I’m going to direct this to parents/guardians, but if YOU are the budding showbiz star, most of this applies. EVERYONE tells you how cute, expressive, extraordinary your child is. Your child should be in showbiz!

What now?

This is a challenging, frustrating and expensive business. Before you decide to “give it a go” you need to give it some serious thought.

Do you and your child both want this?

That may seem to be an obvious question, but you’d be surprised how many times we interview new talent to find out that the parent wants this more than the child.

(Questions to ask your self before becoming an actors mom in the next post.)

A child actor is actually a team, the child as talent, the adult as support staff. When interviewing with agents and attending auditions, both child and adult are on display – the child as the potential talent for the part and the adult to see if you are one of those parents.

Also remember that you and your child are interviewing the agent as well. We’ll have more on how to find an agent and the agent interviews later.

Being a showbiz parent is very similar to being a parent with a child in a very, very, very, intensely competitive sport that requires a lot of time, money, training, uniforms, hurry up, wait, time, money, effort – did I mention time and money?

At the very least, you’ll need

photos and

some acting classes to get started (info on photos and classes later).

Choose right and this can cost you a few hundred dollars. Get sucked into a scam and you could be thousands of dollars in the hole before you ever see a casting director at an audition (if ever).

You will need daytime hours and weekend hours available for auditions and classes.

In Australia, that can be during the workday and after school hours, though new child actor laws are coming into effect. In Los Angeles, audition times are made available from 3pm onward for non-home-schooled kids and classes are held evenings and weekends.

You will need to be flexible.

Most audition calls come the day before, but as agents, we’ve had emergency calls asking “who can you get here within an hour?” As a parent, I’ve gotten calls to be at an audition in as little as 45 minutes. If your schedule doesn’t allow for some last minute changes, you may want to consider different artistic outlets for your child.

If you are willing to go through all of the above, plus seeing your child potentially get a lot of rejection, you are ready. Now you need to see if your child is ready.

So many people figure that acting is easy, but in truth, while there is no single key to success, training and practice are key. Children trained in acting technique, auditioning technique who can take direction do better than most who wing it. Being a “natural” in front of grandma and the neighbors is not enough. Without training, auditions can be frightening and frustrating.

As stated above, any reputable agent will want to interview your child as well as you. They want to know if both you and your child are on the same page before taking you on as clients. And they will certainly have suggestions for where to spend your time and money on photos and classes.

Coming up – Questions to ask yourself before committing to the Actor’s Mom’s Life.