Many musicians make a big transition from the sound world to the visual world by becoming actors.
WordPlay T. Jay recently talked with Vincent Palumbo, actor, producer and owner of VGP Artist Management, about what musicians can do to get into acting.
The first thing T. Jay asked Palumbo was why he went from acting himself to running an artist management business.
“I was always great at giving people their jumpstarts,” he said. “I can gear people toward the right people to help get their careers going. I have good relationships in the industry.”
T. Jay then asked what steps musicians need to take to start an acting career.
“Take an acting class and see if it agrees with you and you are comfortable in that medium,” Palumbo said. “As a matter of fact, take two or three and train in the area you want to go into. Decide before you go in if you want to be film/TV or theatre and look for specific teachers.”
Palumbo compared starting acting to starting a business — a business of you.
“Any business needs $3,000 to $5,000 to start up,” he said. “For actors, that will go into things like classes, and if you are serious, professional pictures, then actors access and other casting networks.”
Palumbo said understanding the business side of acting is a key thing many actors miss.
“So many don’t understand their business,” he said. “If you’re an actor, you should be reading Deadline every day, and if you’re a musician, you should be reading Deadline. Look for news that fits your genre or programming, and that’s where you should be licensing.
“I had a lot of workout guys take one of my auditioning classes, and they all wanted to be superhero guys, but none of them knew who Greg Berlante is. You have to know your business. We [as agents] work 10 percent, and you work 90 percent.”
For more of T. Jay’s interview with Palumbo, check out the video below.