If you can’t play by the rules… change the rules.

OK, this is gonna be a long one so strap in.

Before I started teaching, writing and directing, I was in a tough space.  As it says in the header above me, being an adult with not one but TWO degrees in Theatre makes me uniquely qualified and also not qualified at all.  I was in a place in my career where things had stagnated.  I was doing a lot of VO auditions and booking some here and there, auditioning for on-camera work and booking low to no pay jobs every once in awhile and to make ends meet I was working at a local coffee shop.  I was tired, frustrated and unsure what to do to make the future look a little brighter.  I had always had a desire to teach but had no idea how to go about it.  In fact, I had just gone through an unsuccessful round of applications to universities as a teacher.   It seemed that schools weren’t interested in someone who had a semi-successful career in the performing arts; they were only interested in someone who had prior collegiate teaching experience.  Harrumph.

So it was at Disneyland that I related my problems to one of my best friends:  Mr. Geoffrey Long.  Not only is Geoff the smartest person I know, he is a rock star.  Seriously.  In his field (transmedia storytelling, writing, world building etc.) there is hardly a soul who doesn’t know his work.  Currently he is working at the Annenberg Lab at USC, but at the time he was working at Microsoft Game Studios.  Seek out his website (www.geoffreylong.com) and follow him on twitter (@geoffreylong), you’ll be glad you did.

In any event, he gave me the best advice I have ever received:  “If you can’t play by the rules… change the rules.” 

To be fair, at first I dismissed the advice as nothing more than a nice sounding platitude.  Change the rules?  I can’t change the rules; I can’t even get in the game!  How could I possibly change the rules to a game that no one will let me play?!?  Yet the more I tried to dismiss that thought, the louder it kept rolling around in my head.  “Change the rules.”  What did that even mean?  More specifically, what did it mean for me?  The more I thought about it, the more it started to take shape in my mind and give me some guidance.

“Ok,” I thought to myself “if they don’t think that having success as an actor is good enough to teach at a university maybe they will be more interested if I start teaching on the professional level.” 

So that’s exactly what I did.  I started coaching people on VO privately, and some of those clients, became interested in monologue coaching as well.  Before long, I was teaching more and more and had garnered myself a reputation as a good coach.  Soon, one of my students asked if I would be interested in making their VO demo.  I told them that I had never done it before, but if they would be willing to give me a chance, I would love to give it a try. 

So we cut a demo… and they got signed right out of the gate.  Before long, I had a reputation as a solid and affordable demo producer.  Meanwhile, I was teaching more and more and started developing my own approach to VO:  Commercial Theory. 

I started taking notes on the specifics of Commercial Theory and how it related to Shakespeare First Folio technique and the acting theories of Stanislavski and Chekhov.  This led me to remember my Viewpoints training from my graduate work at DePaul University and how, using Viewpoints, Suzuki and Commedia Dell’Arte exercises, I had developed the bulk of my animation voice stable.  This information started showing up in my private coaching sessions.

Before too long, I had attracted the attention of one Matthew Jayson (http://matthewjay.net/, @mattjay_son) who ran a weekly VO workout group in Studio City.  He approached me to come in to his workout group and lead the class.  I did this several times before we noticed that we shared a very similar approach to VO work, so we decided to partner up our separate teaching endeavors and form The VO Academy (www.theVOAcademy.com).  Through the VO Academy we have offered weekly workouts, beginning VO classes, Viewpoints intensives, meet the pros nights, one-on-one instruction and demo production services. 

Soon, I was contacted by Mary Weiss (www.mariweiss.com) at the SAG Conservatory to come and teach an acting for the mic class.  Which I did, and was then asked to teach another one, and then to teach at their summer intensive.  Huzzah!  My teaching resume was growing… and growing…

One of the demos I made was for a gentleman named Tom Crehan (www.facebook.com/killercopy), he was tapped to narrate the new HGTV show “You Live In What?” and he used my home studio to record the sessions.  After two sessions with the producer on a phone patch, I was asked to serve as the VO director for the show… which I have now been doing for three seasons.  I was also asked by my wife’s improv group ADD (www.comedyADD.com) to direct their newest pilot “Book Group” that is designed to pitch to Amazon.  Directing resume growing…

While I was doing all of this directing, teaching and note taking, I decided I should do something with all of those notes.  So I started work on my book:  Starting Your Career In Voice-Overs (www.StartingYourCareerInVoiceOvers.com.)  Originally entitled “From Shakespeare to Soap Flakes:  Commercial Theory and Voice Over” it focused mainly on the First Folio technique aspects of the Theory.  I approached several publishers and quickly heard back from Allworth Press.  They loved the book and the concept and were interested in publishing it.  But they thought I had more to say.  They asked if I could write a second half to the book that expanded on the theory and discussed how to get started in the world of VO.  I obliged and the new incarnation needed a new title:  “Starting Your Career In Voice-Overs."  The book comes out on November 4^th.  Resume continuing to grow…

As a result of the book, I was contacted by a friend of mine from my undergraduate work, Mary-Tyler Upshaw (@blogfilledlife), who is teaching at Salisbury University.  She asked if I would be interested in coming and giving a masterclass in VO at Salisbury and possibly some other universities in the area.  She reached out to some contacts at those universities and I had another class lined up.  I now had university level teaching on my resume, a published book, directing credits and years of professional level teaching. 

Meanwhile, my performance career also benefited.  Because I was not so focused on booking the next job and worrying about not booking that job (see previous blog post), I started booking more.  I had so many things going on that I didn’t obsess over auditions… and booked the job as the narrator of the hit syndicated show “Divorce Court.”  During my run as narrator (which was two years as they are revamping the show in the new season) the show saw it’s highest ratings ever, and was even nominated for a Daytime Emmy.  I also ended up in GTAV as well as several commercials, one of which was nominated for a Radio Mercury award for Radio Commercial of the Year.  Resume, resume, resume.

I’m not bragging, I swear.  This is all about you and how you can do the exact same thing.  Just listen to good ol’ Geoffrey Long.

You see, I credit Geoffrey Long with all of this, thanks to his life changing advice.  The “rules” said I couldn’t get teaching experience without getting a teaching job… which makes no sense.  The “rules” said that having a successful acting career wasn’t enough to teach young actors how to have a successful acting career… which makes no sense.  So I told the “rules” to take a walk and I changed them.  I believe I am now in a much better position than I was 3 years ago to get my foot in the door at a university.

So what does this mean to you gentle reader?  I don’t know exactly.  Changing the “rules” means something different for everyone in every field.  I can’t tell you what path you will take, but I can tell you that doors are never locked just because the “rules” tell you they are.  Figure out what it is that you want out of life, figure out the “rules” to that thing and change them, pick that lock.  It’s your life and this here is ‘Murica… you can do and be anything you want.  So go, do and be.