Whether your audition is in-person or over webcam, I can help you prepare properly and do everything possible to take advantage of your opportunity. Coaching, which includes everything from script analysis to memorisation techniques to working with fake eyelines to rehearsing it like a play, is work to be done in the days before. And it also helps to spend 15 minutes together just before your audition to warm you up. That means JUST before your audition, whenever possible. If it’s a live audition, you facetime me from outside the building before you go in. If it’s virtual, we do a virtual dry run just before you go in to the Zoom waiting room. So you’re really ready. That way they aren’t seeing your first crack at it, they are seeing your tenth. In the last 20 minutes. They just think it’s your first. Prepping and warming up properly books jobs. And one of the goals of the professional actor is to book jobs...to get to set and get paid.

I’ve been coaching, shooting, editing, and submitting self tapes for decades. I’m told by agents and actors that my booking rate as a coach is extraordinary. I have top notch gear, but it’s never been about the gear. Lots of people have cameras and lights. People have always come to me for the coaching. I’ve helped lots of actors you’ve never heard of become household names. I’ve helped lots of beginners book leads. I’ve helped lots of actors take their careers to the next level. It’s not because I have a nice camera. It’s because of my coaching. Don’t get me wrong, I do have a very good camera. But since Covid hit, most actors are shooting at home, and have become good at lighting, editing, and the other technical requirements. Also, phone cameras have gotten really good. You don’t need to shoot at a studio anymore. That’s why I switched to almost completely online a couple of years ago, which means I can coach and read for your audition remotely while you shoot it in your home self-tape setup. Eliminates driving, guarantees comfort in your own space. When it’s the right thing to do I can bring actors into my studio to help, but most of the time we can get it done with me on a second device in the right spot to be the reader, the main eyeline, and the coach. So no matter where in the world you are, I can help with your self-tape.

AKA Set Preparation. A term I started using decades ago, what us old schoolers call rehearsal. Let’s say you booked the job, and you’re only in the one or two scenes you did for the audition. Well, you had a day or two to prep the audition, and now you have a week or more to prep for set. If you want your work in the project to be your best, it behooves you to get into the studio and rehearse. This is your homework. ‘Rehearsal’ on set is for crew and camera, not for performance. We are expected to be pros, and that means show up ready to do the job. Well. Six different ways, because they may not want it the way you did it in the audition and you’ve got to be ready to adjust. You’ll do it better, you’ll feel better about your work, and your work will be better if you’ve prepped, because your prep will anticipate many of the possible redirections and ways it might be shot. Then there’s the more common scenario: you book the job but instead of the two scenes from your audition, you’re now in six. Or thirty. Time to get into the studio and start preparing, because all those scenes need the same level of attention to detail as your original two from the audition. They all need to be great. Many actors simply memorise their lines then go to set and wing it. I’m a theatre guy. I would never show up at the theatre on opening night with my lines memorised, and ‘wing it’ in front of a paying audience. And if I did, it probably would not be my best work. This art form deserves your best. Put in the time, learn to prep like a pro, and do your best work when the camera rolls.

One on one training allows me to work differently than I would be able to if I were teaching group classes. I can custom design each actor’s program based on where they are and what they need, we can work as often or as occasionally as we want to, we can combine working live with working online so you get good at both, we can go session by session with no commitment, the list goes on and on. Yes, there are things that group classes offer that are valuable. So valuable that I plan to launch some soon on top of my workshops. Group classes offer you the opportunity to watch others. To see what works and doesn’t, to learn from other’s successes and failures, to have the pressure and obligation to show up every week and put your heart on the line in front of a group of people, to simply get used to being on your mark in front of a big group and get comfortable there... there are many great things to be gotten out of group classes. But. You’ll only get about 15 minutes per week of your teacher’s attention if there’s 12 people in your class and you’re all taking turns on the mark. And it’s really hard to master an art form when you’re only training for 15 minutes per week. So by the time you’ve paid for a month of class and spend hundreds of dollars, you’ve really only gotten an hour of time on the mark in front of the camera. My opinion is that the more time you spend on the mark, the faster you’ll get comfortable there. And although people think private training will be more expensive than group classes, it isn’t, if you look at it like this: I can give privately give you around 4x the amount of time on the mark as a group class for the same monthly cost. If four hours of private one-on-one costs the same as a group class that will only give you an hour in front of the camera, it’s an easy argument to make that you’ll improve 4x faster and you’ll learn 4x as much in the same month for the same cost if you train privately. Because you’ll be on the mark for 4x as much time. And again, when I work with an actor one-on-one, I can design their training based on where they are and what they need. Group classes have their place, but private training is infinitely more efficient and cost-effective.