One of my missions in life is to get actors out of the survival job world. We all learn, you need a survival job, and then go pursue the dream. We need to flip the script. We need to better respect the business of show.
I did the restaurant grind, and later the promotional work grind. Then throughout 2002 I stumbled into the comedy world. By 2005 I was able to quit survival. My day job became Improv comedy.
While other actors are complaining about nepotism, competition, lack of work and having to be on social media, I was creating work for myself. This work not only paid the bills, being in Times Square everyday and the comedy clubs every night, I got a call from MTV, and soon after Late Nite with David Letterman.
Being on Letterman caught the attention of a producer I had met doing a random promotional job a few years before in SOHO. By catching his attention, I mean I text Ken Keller from the green room of the Ed Sullivan theater, I’ll be on Letterman tonight! A few weeks later I was on set for NICKs The Naked Brothers Band, directed by Polly Draper, working with Nat and Alex Wolff, meeting musical genius, Michael Wolff, former music producer for Arsenio Hall.
AND Suddenly I was Walt Frasier from MTV and Letterman and NICK. Suddenly selling tickets to my live comedy shows became easier. Soon after I was I was approached to meet a friend of a friend, and a month later, I was on set of my first SAG commercial, after meeting my manager Jaime Baker.
My point is not to say LOOK AT ME, AREN’T I GREAT!?!?!
My point is, no one gets anywhere giving a rats butt about all the hurdles, the absolute blockades in front of us. They exist. Dwelling on what you can’t do gets you no where. Focusing on what you can do right this second to make tomorrow better gets you there, one step at a time.
I spent nearly 10 years in restaurants, in between regional theater and non union tours that paid squat. I spent a small fortune on voice lessons pursuing opera. I had dreams. I had even more misconceptions. I had negative vibes, seeing agents and casting directors as gate keepers holding me back.
It did not happen over night, but the more I just focused on creating an having fun, work found me. The hustle did not feel like work. Creating postcards and mailing every New York casting director in town was fun. I made a game out of handing out flyers in Time Square.
In every class/workshop I teach I start with my #1 rule, HAVE FUN, but never at another’s expense. If you are not having fun YOU are doing it wrong. Keep it simple.
Early on I adopted the phrase, 90% of what we do is learning to get out of our own way. There is craft and technique, but the biggest thing holding most artists back is their own brain. We are focused on all the negatives. Instead:
- Treat every audition as an artistic experience, a chance to act, create, tell a story.
- Always be looking for new ways to develop self – speech, singing, stage combat, martial artists, dance, new language, new skills, learn guitar, piano, drums, new accent etc etc etc. We need to constantly train our minds and souls
- Get out there, physically
- Put yourself out there via social media
- “Artists” hate this reductive approach, but the end of the day, out job is to create content and figure ways to monetize it.
- Do a deep dive into ROI
In my experience,
- Those that spend too much time in survival jobs end of quitting the biz
- Those that focus too much on the art, spend a lot of time teaching.
- Those that spend too much time on the biz, become producers, casting directors, and agents
- Those that find a balance between SHOW and BIZ work all the time.
Now all that sounds like a lot of BS that does you no good. Sadly most did not make it this far. Most that did will probably quit the biz in the next 6 months. You’ll go get certified in real estate or other pursuit. No jusgement. It wasn’t meant to be.
I’ve known so many talented folks in 30+ years of college and professional theater, TV etc. The ones not working rarely quit due to lack of talent. There wasn’t a lack of work, they just never figured out how to get it. Most schools and classes are populated by many of these artists thay never figured out the BIZ so are horrible sources on how to get work.
Walt Frasier has 25+ years of professional credits in comedy, Theater and music. He got his big break in TV performing comedy sketches on MTV’s Stankervision, Late Nite with David Letterman, TruTV’s Friends of the People, and most recently on HBO’s Pause with Sam Jay. As an actor, Frasier has appeared on NBC’s Blacklist, CBS’s Blue Bloods, USA’s Royal Pains (Filmed in Puerto Rico), Netflix’s Lilyhammer (filmed in Norway) and NICK’s Naked Brothers Band. In addition to 1000s of live performances around the world, Frasier has also appeared in numerous commercials, industrials, webisodes and reality TV shows.
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