Youth Talent; General Concepts

The Reality - Its not all fun and games

The second requirement is support from your family. The entertainment (and most any other youth oriented talent driven) industry expects fast paybacks. You will not find any better support than your parents (or legal guardians). If they don't buy into your goals, you may have to find someone else that you can trust to help you - If you can't find someone that you can trust to help you, the odds are not in your favor. The young people that you see and hear on videos, television and on the radio had someone behind them, getting them to tryouts, watching for casting calls, developing marketable skills, finding out what is required and helping them improve the talents they have.

You have to approach this knowing that the dedication required is immense. You cannot be afraid of, or be irritated by cameras constantly being focused on you. If you are even only moderately successful, you will be hounded by people and have to smile no matter how inconvenient it may be. This is what entertainers do for a living - if you can't handle it, then you will not be happy or successful over the long haul. I realize that many people hear stories about someone who happened to walk into a star position with little effort on their part - before you think about how great that must be, look at how few of them had real long term success; most had miserable lives as they got older and their talents were either restrained by their management or they simply wanted to continue doing what had been working for them up until now and never adapted to changing trends - what was cool 20 years ago might be cool now, but the odds are against it. If you don't have a long term plan, and you don't have people surrounding you that will support your long term plans, you will not be happy.

How to Showcase your talent

You can copy other people - there is nothing wrong with that, however, you will have to build an audience and that requires that you be unique enough that people will remember you and not the person you are copying. As an example, there are thousands of Elvis impersonators - few if any will ever get past being a copy (and none will ever replace the original). They remain interchangeable, These people can make money at it, but they had better like the music that Elvis did, because that is all that they can perform and remain an Elvis impersonator.

The more talents that you possess, the more interesting you may be to the audience. Simply singing or dancing well is often not enough, you have to be able to present yourself in a visually interesting way. This holds true especially if you are doing magic tricks - if people don't pay attention, you have failed in your effort and must find some special way of presenting your talents. You may have to learn how to add new skills, or find ways to improve on what you do - Video Tape your act and pay attention to how you related to the audience and how they relate to you. You will probably hate what you see in the first few videos that you make - save them, you will want to refer back to them as you develop your act. You will probably notice that you are not smiling much - judge how you look and your mannerisms, get rid of movements or actions that are not what you are trying to use to define you as an artist.

You have to be able to put on a show. Minimally, this means 45 minutes worth of entertainment. If you are a singer or a dancer, estimate at least 10 songs - this is a lot of work and you will probably need to start working and exercising out just to be able to do it and smile all the way through it. For a magician, this time would would involve at least 15 magic tricks that involve the audience - you can't just do the tricks, you have to perform them; study other magicians to learn how they present magic tricks and work an audience.

You have to be heard and seen. This usually means that you need a portable Public Address system. Don't expect someone else to provide you your tools of the trade. You may have to work with other acts if you don't have your own equipment, but don't expect them to care about how you look or sound while performing - your success doesn't mean anything to them, it means everything to you.

You need to develop a rapport with your audience. There is no reason that you can't plant people in the audience that clap and and support your act. Be aware that as a youth act, your parents yelling and clapping might be very out of place - your 'groupies' need to be a part of the target audience. A magician will appeal to a larger age group audience than singers or dancers will. Find people who will support your presentation in a way that is consistent with your audience. Most likely, any use of off color language is totally inappropriate, as are gestures that people may find offensive. You may argue 'thats part of my act and persona', and I'll argue back that if there are any people there from a TV station filming the events, you won't get on their news show if you don't meet their broadcast requirements. Publicity shows up at very unpredictable times and places - you can't afford to screw up your chances to get free publicity.

You have to be creative and find places to perform.

• You can request to perform at a mall.
• In New York, people set up in Times Square and just perform.
• Similar things happen down at the beach in Los Angeles.
• You can find out if you can perform at a company picnic,
• party or
• city event.
• Your state fair (if in the USA) lets people perform, but rarely pays anything for it.
• In other countries, events and festivals will usually allow you to perform in the same non-paid way.

You may have to drive hundreds of miles (or kilometers) to meet your audience - this means that if your parents are involved, they will need to find the time to support your efforts. If you are not fully committed to this effort, stop now and find something else to do - music, dancing or magic will be a hobby and not a profession. Don't waste other peoples time if you are not committed.

You will need to accept critical analysis. You may not like what people say about your work. There are two ways to deal with this - accept what people say and learn from it, or, if the audience is wrong for your act, find a way to attract your target audience to your performances. If you have a video tape of your performance, compare the comments for the show and see if there is anything to learn from it. Your friends and family may not tell you accurately how your show was. It may take thousands of hours to get your act down to the point where you always look your best and can react to almost any situation. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes and something often doesn't work the way you want it to - thats life and you will learn from it; you have to be able to smile your way thru any problems and do your best at all times. If you have equipment problems, maybe you need better gear or you need to get training on how to use it more effectively.

Locating possible Contacts

Unless you are near a production company (look in your phone book, or on the Internet), and you are available when they need you, the odds are against finding your way into the industry. Your first step is always to talk to your parents about your goals and get their support - nothing will happen without it. One or both of your parents should be a part of any business meeting you attend and meet all of the people that you will be working with.

You don't need an agent yet, however you will need to first track down who (companies) do actual magic, musical or video productions in your area. If you are outside of a large city, this may be challenging, however, there are many video production companies that do location filming for larger film studios, documentaries, advertising, training and local (City/County) productions - these are scattered all over the place, including colleges. If you have none of these within an hours drive, odds are against taking advantage of these resources. If you are in that driving range, then you need to ask where these production companies hire their talent from, that will give you a list of Agencies to contact. These Agencies will not talk to you unless you are accompanied by a parent, so work this out before wasting everyones time. Some production companies do not use Agencies, they use people they know are available locally - this is why you have to discuss how they work with them.

A second problem is that you are still in school (It is the right thing for you to be doing), however production schedules, require that you be available all day, often for many days on end - they are trying to produce a recording, movie or other production, and as a result, you have to work around their schedules, they will not work around yours.

Seeking a Manager, Agent or Producer

If you are performing someone else's songs, dances or magic tricks, they must not be exact copies of a video that you have seen, rather, they must be highly personalized versions that reflect your strengths and talents. There are situations when many people are trying to get the attention of a manager or audience, and someones extra effort will often be the deciding factor.

Its also possible that you don't fit the profile of what they are looking for. This is no reflection on your capabilities or performance. Don't let it bother you and consider it a learning experience. You may make contacts that make you more successful in the future.

If you impress a Manager, Agent or Producer, they may find a place for you in their next project or series of bookings. You have to realize that youth acts have a limited audience, and the average manager or booking agent may not have a lot of call for that performance type. They may know other managers or agents that do. They may be able to advise you about your next step, however, they also may know little about the area that you aspire to, and as such can't really help you much, or have advice that doesn't really apply.

It takes a sizable amount of money to launch a national youth singing act. This is why the level of dedication and ability to react in a positive way to any aspect of a performance is important to people or organizations that are spending the money to create one. Managers, Agents and Producers want to see a level of professionalism and a unique style that defines you. You can call it charisma or stage presence, but that is what people seek and you either have it or you don't. You can learn it, but it takes time and lots of critical reviewing of your past performances and assistance from many people. Any manager or agent who is seeking talent wants paybacks on their investment. This means that they won't hire beginners, quitters or people who are unable to work with other people. A manager or booking agent cannot afford to have the talent walk out in the middle of a performance or a tour - They will give breaks to those that fit their needs, as along as they can be flexible enough to meet the demands of the work. They also will partner with your parents (or legal guardian), because if you are a minor (under 18 years old in the USA), any deal that is worked will be with them. This is why you need to establish your goals with your family early on, otherwise you will never get this far in the first place.

Think out your strategies and try to imagine how you can succeed. Its possible, as long as you have the time, dedication and focus on your goals with your family's support.

Questions? Comments? .

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