This is the basic headshot by Eduardo Soler that I bring to auditions.
Rushed home to change and then to Concord for that audition on Saturday. Although it was scheduled for 1 PM and I knew I'd be late, I actually got there in time to sit with about 25 others in a room with a flat screen monitor playing moments from talent casting in L.A. Lots of happy, energetic young talent contestants on screen. Lots of sedate, neatly dressed, people of all ages in the room. A gray-haired and bearded "radio man" with a deep, deep voice. One young black guy. A Vietnamese woman and her bored teenagers who played games in the back of the room. I chatted up two women - a blond grandmother dressed like a teenager and an attractive, yet unglamorous brown-haired office manager with a boring underpaid county job in downtown Oakland. By the time I was called in, there were only a few others left in the room and it must have been almost 4 PM.
We were told by the reel-us-in ad on Craigslist that this talent management company woud be looking for "real people, all ages, up to 65." Now I know what my deadline is to make it in this business. Career changers beware, if it took you 25 years to perfect your current livelihood, realize that you'll have to accelerate the process after 50.
We got a bit of an overview of the wonders of making it in commercials from the talent management lady - a skinny as a stick former model from Southern California with one of those pulled together faces, short blond hair, dressed in a chic black spandex low V-necked top and slacks that betrayed nothing but lean and mean. She didn't tell us much, but made herself available to answer any questions we may have about the business. I raised my hand and asked about the old Catch-22 between joining SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) or AFTRA and remaining non-union in this smaller market that has more low-paying non-union gigs than union work. She emphasized how it's all up to us, but that the agency who would be meeting with us is today is SAG-approved. She suggested that one wait til the bitter last moment, after being offered a Union gig, to join. "Under Taft-Hartley you have 30 days to join," she said, just show up with a cashier's check on the day of the shoot. You can make between $15,000 and $45,00 per commercial with residuals, so it's definitely worth being in SAG for that."
You betcha. (I've got 2 SAG features from my extra work years ago under my belt and would have to Taft-Hartley myself for the real deal.) Go Google Taft-Hartley - it's just too long to explain.
Meanwhile, in a small office, a representative of the Boom! Agency, a perky mid-20's blond named Denise, would see us one by one behind closed doors. She went over our resumes and asked a few questions, got a feel for our presence, look, and energy. I made sure to reinforce to her how my ability to speak Fluent Spanish and French on camera and my ease with a teleprompter made me an effective spokesperson.
"We'll be calling some people back," she said. It's Tuesday night, I haven't heard. I figure I didn't make the cut with Boom! But, the goddess does work in mysterious ways.
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