OK, deep breath everyone… tough love coming at you!

I hear you when you say “I can’t afford classes and workshops”. I totally get it. I do. But, I have to be Dr. Tough Love here and say you have to find a way.   Read the rest of my blog response by clicking here…

You can’t just decide you want to be an actor and walk into a lead on stage or TV just because you have some raw talent, a dream and you’re passionate. I wish you could, but the reality is you can’t.

People still get “discovered”, sure, but it’s not a practical way to hope a career will unfold. Look at the stadiums full of passionate people with dreams that are rejected on the “idol” style reality shows. With all your talent, dreams and passion you have to train.

Let me reframe this….

• Professional doctors train; they go to school, it takes years and it cost thousands of dollars intuition and hours of interning. They don’t just march into a hospital and say, “I want to be Chief surgeon tomorrow because I’ m passionate about saving lives”.

• Professional lawyers train; they go to school, it takes years and it cost thousands of dollars in tuition and months of being a clerk. They don’t just march in and say, “I want to be a judge, because I’m passionate about seeing justice done”.

• Professional Plumbers train; they take courses, they learn on the job and it can take years to become good enough to earn a steady income. They can’t just say “Well I know s#!t flows down, so I’m going to call myself a plumber”…they know much more…they trained!!
• Professional actors train and keep training themselves.

Now, YOU CAN, become an actor without “formal” training at a college or university. But for myriad reasons, it takes a long time to build a career this way. Instead of spending on tuitions, you’re going to pay class and workshop fees. On top of that, you’re going to be competing with actors who did train formally and who are also training in post graduate classes and workshops right along beside you. Building a career this way is doable, but you have to do it and accept the time and costs.

If you really have no money or little money, then you must do student films and community theatre until you’re blue in the face. Volunteer for indie films. Create your own projects for the web and theatre. Start a performance troupe. Start an improvisation troupe. Pull sides from the web and start a cold reading and audition group. Take any free workshops or seminars you can find…it all helps…but, here comes the tough love again; it may not be enough upon which to build a career.  You’ve really got to train in a proper class with an objective and skilled instructor.

And here we go again…”I can’t afford it”… then you have to Save/Budget. Get a better “joe-job”. Get another “joe-job”. Ask your “angels” for help. The funny thing is, I find when I commit to a class or workshop, no matter how strapped I am…the money comes. I don’t always know from where…but I get through and I get by. I’m not implying you abandon all caution and sign up for everything. But make some investigations as to what’s out there and make some judicious decisions, plan accordingly and proceed with due financial caution.

Breathe. Everyone OK? I’m just trying to keep it real for you, so you can adjust your expectations and approach to the biz and LTD!

Kevin