So have you had an agent, or manager, or both…or like me a separate agents for Comm., Theatrical etc. It starts to feel, at a certain point if things aren’t going well, like you’re dating 3 people and none of them are particularly satisfying. This leaves us frustrated, to the pointof anger sometimes, and mostly keeps us going round and round in our heads like a bad merry-go-round. Additionally, it literally can be a merry-go-round in FACT, when you wind up having to constantly “seek out” new representation. Well what can I tell you other than, “welcome to the biz.” Now if you are an actor in a smaller to medium sized market then you’re likely to only have 2-7 choices of representation places. This, on one hand, makes this whole conversation less likely for you…but on the other hand also FORCES you to kinda “be happy” with whatcha got…cuz you can’t jump from one horse to the other very much on the merry-go-round.
There is a Yen and a Yang to everything and this is no different but the issue becomes the following: “Why did you agree to work with this rep, why are you staying, and sometime more notably…why aren’t you leaving?” Yes, I understand the “fear” of having no one “Love you” but sometimes you just gotta JUMP off of the damn carnival ride. Sometimes you gotta do this just for some peace in your flippin head about the whole subject. There was a stretch of time in my career when I didn’t have Theatrical rep for 7 years, and I still worked, because I did all of the things I’ve founded The Actors’ Network ON.
At the end of they day dating, friends and family can often feel like you’re just going around in circles. There is that great line from the Eagles song “Take it to the Limit” which states: You can spend all your love…making time. Boom. There you go. You can spend ALL of your Representation..making time. Trust me, in a place like Hollywood, I have watched hundreds to thousands of actors…do exactly that, and any time I felt like I was just “with someone” for the sake of having rep…I know that I was just “making time” and I’d leave.
I know and understand that we want to give a business relationship time, I agree, but to what degree are we talking? Well, in general, my rule became over time…that in ANY 6-month period there was enough activity for me to be able to really “judge fairly” what this representative was doing with me as a client…for me to make a legit assessment. That didn’t mean that I just bolted after 6-months, but it meant that I would talk with them at 3 months, talk again at 6, and start putting out feelers for “new meetings” simultaneously.
So if you’re truly not able to get opportunities from your representation to get out and see the entire carnival, and you’re just stuck going round and round on the merry-go-round that has you “thinking” you’re IN the carnival when you’re really just a side show going in a circle…jump the hell off, and start anew. Regardless of your career success, if nothing else, do this for your mental health. I see far too much depression and frustration over “who loves me enough to rep me” when being repp’ed doesn’t mean shit. The only thing that matters is that you’re repp’ed WELL. That should be your litmus test.
Always on your side, @TheKevinE