be that singing, dancing and acting were the trifecta of the entertainment world.  If you could do all three of those you were considered a well rounded entertainer.  Michael Jackson. Sammy Davis Jr.  Tony Bennett.  Bette Midler.  The list goes on.

I’m not saying that there isn’t value in these skills.  The problem with the theory of ‘triple threat’ is two-fold.  First off, too many performers focus on trying to become all of these, when in reality, very few people can do three things well.  With the exception of the list of entertainers above and maybe a few more, a true triple threat comes along once or twice in a generation.  The rest are just mediocre.  Pick one thing that OTHER people (not family) recognize that you’re world class at and focus on it.  Focused time equals focused results.

Second thing is, the business of entertainment is no longer just on stage.  If you aren’t engaging or cultivating your audience through social media or if you don’t have some sort of web strategy, you’re not taking yourself seriously and you won’t be taken seriously.  Slapping up a MySpace page or a cheap website and then spending crazy money on extravagant head shots or equipment is backwards.  No brand, no stand.  It’s called show business for a reason and those who know the business will benefit most.

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Of course there’s always the exaggerated story of someone being discovered at a mall or being asked to model for Prada because of the way they licked their ice cream at a bar mitzvah.  There’s an exception to every rule and most of us are the rule.  The danger in this scenario is that you may get discovered but if you don’t know your business you’ll end up with a gig and not a career.

The decades I have spent on stage honing my craft have been truly blessed with many amazing successes and opportunities, but I have made more money as a result of these gigs than I have from these gigs.

Yesterday I sat in a rehearsal with Carmen Electra, Robin Antin and the Pussycat Dolls.  They heard about me through an agent who saw my show at the Vancouver Fringe Festival and after meeting with me realized that my business mind was something that had added value.  Since then this agent has sent me on the road with several major acts, asking me to re-tool their businesses both on stage and off.  I am touring with the Pussycat Dolls across Canada as they premiere their new Burlesque show and tweaking their business along the way.

So why does an actor with an award winning Off Broadway show, a national commercial and a television development deal continue to generate work as a tour manager and brand strategist?  Because the internet and social media have empowered performers to come off the stage and still perform.

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The new triple threat is:

1. Talent (what you do best, keep it up)

2. Business (creating opportunities for yourself)

3. Branding (knowing how to leverage 1 & 2 to make money)

How do you get there?  Visit my website and click on News for some recommended reading.

Now get off stage and go make some money.

-Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

I read this in New York Magazine and had to share it with you.  It’s a long article but stick with it…a sobering reminder that everything that glitters isn’t gold.

Click HERE to read.