Like I said, I now wake up every day and think about how I want to be famous. Like most people, I watch television, and I see people on TV and think; "I could do that." So instead of sitting around and thinking about how I should be doing something, I've recently had the gumption to go after it a little bit.
My first inclination was to maybe try out for one of my Aunt Barbie's plays. She directs plays at local theaters and they are almost always very entertaining. What appeals to me even more is that she directs plays that are incredibly light-hearted and funny. Funny, again, is something of a recurring theme in my life.
However, after discussing this option a little bit with my mom and even bringing it up to my grandparents, nobody seemed to have any comment as to how I would go about that, so it sort of shifted to the back-burner. Instead, I did what any person of my generation would...I turned to the internet. I hit Craigslist and various newspapers to see if they had any talent offerings that sounded like something I could make myself available for, but the problem was always that there's next to nothing going on in Cleveland. As a tease I made a habit of looking at the "talent gigs" section on the LA Craigslist page, or the NYC page, and I'd see hundreds of listings every single day...Cleveland gets a max of about four a day, but it's usually more like one or two.
But my mind was starting to get set on wanting to get into that area. I started very seriously entertaining the notion of making a trip to LA. My great friend Graham is going to Pepperdine for grad school starting in a few days (that's in Malibu), so I'd have one person who'd be easy to stay with, and another friend, Paul, will be moving to LA within the next couple days as well. Basically, I'd just need to pay for food while I'm out there and the plane tickets to get there, and I'd be golden. Of course, that's not the easiest task in the world, but at least I won't be paying for three weeks of hotel stays.
The game-plan I eventually came up with would be to travel back to Phoenix with my brother Pete after his visit in Chesterland. He was slated to fly back on the 27th of October, which is a Tuesday. I figured I could fly back with him, then road trip to LA that weekend with my friend Carly. We went to high school together and she just graduated from Arizona State, where she'll be for a little while longer. The road trip would be great because that would afford me the chance to see the Southwest, which I've never really done. I saw Phoenix for a few days when I went to the Fiesta Bowl this past season, but that's about it. Once I got to LA, I'd stay with Graham (who will have a car), and maybe spend some time with Paul as well - since I think he'll be more in LA, whereas Graham is on the outskirts in The 'Bu.
Anyway, all of this may be falling through for two big reasons. The first is that my brother Pete is now moving to LaCrosse, Wisconsin the first week of October. As such, it would be a bit weird for me to fly out to Phoenix solely for the road trip to LA...but that's not totally ruling it out. It would still surely be a great time, it would just be slightly strange to not have my brother to go visit...I'd be going out there to see a friend, then driving to see another friend...I'd feel a little guilty, but I don't know why. Regardless, it's still in its developmental stages, I don't know how that's going to pan out. Details when they come.
The other big reason that I don't know about the trip to LA is that I may have broken into this business at the ground floor.
One boring day I was sitting around researching this whole scene when I Googled something like "talent agencies near Cleveland," or maybe "model/talent agencies near Cleveland." I scanned the results, seeing where they might be, checking out websites, clientele, and most importantly, when they had casting calls.
Most of the websites (most of all websites, really) were nothing special, and they would make mention of when their open calls were. Typically, they were once or twice a month, and of the two or three which fit that mold, those one or two times a month were not in the near future when I was reading it.
One of those agencies was called Docherty, which is where a friend of mine does some modeling. He actually went to a couple casting calls in New York City during our sophomore year spring break and I went with him for fun - great trip, I'd love to go back - but nothing too serious ever came of it. Docherty is based in Cleveland and apparently they have a 2nd HQ in Pittsburgh, so those are the two main places where they do things. Fancy website...made them seem snobby.
One of the other agency websites was a place called Pro-Model and Talent Management, allegedly based out of Akron (but the map shows that it's in Fairlawn). What specifically caught my eye about this company/their website was the bold-faced print that said they had twice-weekly open calls; Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
That was pretty much all I needed to see, so on a Wednesday afternoon I gave them a call to see what the details might be. I spoke with a delightful woman over the phone for about ten minutes. We discussed what was going on in my life, why I felt like I wanted to get into this, what they were looking for, and more about what was going on in my life. At some point she mentioned that I couldn't have possibly picked a better time to call them up: Being in a competitive age-group, they only look for people my age once or twice a year and it just so happened that they opened it up the week during which I called. So, as luck would have it, she wanted me to come down on Saturday to their offices and be a part of their casting call. Basically, I would go down there, bring a recent photo of myself, and listen to their company presentation. Afterward I would be subject to a one-on-one interview with somebody (during all of this my mother would be present because they're a family-oriented company) where they would try to figure out if I was the type of person they would want to work with. Over the phone she told me that 75% of their decision-making-process comes from the attitude and personality I would be expressing during this interview...to which I thought "well if I just chit-chatted for a solid ten minutes, I think I can do that pretty easily...I like where this is going."
A promising lead, indeed.
My first inclination was to maybe try out for one of my Aunt Barbie's plays. She directs plays at local theaters and they are almost always very entertaining. What appeals to me even more is that she directs plays that are incredibly light-hearted and funny. Funny, again, is something of a recurring theme in my life.
However, after discussing this option a little bit with my mom and even bringing it up to my grandparents, nobody seemed to have any comment as to how I would go about that, so it sort of shifted to the back-burner. Instead, I did what any person of my generation would...I turned to the internet. I hit Craigslist and various newspapers to see if they had any talent offerings that sounded like something I could make myself available for, but the problem was always that there's next to nothing going on in Cleveland. As a tease I made a habit of looking at the "talent gigs" section on the LA Craigslist page, or the NYC page, and I'd see hundreds of listings every single day...Cleveland gets a max of about four a day, but it's usually more like one or two.
But my mind was starting to get set on wanting to get into that area. I started very seriously entertaining the notion of making a trip to LA. My great friend Graham is going to Pepperdine for grad school starting in a few days (that's in Malibu), so I'd have one person who'd be easy to stay with, and another friend, Paul, will be moving to LA within the next couple days as well. Basically, I'd just need to pay for food while I'm out there and the plane tickets to get there, and I'd be golden. Of course, that's not the easiest task in the world, but at least I won't be paying for three weeks of hotel stays.
The game-plan I eventually came up with would be to travel back to Phoenix with my brother Pete after his visit in Chesterland. He was slated to fly back on the 27th of October, which is a Tuesday. I figured I could fly back with him, then road trip to LA that weekend with my friend Carly. We went to high school together and she just graduated from Arizona State, where she'll be for a little while longer. The road trip would be great because that would afford me the chance to see the Southwest, which I've never really done. I saw Phoenix for a few days when I went to the Fiesta Bowl this past season, but that's about it. Once I got to LA, I'd stay with Graham (who will have a car), and maybe spend some time with Paul as well - since I think he'll be more in LA, whereas Graham is on the outskirts in The 'Bu.
Anyway, all of this may be falling through for two big reasons. The first is that my brother Pete is now moving to LaCrosse, Wisconsin the first week of October. As such, it would be a bit weird for me to fly out to Phoenix solely for the road trip to LA...but that's not totally ruling it out. It would still surely be a great time, it would just be slightly strange to not have my brother to go visit...I'd be going out there to see a friend, then driving to see another friend...I'd feel a little guilty, but I don't know why. Regardless, it's still in its developmental stages, I don't know how that's going to pan out. Details when they come.
The other big reason that I don't know about the trip to LA is that I may have broken into this business at the ground floor.
One boring day I was sitting around researching this whole scene when I Googled something like "talent agencies near Cleveland," or maybe "model/talent agencies near Cleveland." I scanned the results, seeing where they might be, checking out websites, clientele, and most importantly, when they had casting calls.
Most of the websites (most of all websites, really) were nothing special, and they would make mention of when their open calls were. Typically, they were once or twice a month, and of the two or three which fit that mold, those one or two times a month were not in the near future when I was reading it.
One of those agencies was called Docherty, which is where a friend of mine does some modeling. He actually went to a couple casting calls in New York City during our sophomore year spring break and I went with him for fun - great trip, I'd love to go back - but nothing too serious ever came of it. Docherty is based in Cleveland and apparently they have a 2nd HQ in Pittsburgh, so those are the two main places where they do things. Fancy website...made them seem snobby.
One of the other agency websites was a place called Pro-Model and Talent Management, allegedly based out of Akron (but the map shows that it's in Fairlawn). What specifically caught my eye about this company/their website was the bold-faced print that said they had twice-weekly open calls; Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
That was pretty much all I needed to see, so on a Wednesday afternoon I gave them a call to see what the details might be. I spoke with a delightful woman over the phone for about ten minutes. We discussed what was going on in my life, why I felt like I wanted to get into this, what they were looking for, and more about what was going on in my life. At some point she mentioned that I couldn't have possibly picked a better time to call them up: Being in a competitive age-group, they only look for people my age once or twice a year and it just so happened that they opened it up the week during which I called. So, as luck would have it, she wanted me to come down on Saturday to their offices and be a part of their casting call. Basically, I would go down there, bring a recent photo of myself, and listen to their company presentation. Afterward I would be subject to a one-on-one interview with somebody (during all of this my mother would be present because they're a family-oriented company) where they would try to figure out if I was the type of person they would want to work with. Over the phone she told me that 75% of their decision-making-process comes from the attitude and personality I would be expressing during this interview...to which I thought "well if I just chit-chatted for a solid ten minutes, I think I can do that pretty easily...I like where this is going."
A promising lead, indeed.
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