When we last checked in with the hero of our story, he was working on landing a new agent...
Out of the mid-level agencies that called us about Zach, we interviewed with three of them. One was based in Atlanta (with a LA office), one was in Studio City and the last one was in Burbank.
The Atlanta based agency was nice but had more of a hip hop/urban lean to them.
The lady in charge of the Studio City Agency was sweet but had the personality of a preschool teacher.
The Burbank agency was my favorite because their office was in a rundown office complex that looked like the set of a 70s cop show with lower production values than a Quinn Martin production.
The main reason we met with these agencies was to make Zach more comfortable in dealing with high level agents. He wasn't nervous when he signed with his first agency because he didn't know enough about the business to be nervous. After two years of being a working actor in Los Angeles, he is very aware of the stakes involved in meeting with an agent.
All of the smaller agencies liked Zach and expressed interest in working with him.
The agency in Burbank, run by a guy who smoked cigars and looked like an older Ed Asner, called me on December 23rd to tell me they wanted to sign Zach. They were closing for the holidays but wanted to contact us and make the offer. I didn't tell them that I was standing in the fishing gear section of a Walmart in Newport Arkansas when they called.
I played dumb and told them that I wasn't with Zach and Dana at the moment. This was "sorta true" at the moment since they were in different parts of the store. The agency asked me to discuss the offer with them and to leave a message on their machine over the holidays.
We talked about it and decided to pass since we were holding out for a top level agency.
January rolled around and we were still without an agent. Zach's manager kept reassuring us we would be okay. I trust her but I felt my nerves getting more and more frazzled as time went along.
Dana and I signed Zach up for a "meet an agent" workshop for the first weekend in January. I mentioned the workshop to Zach's manager and she was thrilled because of her personal relationship with the agent.
The day of the workshop Zach entered the room to meet the agent. The first words from the agent? "Hi Zach, your manager had told me all about you."
No pressure...
Two days after the workshop we got a call asking Zach to come audition for the agency on the Thursday of this past week. Ummmmm...Yes we will!
The meeting was at 11am in a "well to do" part of town. The parking lot was valet parking so we let the attendants park the car for us. We checked in at the front desk and the security guard walked us to the elevator. The elevator didn't have buttons to push for the various floors. The guard had to swipe his security key to start the elevator towards the correct floor.
Once inside the office we waited for Zach's appointment time. When Zach was called back to the room, the nervous feelings (not Zach's feelings....the anxiety of his parents) kicked into overdrive.
He was back in the office for a sold 15-20 minutes before it was time for the parent portion of the meeting. Our chat with the agent consisted of talking about our backgrounds, current jobs, dogs, diabetes and sports.
At the close of the meeting, the agent thanked us for coming and said he would touch base with Zach's manager later in the day.
Less than an hour later my cell phone rang. It was Zach's manager letting me know he had a new agent!!!!
I was thrilled and surprised at the same time. I didn't expect an answer in less than an hour.
I hung up the phone and walked into the pizza place we chose to celebrate Zach's agent audition. The lunch started as a celebration of landing a meeting with a top agency. It ended up being a congratulations(!) meal.
There's a lot to do now that The Artist has new representation. We need to update his profiles on the various casting sites, send out thank you cards, update his resume with the logos of his agency as well as his manager, get new postcards to send to industry contacts and gear up for pilot season.
One final thought to wrap up this two-part tale:
I'm super proud of Zach. Not because he landed a top level agent (although I am proud of that fact) but because of the way he handled himself through the whole process. There's only so far he can go with the helping hand of his parents ad his manager. We can help him make the connections but he has to be the one to handle the auditions, cold readings and small talk with industry personnel.
He carried himself with a confidence that everything would work out for him. He wasn't cocky at all. He was confident in his abilities to show everyone what he is capable of right now...and what he is capable of in the future.
He handles pressure like a champ and doesn't lose his head.
I could learn a few things from him.
Did I mention this actor has a new agent???
No comments:
Post a Comment