How long does it take to fly from Los Angeles to Africa?

What does it take to move to Los Angeles?

• I am a 22 year old male living on my own in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am a recent college graduate from Hamline University, a liberal arts school and am currently working at Outback Steakhouse. I have acted my whole life, have gotten head shots, written a resume and am pursuing opportunities around the city. So far I am represented by 3 agencies, have done some acting jobs at colleges in the cities, go to auditions and have an impressive repertoire of theatre experience. I also occasionally post videos of me doing monologues or funny skits on Youtube (www.youtube.com/AndrewKeechak). Acting is my passion and I live and breathe it every day. However, my dream is to live in Los Angeles and obviously the opportunities for actors are much greater there. So what does it take to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career as an Actor?

• Answer:

  If you want to come out here and pursue a career as an actor, the first thing you need is the realization of how extremely tough being an actor in LA is. While there may be more opportunities, the competition is fierce, there are local kids who have been in professional acting lessons since they were 7, and they are connected in the industry. If you didn't train in LA or NY, there may be a steep learning curve. Most of the actors here probably have at least your resume, if not much more. 2/3 of SAG actors make less than $1000 a year from acting, 5% make more than $75,000, which isn't enough to live on comfortably in LA. (You'd need a salary of twice that to buy a small house in an ok area.) So less than 5% of actors make enough to live on in LA. A low end studio apartment in an ok area will cost you from around $800 - $1000 a month, will that work with your likely earnings at an Outback here? There are only two that are located in convenient locations for an actor, Burbank and Glendale. The restaurant business is in a really bad way out here, so your chances of being hired elsewhere are slim, we have a zillion actor/waiters with lots of experience looking for jobs. Hopefully a transfer is possible. Those are both good cities for an actor to live, mostly safe, reasonable rents (for LA), near freeways, near training. You'll need a very reliable car, as auditions are held from Santa Monica to Pasadena and in the valley, etc. Expect to spend more than you're used to on car maintenance and gas, if you're lucky enough to get auditions. Look out for agents here that take anyone, they'll send actors out on cattle calls, auditions anyone can find out about, take their cut if the actor books a job, but they aren't in the loop for most auditions. Make sure your headshots are great. First impression, blah blah blah. Headshots are gone through so quickly, somethings got to click to get noticed. Make sure you are getting the best training possible. Be really careful of rental scams, if it looks too good to be true, it is. Google: Los Angeles rental scams, and rental scams (A very well respected young actor told me when he needs to cry and can't he'll yank a nose hair. Why haven't you posted video of you really acting (reacting), doing scenes with others?) Good luck!