Course Evaluation

So my Barry Shapiro commercial class is over and I'm not sure what I thought of it. I like Barry. Like, as a person. He teaches class in his socks and will pick fun at you in a faux malicious way whenever he gets the chance. In addition, I'm 100% convinced that he knows his shit.

The class was taught at Actor's Connection. To take this class and experience the Barry Shapiro I had to fight my heinous aversion to the place and suck it up and deal. As I've learned time and time again, Actor's Connection takes money from whoever will pay. As a result it is home to all kinds of delusional, ignorant suckers who will hand over the cold hard cash. This class was not full of awful idiots but did consist of people who just seemed to be a step behind where I wanted to be. (Snobby? No. Realistic? Yeah.) It doesn't ruin the learning environment but it does set a tone.

Barry covers a lot in 5 weeks. Maybe that's part of the problem. He whizzes through topics so fast, then rapid fire has us try it, maybe runs it again and then swiftly moves on to the next person. I had some tics and idiosyncrasies pinpointed but had zero time to work on correcting them. Similarly, I didn't feel like I had enough time to master any of the things he taught. Forget master, at times it felt too fast to even have a grasp on everything.

Barry Shapiro and his class carry a lot of weight in the industry. When I mention his name at these sessions and seminars, agents and other casting directors respect and admire him. His class definitely taught how to audition for commercials but did not focus on how to catch someone's attention at these meetings I've been attending. I guess you can go ahead and apply the same techniques but it seems to me, to stick out, you need to find the right copy for your type and really do something with it. I wish we could have spent a little time on that: audition copy.

I wanted to get more out of this class. Maybe it was me, I usually went to class tired after work and as mentioned yesterday, I have not been a happy camper lately. I'm a little disappointed. Maybe that's what Barry wanted...for us to sign up for his advanced class.