Please, don’t do it.  Don’t be an actor.  Be anything else in the world.

I’m not talking about not being a professional actor.  I’m talking about being an actor in italics.  You see, actors are wonderfully creative people who are generally fun to be around actors are miserable, annoying and come off as crazy.

What is the difference between an actor and an actor besides the italics?

Actors are selfish.  They don’t help their partners with their parts.  They refuse to run lines after “they got it” and they won’t ever move a single piece of scenery.  Actors are happy to help out people in need, they’re always there for their scene partners and they’re willing to help out a production any way they can because they undestand their star rises and falls along with the productions they’re associated with.

Actors are often overly competitive.  It’s funny to see this at auditions.  Actors feel the need to try to throw their competition off.  They’ll give “advise” on how to do the part.  They’ll tell other people auditioning “You look totally different than everyone else here.”   I’ve even heard stories of people throwing away sides so the other actors can’t learn their lines.  And does any of this help their chances at getting the part?  Of course not.  Actors, on the other hand, are gracious and friendly to people they audition with.  If they can help out, they will.  They put their best work out there and let the casting people do their job.  It’s the person best suited for the job that gets it not the cattiest, unless you’re auditioning for Project Runway.

Actors consider themselves artists.  I’m not saying acitng isn’t an art form, of course it is.  But there’s a major difference between being a poet/painter and an actor.  Poets and painters don’t depend on anyone else to keep doing their jobs.  Actors need to be hired (or be accepted into a class) to keep working.  Actors don’t get this and make themselves so difficult to work with that no one will ever want to hire them.

Actors are insane.  Don’t know why but a large number of people giving Actors a bad name have something wrong with them.  It’s like someone hung a sign at LAX saying “If you’re crazy, think about being an actor.”  Actors are usually well balanced normal folks who can hold normal conversations and pass off at parties as normal people with normal jobs.  The funny thing is, some of the people I know who work the most are very laid back and regular.  They’re not overly theatrical or difficult to be around.  Isn’t it funny how that works?

The reason this came up was that we recently cast the latest version of the Cricket Feet Showcase one of the first things we considered when casting actors was if they’d be hard to work with.  We can’t focus 90% of our time on making one person happy, there’s just too much else to do.  So if the actors auditioning were actors then we didn’t cast them.

I love working with Actors, I hate working with Actors.  I feel like a white, Jewish, non-stand up comedian version of Chris Rock.

You probably heard the strike is ending tomorrow. That is unless there’s some silent majority in the writers camp that hates the new deal. No, I don’t think that’s going to happen either. So with the strike over that means your (and my) phone will suddenly start ringing of the hook with auditions and offers for TV and Film parts. I’ll let you know if that happens.

Unless something major happened to you over the past few months chances are you’ll be sticking to the same old grind that you went through before the strike. Well, I want to charge you to create a strategy, a “to do list.” Make yourself a list of five or ten good actionable goals you want to accomplish now that the strike is over. They could be new projects, improvements on old projects or simply something you’ve done before and want to do again.

To get you off on the right foot I’m going to share my very own post-strike to do list. Feel free to bug me in a few weeks if I haven’t done any of them.

1. Shoot some new headshots of myself. The ones I have now still look like me, but I want something fresher.
2. Raise as much money as I can for my half-marathon. Seriously, contribute. Help me out here kids. It’s all part of fighting the good fight.
3. Post a whole lot of useful articles on this blog.
4. Do the two billion things I need to do to make sure the showcase goes well.
5. Get a good mailing routine going. I used to be better at this, I want to make sure my stuff is in the hands of casting people more often.

That takes care of most of the stuff I want to do. Within each of those goals are a bunch of little things I need to get done. That should keep me busy for quite a while.

Get a piece of paper, blog or just a text document and write yourself a list. I get 10x more done when I make lists than when I just say “oh yeah, I got stuff to do.” They don’t even all have to be acting related. It’s just a good time to step it up and get your life in order.

Eitan will be running in the June 2008 Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in San Diego to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research and treatment through Team in Training.
Eitan will be running the 26.2 miles in memory of a friend who passed away after a year long battle with leukemia.

If you wish to contribute to this very worthy cause please visit Eitan’s fundraising page.

About a week ago I started two methods of promoting this site.

The first was Entrecard which links up bloggers and lets us run ads on each other’s sites.  This has worked out really well.  I’ve had lots of amazing traffic from Entrecard.  It’s going to stay.

The other is with Blogrush.  This one puts links to my stories in a box on the side of other blogs and does the same for other blogs on mine.  This system has been uninstalled.  Why?   Well, no one was clicking on my stories.  Maybe if I had really shocking titles of my entries I’d get more traffic.  But according to Blogrush my titles showed up other blogs over 14,000 times.  And I didn’t get a single click.  That’s insane.

So I still recommend Entrecard, not so much Blogrush if you’re looking to promote.

Yup, there’s still a strike going on. Don’t know if you remember that whole WGA not getting a fair contract offer thing. It’s impossible to forget if you live in Los Angeles or New York but if you live anywhere else it’d be quite easy not to notice (unless you count the horrible episodes of Leno and the fact that there’s almost no new episodes of anything else on TV). Personally, I notice every day as the number of auditions I’ve been getting has dropped off dramatically since the strike.

Today was marked with a rally by SAG and the WGA outside the Fox lot to show support for the writers. I brought along my camera and took a few photos. Let these act as today’s moment of zen in lieu of an Daily Show moment of zen.

In case you’re curious the first two photos are of SAG president Alan Rosenberg. Followed by a clever sign, an older gentleman being blown by the strong wind and actor Stephon Fuller with his friend.

It’s that time again.  Time for another Cricket Feet Casting Actors Showcase!

The breakdown has just been released through Actors Access.

Go, submit.   Just don’t forget to kiss Eitan’s butt in the notes section.  He needs a pick-me-up.

Quick, look over to the right hand side. Do you see two new boxes you’ve never seen before?

The first one is a system called Blogrush. It will list posts on other blogs similar to mine. When that happens it will also list my posts on other blogs to widen my audience. Cool, right?

The second box belongs to Entrecard. This is similar in that it allows me to place ads on other blogs who will in turn place ads on mine.

Three questions you no doubt have:

Why did I do this? Because I want the publicity. I want as many people to read my blog as possible. And it’s another way to marketing myself as an actor.  I’ll keep on top of them to keep the junk to a minimum.

Am I making/spending any money on this? Heck no. I decided long ago against running ads on this site for money. The people who advertise to actors through the internet don’t tend to be the most ethical. There are WAY too many people who run scams trying to sell you overpriced classes and “modeling portfolios.” The only reputable people who advertise this way seem to be headshot photographers and since I do some headshot photography myself it’d be silly to send them my traffic. And both of these services are free, which is just lovely.

How do you do this too? Simple, click on this link for Entrecard (or the box right below the ad) and this one for Blogrush (or the link right below the list of posts). You just copy some code to your sidebar. Both sites have extended help sections on how to do this, don’t worry.

A surprisingly high number of people find this site after typing the phrase “how to write an actor’s bio” or “acting bio formats” into Google. So I figured I’d take this blog entry and give a shout out to the actors as far away as Malaysia and Iran who are looking for advice on how to write a good acting bio.  While I’m shouting, I might as well distribute some of my very useful advice.

Why-o a Bio?

There are many reasons an actor might need to write a short biography. Maybe they need something to put in a theater program or they need some PR materials for a film they did. Until the day comes that you can hire a publicist to do the work for you, this job lies on your shoulders.

What’s in a Bio?

A bio is not a resume. I’ve already written an excellent post (if I must say so myself) on writing an actors resume. So I advise you read it if you’re looking on how to write an acting resume.

Like I was saying before I interrupted myself, a bio is not an excuse to list dozen parts you’ve had since 3rd grade. It’s a chance to brag about your work but also show who you are as a person. The vast majority of people reading your bio aren’t ever going to meet you, so this is an excellent chance for them to find out something about you as a person.  Don’t let them come away thinking you’re defined completely by your work.
It’s also not a place for you to personally thank every member of your family for their support. Unless no one besides your family is going to see the play you’re in, it’s best to limit the thank yous and inside jokes. Make your bio something everyone who sees your play or reads the press packet will care about.

Stop listing what’s not in a bio. What IS in a bio?

Let’s first talk about credits. Unless everyone seeing the show is going to get a copy of your resume (like in a showcase) you’ll want to list a couple of credits. If you don’t have any, this is a perfect place to say “Eitan is making his theatrical debut. Please be nice.” But the general rule of credits is the same as with writing a resume: keep it simple and only list your most well known or best work. Look at the lits on my resume post if you want to know my order for which credits trump which. There’s no reason to list thirty credits in your biography. Depending on how many words you’re give for your bio you’ll want to list somewhere between one and five credits. Any more and you’d better have a Tony or an Oscar gathering dust on your mantle.  Otherwise you’re probably not going to impress anyone with those credits, only bore them.

Give up a little information telling the audience who you are as a person. When I read in a program that someone has a degree in engineering I know I’m rooting for them right out of the gate because we have something in common. By telling something about who you are as a person you help the audience like you as a person before you step foot on that stage. You don’t have to pour out details you’re not comfortable with disclosing and don’t mention your recent divorce (unless you just got divorced from one of your cast mates, steamy!). Pets, hobbies, odd jobs and funny anecdotes always fit well in this area.

What if I want to be really silly/funny in my biography?

Sometimes it’s appropriate to have an acting bio which is completely silly and has nothing to do with acting. As you can guess I’m guilty of having done this many times in my career. Here are a few examples of silly bios I’ve written over the years.

• Eitan as the printing Press: Eitan was invented by Johann Guttenberg in 1440…
• Eitan as Abe Lincoln: Eitan was born in a log cabin in Kentucky. He would later issue the Emancipation Proclamation…
• Eitan as a deity: Eitan is a master of all matter and energy. Bow before Eitan…
• Totally made up information: Eitan has never been stuck in traffic. He competed in the 1984 Olympics as the youngest pole vaulter in Olympic history…

These work for me because I’m a little goofy and I think this type of thing is hilarious. Feel free to throw a joke in to a more serious bio if you think it’ll work. Be true to yourself.

First or Third Person?

Eitan says your bio should always be written in third person. It’s standard and doesn’t sound as elitist as you think it does. Also try to refrain from making the “Eitan likes talking in third person” joke in your bio. It’s been done a billion times.

Bio Formatting

There’s really no wrong format for an acting bio. As long as you keep it in third person, short as possible and appropriate for the production you’re not going to go wrong. Here are a couple examples of bios in various formats for you to enjoy and dissect like a James Joyce novel.

“Eitan has appeared in various TV shows such as ‘Ghost Whisperer’ and ‘iCarly.” He has also appeared in several national commercials for products like Saturn and the city of Las Vegas. He studied electrical engineering at UC Santa Barbara before realizing engineering wasn’t really his bag. He promptly announced to the world he would be an actor and hasn’t been taken seriously since.”

“Eitan lives in Los Angeles where he works as an actor. His most recent TV appearance was on Ghost Whisperer. In his free time Eitan enjoys playing on his computer and updating his website (www.eitantheactor.com). Eitan would like to thank each and every one of you for coming to see his show. Please form a line outside his dressing room after final curtain.”

“Eitan is an avid and horrible softball player. He also enjoys playing Dance Dance Revolution and cooking. Eitan once worked as a telemarketer so it’s very likely you hung up on Eitan at one point in your life.  Eitan has appeared on Ghost Whisperer, iCarly and various commercials.”

Hope this has helped all you wayward souls searching for information on how to write an acting biography.

You knew Eitan thought he could write.  But you didn’t know other people agreed.

Eitan has begun conducting interviews for the website ActorsLife.com.

His first interview features casting director Bonnie Gillespie.

Others are sure to follow.  The internet will never be the same.

The showcase I help produce is seeking directors for the upcoming season (2008).

All the info is on this blog posting.

If you’re an unemployed director, this is for you!