#SOBLESSED: the Annoying Actor Friend's Guide to Werking in Show Business Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Scenes from a Hat,” improv and more like “Sing a Folk
Song” or “Relate a Childhood Experience” kind of improv. What bad luck must it
be for the kid who has to follow some girl’s rendition of “This Land is Your
Land” with a childhood memory about how they went as a Ninja Turtle for
Halloween three years in a row or the time their stepfather touched them? Auditions
are hard, y’all.
    What Are My Odds of Getting Into Michigan?
    The class sizes are around twenty and the faculty is
extremely selective. If you are a talented and easily moldable student with
limited diversity and personality, you could potentially have a better chance
than someone else. I’m not saying that you need to have been manufactured in a
laboratory, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt your chances!
    Who Are the Notable Alumni from Michigan?
    Neil Patrick Harris’ partner, Kyle Bishop, one of the
Fosters, everyone who has probably ever played Olive or Coneybear in Spelling
Bee , someone from Glee , and the class of 2007.
    DO YOU NEED A BFA TO BE #SOBLESSED?
    It’s all a crapshoot, and while choosing which
college to attend is truly one of life’s most monumental decisions that will
forever dictate your future, it will certainly not be the last one like it. I
would not be where I am today if I had chosen a different school, and who’s to
say I’d be better or worse off than I am now? Who knows? If I got into my first
choice, maybe I’d have been knifed on the way to jazz class in the dark
alleyways of Cincinnati (or Ann Arbor, Boston, Pittsburgh, etc. – because
I’m not telling you where I did or didn’t go! #sorrynotsorry). Everything
happens for a reason, and if you don’t get what you want in life, it’s a good
idea to go right on thinking that whatever you wanted would have eventually
killed you. That is what I tell myself whenever my agent gives me feedback
like, “They went another direction.”
    Make a decision and trust that it’s the right one. Go
to college for a solid reason, not because you think it’s what you’re supposed
to do. Go to college for a degree. Go to college for training. Go to college to
make connections. Don’t go to college under the assumption it will
automatically get you anywhere in life. Don’t go to college under the
assumption that a true triple threat still exists. Learn one thing and learn
how to do it better than anyone else. Be the best singer or the best actor or
the best dancer or the best looking. If you can’t be the best at one of those
attributes, then be the best networker. That skill could take you further than
anything you might learn in a practice room.

CHAPTER THREE
POUNDING THE PAVEMENT
    I just booked a film role AND a voiceover gig from 2
different companies without an audition ! Why? Cuz God is my
homegirl. #grateful
    *
    Congratulations! You have either officially graduated
from college, completely blew off college, or left college for a job that just finished!
You are ready to move to New York City. This is where the fun really begins.
You are moving to the greatest city in the world. If you can make it here,
you’ll make it anywhere – except Los Angeles because those cold bitches
are lethal.
    MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY
    Moving to New York City is expensive. I understand
this because I still have a Bank of America credit card bill that is laughing
at me uncontrollably. Seriously, don’t move here until you have a healthy
buffer in your checking account provided by your parents. If your parents can
spot your rent for a year or two, that’s even better! If you have the kind of
parents that just dump your Sallie Mae loans in your lap without so much as a
two weeks notice, then I suggest saving those summer stock nickels until you
have a minimum of three months of survival readily available on the off chance
you don’t book jobs as quickly as your friends.
    Let’s discuss the monthly budget of an average actor
in New York City:
    Rent:  $1,000
    MetroCard: $112
    Cable