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.

Click Here to learn about my panel @ SXSW 2012 with Michael Margolis.

A recent study featured on Mashable.com suggests that Facebook likes are more valuable than Twitter follows.  Let’s talk about this as it applies to performers.

I find these conversations fascinating because with so much attention being given to the importance of Social Media, it fails to address the true disconnect: Quantity of followers vs Quality of followers.

People clicking ‘like’ or ‘follow’ is a passive activity.  With the flick of a finger, you get some attention, and it’s no more of a commitment than someone saying they like you on the street.  Social media sets the stage for you to capitalize on this interaction by further engaging these ‘likes’ with your story, and inviting them to support your efforts.  But you have to be able to deliver on whatever those efforts are, and that requires having some tools at your disposal a lot more credible than whatever your obvious talent is.  Whether you’re a magician with a great show or a band with some decent songs, no amount of Facebook-ing will make people buy tickets.  The missing element? Your story.

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Somewhere along the line, Social Media became the dribble instead of the dunk.  In other words, building a narrative that people will respond to is much more compelling and lucrative long term than attracting (or sometimes purchasing) likes or followers on any number of social media platforms. When it comes to converting ‘likes’ to ’sales’, there is no conclusive evidence to prove that one directly translates to another – unless you’re already famous.  Unknown and trying to make it? Got thousands of fans?  Don’t quit your day job.  We want a story that allows us to identify with you regardless of your fan count.  This builds a currency more tangible than money: fans that are more than passive, and who will support you beyond the internet.

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Michael Margolis, Dean of Story University and an industry leading game-changer in the online storytelling movement, said it best:  Character trumps credentials.

Whether we realize it or not, we’re looking online for a piece of ourselves, not unlike watching a movie or listening to music.  There is something about an exciting brand or an experience that stirs our souls, that says ‘me too’.  Once we find that ‘me too’, we want to support it.  Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim Ferris.  These are just a few guys who do it well.

Complaining, hoping for an agent, or blaming the economy is the easy way out.  The sooner we take responsibility for our stories, and build them into something people will care about, the sooner we will stand out.  Like most things worth having, it takes risk, time, facing our fear and a fair amount of mistakes.

If you’re interested in learning more, come check me out as Michael Margolis and I facilitate this panel during SXSW in Austin.  Looking forward to meeting you!  If you can’t make it, shoot me a message and let me know how I can help.

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It’s all you.

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

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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

The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival is pretty amazing.  It feels good to finally be here, doing my thing.  But when I read this article by Bob Greene which originally appeared on CNN.com, it reminded me how fleeting fame is and how important it is to stay grounded and surround yourself with people who don’t care how successful you are. Thankfully, I am surrounded by great people – from my wife, friends and family to my attorneys at Myman-Abell but it never hurts to check yourself.  Now I know why Frank was so fiercely loyal and that is a quality in short supply these days.  I only pray that I can also be remembered this way.

Frank Sinatra’s lesson in loyalty

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Some people are so big during their lives, even death doesn’t seem to entirely take them away.

So it is with Frank Sinatra. He left this earth in May of 1998, yet there is seldom a day when you don’t hear his voice drifting out of a radio, seldom a week when you don’t catch a flash of his face on a television screen, or read a reference to him in a newspaper or a magazine. Sinatra: The word itself signals something. Those three quick syllables: sharp, snappy, staccato. The images the name brings to mind: the Rat Pack, ring-a-ding-ding, very good years, strangers in the night. Many adored him, some despised him; few were indifferent.

In New York, especially, his voice remains omnipresent. His “New York, New York” might as well be the city’s official anthem. Many times when I’ve visited Manhattan I have walked past what was said to be Sinatra’s favorite restaurant: an unprepossessing-enough-looking Italian place on West 56th Street called Patsy’s. This, Sinatra legend has it, is the spot where he could relax, where he felt most at home.

I’d never gone inside. I had imagined it as a peak-of-the-mountain place, a restaurant where only the most savvy would congregate, men and women who were at the pinnacle of their games, who had long ago learned and mastered all the angles. After all, this was where Sinatra had his regular table, wasn’t it? How could mere mortals have a shot at fitting in?

This trip, I came in for dinner. And learned a lesson.

Sinatra, in his chairman-of-the-board years, in his sell-out-every-seat-in-the-concert-hall decades, did, in fact, gravitate to this place. But it wasn’t because he was the biggest name in entertainment. It was because at one point in his life, he feared that he might be finished.

“My grandfather was the first member of our family to know him,” said Salvatore J. Scognamillo, the current chef and co-owner of Patsy’s.

The grandfather — Pasquale “Patsy” Scognamillo — had co-owned a restaurant nearby called the Sorrento during the first years of the 1940s. The young Sinatra was brought in one day by his boss, bandleader Tommy Dorsey. “I’ve got this skinny kid from Hoboken,” Dorsey reportedly told Patsy Scognamillo. “Fatten him up.”

Sinatra swiftly became an international singing idol whose voice and face made women and girls scream and faint; riots broke out at his concerts. Patsy, meanwhile, left the Sorrento and opened Patsy’s. Both men — the crooner and the cook — were doing well for themselves.

But in the early 1950s, Sinatra’s career crashed. He was no longer a kid. His records stopped selling. His romance with Ava Gardner was on the rocks. His record company dropped him. The winner suddenly was being widely seen as a loser, washed up.

People who follow the Sinatra story know about the eventual comeback: how he landed a role in the movie “From Here to Eternity” and won an Academy Award, how his career zoomed again, how he became the living symbol of success and swagger.

Yet in those down years, no one could have anticipated the rebirth. Sinatra was a has-been, yesterday’s news.

“He would come in to the restaurant alone for lunch,” Sal Scognamillo said to me. I could tell that this was a thrice-told family tale — or a thrice-times-thrice-told tale. That didn’t make it any less compelling.

“My grandfather would sit with him,” Sal said. “There would be people eating lunch who would avoid making eye contact with Sinatra — people who used to know him when he was on top. Sinatra would nod toward them and say to my grandfather: ‘My fair-weather friends.’”

One November, on the day before Thanksgiving, Sinatra asked Patsy if he would make him a solo reservation for the next day. “He said he would be coming in for Thanksgiving dinner by himself,” Sal said. “He said, ‘Give me anything but turkey.’ He didn’t want to think about the holiday, but he didn’t want to be alone.”

The restaurant was scheduled to be closed on Thanksgiving. But Patsy didn’t tell Sinatra that; he told him that he’d make the reservation for 3 p.m. He didn’t want Sinatra to know that he was opening especially for him, so he invited the families of the restaurant’s staff to come in for dinner, too. He cooked for Sinatra, on that solitary holiday, and it wasn’t until years later that Sinatra found out.

That’s where the loyalty came from. That’s why Sinatra never stopped coming to the restaurant. In later years, when Patsy’s would be jammed with diners hoping to get a glimpse of him, few understood why the most famous singer in the world would single out one place as his constant favorite.

It was no big secret to the Scognamillo family. They all knew. A person recalls how he is treated not when he is on top of the world, undefeated, but when he is at his lowest, thinking he will never again see the sun.

“Up those stairs, that’s where Sinatra used to have his table,” I heard a man say to his date as they entered the restaurant. He’s still packing them in, 13 years after his death.

‘Who remembers a kindness that comes when kindnesses are in short supply? Who most treasures being made to feel welcome when every door seems to be slamming shut?

In the wee small hours of the morning, only the lonely.’

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CNN contributor Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose books include “Late Edition: A Love Story” and “Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen.”

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-Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival is the largest and most respected comedy festival in the world.  It has long been a dream of mine to perform Basic Training there and after selling out several major festivals around the world, I thought this one would be a great opportunity.  On July 14-22 I will be performing my show at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.  How long did it take me to get my foot in the door?

2002 – I sent a tape in.  no response

2003 – I sent a tape in, called 17 times. no response, no return phone call

2004 – I performed my show at the Montreal Fringe Festival, received an Honourable Mention from Just For Laughs due to the fact that my show was not considered a comedy.

2005 – Called and emailed several times to get my show staged at Just For Laughs. No response.

2006 – Called and emailed – no response

2007 – Made contact, then the trail went cold.  Tried to follow up.  No response.

2008 – Called and emailed – no response

2009 – Called and emailed – no response

2010 – Called and emailed – got a response

2011 – Performing at Montreal Just For Laughs.

I look at this list and I don’t see 9 years of rejection, I see 9 years of opportunity.

Embrace the rejection and use it.

-Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com

Carmen Electra & The Pussycat Dolls

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