Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

A young lady I have had some correspondence about acting with wrote me yesterday that she was all excited about going to LA soon to become an actress and asked if I had any recommendations. Here are those recommendations: 1. my first rule on going to LA is don't go until you have a contract to work there. 2. that means you are SAG before you go. 3. you need a terrific resume, great head shot, unique business card and post cards, and a demo reel. 4. you need your three monologues ready to go. 5. you need a way to make a living while trying to become an actress. 6.you need a really dependable car. 7. you need to have an acting studio picked where you'd like to study. 8.you need to go to my web site at www.kenplonkey.com and read everything about professional acting on the site including my blog all the way back to Aug '09 and ask me questions about it. 9. Reconsider going. It is so easy to be glib about “the Biz” until you get there and actually have to compete in it. I have advisees all over the world making strides toward their careers except in LA. Most of the advisees I have had there have dropped out saying, "it is just too hard." 10. See rules one and two. Remember the Burt Bacharach song “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” that speaks of “all the stars who never were are parking cars and pumping gas.” Want a menial job? Go to LA and try to become an actor. The way to try to avoid that is to be an actor before you go.