Talent to Go
Jeff Schuetze and I auditioned for and were accepted into "Talent to Go". Basically, this is a company that puts on Casting Director Workshops. Instead of hosting the CD and having them hand out scenes, they do things a little differently. The workshops are held at the casting offices and you perform a scene that you've already auditioned and prepared with your scene partner. You can have different scenes and different partners, but each has to be auditioned and approved, so it's very quality controlled.
Casting workshops are a strange animal. Despite all of the disclaimers and double-speak to the contrary, you are basically paying to audition for someone. For $30 (give or take) you get to act in front of a casting director who, in most cases, is not familiar with your work at all. The more indignant may turn their noses up at this practice and balk at "paying to audition", but I think it's a useful tool. Speaking as someone who's actual acting ability far outweighs his meager amount of credits, I appreciate the opportunity to get in front of a casting director who may not call me in based on my headshot and resume. It's helped tremendously thus far, getting me called in for shows like "That 70's Show" and "West Wing" after the casting director had seen me perform in a workshop.
That's always been my way so far in the "biz". Even with standup. I was never great at selling myself on paper. At first glance, I'm very average. Decent looking, but I'm not going to be causing teenage girls to swoon with my Teen Beat covers. I am, however, a very strong comedic actor and I know that once I get seen by people, it stands out. It's just that "getting seen" part that can be the problem.
So I'm trying to grab the bull by the horns and actually do some stuff, instead of waiting around and hoping someone plucks me out of a headshot pile. We've got two this week, one being with Junie Lowry Johnson. This is one of the biggest and busiest offices in town and cast shows like Deadwood among many, many others. I'll let you know what happens.
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