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Episode 268: Illusions and Empowering Questions

Acting Business Boot Camp

Release Date: 01/24/2024

Episode 284: Prayer & Meditation for the Actor show art Episode 284: Prayer & Meditation for the Actor

Acting Business Boot Camp

So today I actually, I've been just so intensely busy with so many different things and I was in New York City today and one of the things I used to do when I was in New York more than I am now is I would go into churches and I just happened to pass by an old church that I usually would go into and I just walked in. And it was quiet, quiet.  And I have been noticing this past, I don't know, week, that my mind has been racing a lot.  Just tons and tons of talk and nothing negative. Just very busy.  And it's disrupted my sleep and it's been so unpleasant.  And then I went...

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Episode 283: The Benefit of Wisdom for the Actor show art Episode 283: The Benefit of Wisdom for the Actor

Acting Business Boot Camp

Today, I'm going to talk about the subject of Wisdom.  Wisdom is my favorite word in the American language.  God, do I love Wisdom. The reason why I love Wisdom is because Wisdom gives me power. And sometimes it isn't even the power of knowledge, but the power of knowing what to do.  And I don't have any script for this podcast or guidance for this podcast. I'm just talking to you about this subject because it is truly just the thing that I crave more of.  This past week I turned another year older. I help people to adjust their thoughts and their lives to work for...

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Episode 282: Perfectionism and You! show art Episode 282: Perfectionism and You!

Acting Business Boot Camp

Now I wouldn't say that I would sometimes call myself Peter Pamela Perfectionism Rose, but sometimes I've called myself Peter Pamela Perfectionism Rose. The biggest thing about perfectionism that I want to talk about today is that perfectionism leads to procrastination, leads to paralysis.  The other thing that I think is so important about the lesson of perfectionism is to make your ears grow bigger, cunning, baffling, and powerful. I look at all the ways, in fact even this too, recording today's podcast, I was looking for the right time to do it.  But do you know what the right...

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Episode 281: Taking Risks show art Episode 281: Taking Risks

Acting Business Boot Camp

Today I'm going to be talking about something that I have been doing recently, which I've been really taking risks. It's been real. It's been an adventure. And I've said to myself, I remember earlier this year, I was in a foreign country. I was driving in a foreign country, on the opposite side of the road. And I went in my car. It was late at night and I'd been traveling for a while and I just said to myself, You are so brave. You are so brave.  And I think one of the things that I've learned in taking risks is really to encourage, be your own cheerleader while you're doing it. ...

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Episode 280: Vulnerability & the Actor show art Episode 280: Vulnerability & the Actor

Acting Business Boot Camp

Today, I'm going to talk about something that I've been feeling recently—vulnerability. Yeah. Vulnerability. Just feeling a little tender.  Now, the thing I always think about with vulnerability is vulnerability and emotional availability is two of the greatest assets that actors can have.  All I have to say about that is that can also be like your cross to bear, as it were when dealing with the industry.  Because as an actor, as an artist, we wear our hearts on our sleeves.  But how I like to approach the business is the business. When I go in there, I do my work, my...

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Episode 279: Nepotism and Grandiosity show art Episode 279: Nepotism and Grandiosity

Acting Business Boot Camp

I'm going to be talking about something that a listener sent me, and I thought it was a really interesting idea for a podcast, which is about nepotism. I do think it is yet another one of those areas of the industry where we can get our heads in the clouds and not on our bodies, and really allows us to make excuses for not showing up and taking responsibility. As a NEPO baby, I am not one. I do not come from anyone in the industry. You have an advantage in that you have those connections. However, you also have to have the talent, consistency, and persistence to back that up. The other thing...

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Episode 278: Interview with Casting Director Angela Mickey show art Episode 278: Interview with Casting Director Angela Mickey

Acting Business Boot Camp

About Angela Mickey: Angela Mickey is the Managing Director of Casting at Liz Lewis Casting Partners, and has been working as a Casting Director for 24 years.  Angela works across the board on commercial, voice-over, film, TV, and theater projects, with a concentration on comedy, real people, and theatrical casting.  She enjoys working with both veteran and up-and-coming creatives, developing the best, unique plan for each project, and working as a partner to the producing process.  Recent on-camera commercial projects: Spectrum, UberEats, DCU, Blue...

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Episode 277: Are You Stuck? show art Episode 277: Are You Stuck?

Acting Business Boot Camp

  So, this week, I've received numerous emails from actors who have told me that they feel stuck.  That's why I was like, if they're feeling it, maybe I should do a podcast about feeling stuck.  So we're going to get to that.  Being stuck. I think being stuck has a lot to do, at least for me, about timing.  Generally, it always comes down to timing—not my timing; it's the Universe's timing. And then that sometimes just doesn't work. If I'm not in the greatest place, that frustrates me even more because I'm like, “Why not now?” “Why not now? What the fuck is...

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Episode 276: Musical Theatre with David Cady show art Episode 276: Musical Theatre with David Cady

Acting Business Boot Camp

About David Cady: DAVID CADY is currently a professor of commercial and musical theatre performance at AMDA, NYU, and Pace University. Prior, he was a casting director for Donna DeSeta Casting for close to 30 years. In addition to countless commercials, his casting credits include the original Dirty Dancing, Disney's Enchanted, Michael John LaChiusa's The Petrified Prince for the Public Theater, and the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's Whistle Down the      Wind, directed...

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Episode 275: New Beginnings of Spring show art Episode 275: New Beginnings of Spring

Acting Business Boot Camp

I don't know about you, 2024 is not exactly what I expected it would be in this industry. And, I'm after the strikes and, after everything we went through last year, seriously? This is it?  Now, of course, there are reasons for this.  There's the potential IATSE strike and the industry contraction. But the problem is that I don't know about you, but I'm left with feelings. And I thought that, since we just moved our clocks, I thought I would make this episode about spring and new beginnings.  In fact, I had friends over for dinner the other night, and my dear friend brought me...

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I'm going to talk about illusion and illusion in your acting career in two different ways. The first way is I'm going to talk about how we have the idea that an acting career will go one way, but actually, that's just an illusion, and that's just me trying to control the outcome. 

So when I'm doing that, it is an illusion. 

And I remember this actually in terms of money. I always thought if I made X amount of money a year, I would be free.

Oh, I'm going to be so happy. Oh, my life will be cupcakes and bubblegum. I will have no worries.

Only to find out when I made that amount of money and much more. You don't get cupcakes and bubblegum.

You get more decisions, and it becomes even more stressful. 

And really, the only thing money buys is convenience. And if you're not making much money right now, that might be difficult to hear. 

But money does not buy happiness. That was an illusion that I had. 

Another thing that I find as a coach in the industry, and to be quite frank, even more so as a casting director, is this illusion idea that actors have about what it takes to be an actor and what it takes to be a working actor. 

And it's difficult to explain, but I want you to think of something you have done in your life that was difficult. Okay, you're going to do this with me right now. Think of something in your life that you did that was difficult. 

And then I want you to imagine someone who has never done that before coming up to you and either telling you how that experience would be for them or how they would go about doing it.

And you, having known how difficult that was and how that actually gets done, is listening, quite frankly, to this bunch of bullshit. 

And that's sometimes what makes it difficult to be a coach, a casting director, and meeting new actors, and having to break it to them and explain it's not that way.

What is incredibly joyful for me, though, is the actor who goes, “Tell me more.”

“Tell me more because I want to make that illusion a reality. I want to make that illusion a reality more than anything else in the world. Say jump, and I'll ask you how high.” 

That's exciting. That lights me up. So that is the first way I'm talking to you about illusion.

“We do not see the world as it is. We see it as we are.” 

This goes into that example I just gave you previously about the actor and the coach or the casting director.

I want to remind you of the definition of consciousness. 

Now, the definition of consciousness is your awareness of who you are, as opposed to the you that you believe you are or are taught that you are.

So, I think of it as my consciousness is how the Universe sees me. 

Because the Universe sees me as it sees itself, which is Infinite. 

I, on my own, in my ego world, is finite.

So I can choose to believe the me that I believe I am or was taught that I am, or I can believe the consciousness and have an awareness of who I truly am so that I see the world more clearly with more reality. 

Now let's also talk about, because I think this has really come up for me a lot in the past couple of weeks, how this core work helps you to be a better actor.

If I can see things and understand things more truthfully, with more reality, oh boy, that will help me when I start working on character. 

Because I'm tapping into Infinite Truth, Infinite reality, as opposed to my own finite truth, my own finite reality. 

Because when you're Infinite, people are attracted to that.

Quantum physics proves that the world is a creation of our perceptions. 

So I want my perception to be as much in line with the awareness of who I truly am, as opposed to the awareness of who I think I am or how I was taught that I was. 

I want to see the world Infinitely. 

And I want my perception to be Infinite.

We simply attract and then see what it is we expect to see and can actually create what we expect to happen. So that can work for us, or that can work against us.

So, I want you to take a moment now just to write down this question: 

How do I see the world, and do I see the world in a way that works for me or against me? 

And then I want you to journal about that. 

We create our world. Through the interpretations we make. 

So, if we want to create a more enjoyable life experience, we can focus on finding peace, joy, and abundance.

And that focus produces a more desirable perception of the world and those in it. 

So now we're talking, this second part, we're talking about how to create a world that is happier for us, that is more desirable for us, that makes us feel good. 

Dr. Wayne Dyer has this great quote, and I say this as an affirmation quite a bit: “I want to feel good. I want to feel good. I want to feel good.” 

Dr. Wayne Dyer also has another quote that I love, which is all about illusion: “Change the way you look at things. And the things you look at change.”

And that is, again, why I want my perceptions to be as aligned with my consciousness of the awareness of who I really am.

Meaning in line with the Universe. In line with Infinite thought. Remember, like energy attracts like energy. 

So the more positiveness I create in my life, the more positive energy I self-generate, the more I'm going to see that in my perception, in my beautifully created illusions. 

Our goal is to see the world through the inner eyes of Universal Truth and inspire others to do the same.

Remember, capital T truth is Universal Truth. 

It's plants, it's nature, it's in alignment with that Truth, it's the wind. 

And little t truth is ego's truth. An acronym for ego is easing God out. 

And remember, I consider this to be the God of your understanding. God can also, a wonderful acronym for God is good orderly direction.

Oh, wouldn't I love some more of that in my life, wisdom and some good, orderly direction. 

And again, I remind you of the definition of consciousness, which is the awareness of who you really are, as opposed to the you that you believe you are or were taught that you are.

So that capital T Truth is who you really are. And that little t truth is who you think you are. 

So there I've given you two ideas on illusion. 

Illusion in your career and illusion in your life. And how you create a more beautiful in both.