Why I’ll Never Make It - An Actor’s Journey

Welcome back to part two of my conversation with Justin Guarini! He’s already shared pivotal moments from his childhood and given us a cautionary tale of his college experience. So we pick up with his decision to stick with American Idol instead of making his Broadway debut with The Lion King. 

If you would like to win a signed copy of Justin's book Audition Secrets (or buy it here), then all you have to do is join WINMI as either a Maker, Producer, or Artist. Sign up for one of these memberships by January 31, 2021, and one lucky winner will get Justin’s tips and secrets to auditioning. 

Topics discussed in this episode: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown • Julie Andrews and her vocal surgery • Justin in Wicked 

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Happy New Year to you! And welcome to the premiere episode of Season Five.

Today’s guest is Justin Guarini, who you probably know from American Idol but has done so much more and has a lot to teach us about becoming an artist, finding our own path, and realizing that fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Get Justin's book Audition Secrets or possibly win a signed copy of this book by becoming a member of WINMI as a Maker, Producer, or Artist. Sign up for one of these memberships by January 31, 2021, and one lucky winner will get Justin’s tips and secrets to auditioning. 

Follow Justin: Website / Instagram / Twitter

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Why I’ll Never Make It is a Top 20 Theater Podcast on Feedspot 

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Season 5 brings with it a new ways connect with me and the guests and new opportunities to learn and grow as an artist:

• Members-Only Episodes and videos
• Coachings and Consultations
• Ask questions to upcoming guests
• Monthly WINMI Newsletter
• Artist Resources and Offers

All this and more can be found at the newly updated website: whyillnevermakeit.com 

Thank you for joining me for part one of my conversation with Justin Guarini. Come back for part two in just a couple of days.

All music used in the episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Borrtex is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Today’s episode is part two of my conversation with the final guest of Season 4.

Sammi Cannold is a remarkable artist and director. She was even named to the 2019 Forbes List of 30 under 30 in entertainment for her innovative and unique approach to directing for the stage. And today’s conversation is going to be focusing on a few of those productions...

• her remarkable staging of the musical Violet on an actual bus
• her 2019 New York City Center Gala production of Evita

I have my own personal connection to Evita having done the national tour of the latest Broadway revival. Even our music supervisor Kristen Blodgette worked with Sammi in her production. In fact, It was that revival production that inspired Sammi to become a director in the first place.

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In part one of my conversation with Christophe Zajac-Denek, he talked about growing up with dwarfism, his love of music and drumming, and how he just kind of fell into the world of acting on camera. For part two, we continue that journey with the movie and experience that had a profound impact on his life. 

As we start this episode Christophe has moved back to Michigan to go to music school and return to his first love of drumming, but life had other ideas for what Christophe needed to be doing.

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This past summer, as we were in the midst of massive theater shutdowns and summer season cancellations, I found BroadwayMania on Instagram. It was mostly videos of singers belting out show tunes, well-produced performances that were earnest and passionate.

As I found out more about this organization and their mission to provide opportunities to performers around the world, I was truly captivated by their love of theater. While there are some professional artists in the group, many others come from a variety of backgrounds, from technology and teaching to advertising and the military. 

And Cecy Treviño is the force behind it all, founding the group in 2018 as a hodge podge group of people on a singing app to now a theater company that has just released a YouTube Christmas Special and Holiday album. Cecy shares this journey and the many lessons she learned to make this dream a reality.

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When it comes to our lives and our careers, perhaps no shift has been more dramatic or significant as our increase in time online and on our phones. The biggest driver of this is social media. Digital strategist Tony Howell pays another visit to the podcast as we talk about branding, online presence, and our use of social apps.

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In part three of the month-long series bettering ourselves bettering our careers, this episode is a continuation from the previous conversation about deliberate practice and the 10,000 hours rule. Another psychologist, Alisa Hurwitz, PsyD, joins me today to dive into mindset and how we actors can deal with rejection and the challenges we face in this business.

Her moniker Dr. Drama comes from her many analytical interviews, discussions, and articles on theater, specifically her lifelong passion for musical theater. She’s even consulted on regional and off Broadway productions on elements related to psychological concepts and mental health issues. So she is the perfect person to help us face some of the realities of this make-believe world of theater, a profession that can bring us tremendous joy but also sorrow and frustration.

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Welcome back to more conversation with Tadeo Martinez as he answers the Final Five. Tadeo shares two of his favorites pieces of advice and his dream to be on YouTube. He also talks about his award-winning performance in Noises Off in Dallas, Texas.

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When it comes to the guests on this podcast most of them are fairly well established. This allows me to the Google them, find pictures and stories about them, and get to know their body of work. But for Tadeo Martinez, there wasn’t much to go on. I found a couple of show reviews and his website.

Now, this is no slight on Tadeo. I didn’t have much either coming out of college. But what I did find certainly gave me enough cause to bring him on the podcast, especially when I read of his desire to bring more Latino and Hispanic representation to theater. So in today’s episode you and I are going to get to know this extraordinarily talented young man, who graduated from college just one year ago.

Just like last week's guest Bianca Marroquín, Tadeo grew up in Monterrey, Mexico learning both English and Spanish. So while he did have an smoother transition then some coming to America to go to college, that didn’t mean language and communication was easy for him. And it was once he found the secret to address this barrier that his performances and opportunities really opened up.

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Music used in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear and licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.