—Thomas Andrew Smith, Agency Director TASM
If you'd have said to me when I was training nearly 15 years ago now, as a performer in musical theatre, that I would be an agent, I would not have believed you. Because I think when you train, you're taught how to sing, dance, and act. But you're not always taught the business side to quote unquote show business. And there are so many different paths you can go down alongside performing, which is a very, it's a very American approach to have lots of strings to your bow with regards to which areas of the industry you're working in. So I graduated and went straight into work and was working all over the place. And with that, I suddenly found myself on the other side of the table. People often say to me, how did you get there? I want to do that. The answer is I don't know. It's as with everything in this industry, it's word of mouth. It's who you know, not what you know. And that really piqued my interest, the inner workings of how shows come together, how productions come together. So I found myself working a little bit in casting and then starting to bridge into the agency side of things. And to be honest with you, I wasn't sure if it was for me to begin with. Really wasn't sure. And as time went on, I realised I am so much more passionate about finding other people work than I was for myself, which sort of I then sat there and went, hm, I've got to shake things up. So, I did. So I set up Thomas Andrew Smith Management with the goal to keep numbers small and have a personal approach. If I had 500 clients, there's not 500 days in a year. So how do I check in with every person every day? I can't. And that's not to say I do check in with every person every single day. But what I like to say is there's never a full stop to conversations with clients. There is always an open line of communication, whether it be talking about jobs, seeing what's casting, talking about headshots and also sometimes just sending funny gifs to each other.
Reputation is everything. I think they call it, it's the seven degree of separation. I think they call it. In this industry, in our industry, it's about three. Yeah. Two. Yeah. It's so small. Everyone knows someone who knows someone and you cannot afford to be going around in this industry not being the best version of yourself at all times. You are a business, you are a brand. So when you walk into, this is the analogy that I always use. When you walk into the shop and you think, I want to change up what shampoo I'm using. You walk into the shop, you go to the shampoo aisle and you've got all these hundreds of different brands and bottles. What is it that makes you pick that particular bottle off of the shelf? Is it the color? Is it the size? Is it the writing? Is it the font? Is it where it's positioned? I don't know. You yourself are the shampoo bottle. What is your USP? What is the thing that is going to make you jump out to that casting team or that production company or that director? I think we've got rid of the stigma now that anyone in positions of power in this industry are horrible people. Actually, we're all just lovely people. We're all creative people at heart. Most agents come from a performing arts background, having performed themselves. They know what it is like to be in your position. And I think it's really, really important to remember that. When you're walking in a room, when you walk in a room for an audition, the way that you present yourself is often more important than the work that you're actually doing in the room, whether it be with the pianist, reading scripts, dancing in groups, on your own. And I say to my clients, the audition starts when you leave the house because you don't know who you're going to bump into on the way. And it might be the runner of that audition. It might be the casting director. It might be the choreographer taking the audition, the associate. And so therefore, by having that mentality of my audition starts when I leave the house, you get yourself in that space. It's not enough. There are very few people who can just go about their day and then go into an audition, do the audition, come out and that be it. That prep starts for some people the day before, the morning of, but I say it's from when you leave your door in the morning. That's when your audition starts because you don't know who anyone is and you don't want to annoy anyone.
Yeah. So, we have four pillars at TASM and they are respect, honesty, development, passion. And they're not words that were just plucked out of the air when we set up. It was no, these are our guiding forces. Respect because I don't ask my clients to respect me more than I respect them. At the end of the day, before a casting director, an agent, a performer, a producer, a director, we are human beings and we just need to respect each other. So, I will respect you as much as you respect me and vice versa. The second one is honesty. We need to be able to be honest with each other. For example, and this is the example I often use, if you send me through a self tape and I think that's not your best work, I need to be able to be honest with you and say, I think we need to look at this again. We need to think about this, we need to think about that. And because I come from a performing background and working as a choreographer and having worked in casting, it's not just a case of it's not good enough. It's right, this bit was really good. Let's tweak this. Let's think about that. But again, like the respect, the honesty goes both ways. For example, if I send something through to a client and they think, "This isn't for me." I don't want us to get to a second audition recall, maybe offer in hand. And then that person turns around and says, "Oh, I've been thinking about this. This isn't for me." We don't ever want to get to that point. We want to be able to be honest with each other off the bat. Something comes through to you that's not for me. Not a problem. Few. Let's not go any further with that. The third one is development. You learn what you learn when you train. Whether that be through vocational training on three years or short courses or classes and that's fantastic. But those skills never stop developing. Whether that be going to more classes and it doesn't have to necessarily be going to classes. It could be just I want to learn a new song and put it in my rep. I want to learn a new monologue. I want to go and see a show. You know, I want to know what's out there at the moment. So, constantly developing those skills and not sitting back and waiting for it to happen. And the last one, which I think is the most important one, is passion. I want people to be passionate. I am so passionate about placing people in their dream jobs. And I think so often what happens, especially people who are maybe very new to the industry. You have to graduate or go into this with a mass amount of passion. If you have that mass amount of passion, news flash, you're going to get nos. You're going to be told no. You're not going to get the opportunities you maybe think you would have straight away and you're going to have to work for them. And over time, some of that passion gets worn down out and that is totally normal. But if you start off with this much and a little gets worn away, you're still left with this. Whereas if you're approaching this industry with not very much passion, when you get the nos and the setbacks, you're left with nothing. And we're all doing this because we love it and because we're passionate about it. And that really is the driving force behind why we're all doing this. We want to create art. We want to, we want to move people. We want to make people feel things. Yeah.
Yes. Yes. We don't let ourselves fail. We're always striving for perfection. And especially with live performance and theatre and stage, it's not about being perfect. There is something so beautiful about watching someone, whether it be in a self tape or on stage, doing something that is so gorgeously raw and unedited. That's the magic. We we aim for perfection at all times and no one's perfect. Yeah, totally. AI is scary, I think, especially for agents and casting directors. Because so much of what we do is online and based at the computer. That is really, really scary. And I think certainly for me, the way I'm trying to combat that as an agent is by doing what we've always done, which is not just simply being an agency, but being a management service. Someone that doesn't just put you up for jobs. Oh, Hi - this things come in, off you go. Let me know how you get on. That doesn't work for us. It's more of a let's curate. Let's look at your Spotlight profile. Let's look at you as a person. What's your USP? What's really working, what's not working, what do we need to change up, what do we need to keep the same. And I had that conversation the other day with another agent friend of mine and personal management service is far more what TASM offers compared to just an agency.
Oh, I am an agent. I am an assistant. I am a therapist soemtimes. I say in this industry your agent shouldn't be your mum or your dad because I cannot hold your hand and go into the audition with you. As much as I'd love to sometimes I can't do that. But what we are, we're a big brother or big sister and we've got a firm hand on your shoulder and we're in your corner and we're going you can do this. You can do this and then come out and tell me how it was. And my answer for however the outcome of any audition, my answer is always the same. So if someone comes to me and says, "I bombed that, Tom. I totally and utterly bombed that audition." Okay, fine, cool. Two things. Did you learn something? Now forget about it. And I have exactly the same message for someone that rings me and says, "Tom, that was the best audition I ever did. I had the panel in fits of laughter or I had them crying or whatever it was." I go, "Great. Did you learn something? Forget about it." It's the same approach. It's the same approach. Whatever the outcome. Yeah.
There are so many places to train now. There are so many different options whether it be acting, musical theatre, dance, commercial dance, or commercials, acting for screen. And I don't want to say they're all the same. They're not. They all offer something different. But you get out of your training what you put in. It's an intense 3 years and you have to be ready for that. I wanted to train at 16. My parents wouldn't let me and I am so pleased that they didn't because I wouldn't have been ready physically, mentally, emotionally. I wouldn't have been ready. You have to show up every day and again don't aim for perfection. These places, these conservatoires, colleges, unis are not looking for you to be perfect because if you were perfect, what would be the point in training? You would say, well, you don't need to train. Just go out and start auditioning. You're there to get better, not turning up being perfect. You learn all your skills when you train, and that's fantastic. You learn how to sing, act, dance, whatever it may be. But something that I think is even more important than that is learning the business of show business. Things as simple as, do I know about being self-employed? I have this Spotlight account. Do I know how to use it? Do I know how to get the best out of it? Have I got the right self tape set up? Am I investing in the correct things or am I wasting money on things that actually aren't going to further my career? That's, that's really important. And to link that in with finding an agent, you in your first year probably don't need to think too much about finding an agent because you've got three years ahead of you. But it should be a small thought in the back of your mind because in this industry, you never stop fighting. You fight to get onto these courses. You then fight for your place in this course. You then do the three years and you're fighting for the roles in the shows. And then when them three years are up, you're fighting to get that agent. And I think often people think that the fight stops then and it doesn't and it continues, I'm sorry to say, for the rest of your what is hopefully a really long career because you're then fighting for the roles, fighting for the jobs, fighting to be seen. So it's good to have that thought process just floating away in the back of your head as soon as you get into training. What sort of agent do I want? What sort of agency do I want? What sort of work do I want? And I think that when you go to train, that should all be flipped on its head. And if it's not, you've not done it properly. So if you go in thinking you're one thing and you graduate at the end of three years still thinking you're that, I'm that. I came as that and I'm going as that. That's not right. It should be all flipped on its head. I came in for example as a very good dancer in the school that I came from but I don't really, I'm not really confident with singing. By the end of three years that should be flipped on its head and you should be going well I thought I was a dancer first but now actually I've developed my voice and now I can sing and I can dance. And also in musical theatre, something I often hear from people, graduating musical theatre graduates, is, "I love to sing. I love to dance, but I don't like to act." And that to me is troubling because you're acting should be the thing that goes through everything. So that's worrisome because when you're dancing and you're singing and you're not acting because there is nothing worse than watching someone dance with nothing going on up here or sing a song with nothing going on up here. You can forgive so much of what is going on here when this is working. And that's really important. Yeah. Totally. Totally. Yeah. It's the foundations. It's like if someone says, "I want to be a dancer, but I hate ballet." That's fine. You don't have to be an incredible ballet dancer, but you have to have a basic knowledge of ballet because ballet is the foundation of dance. It's like with singing. Everyone wants to belt. Everyone wants to sing Elphaba and Six. That is fantastic. I love them shows. But don't forget about legit musical theatre because you're far better having a good solid training in legit and then changing that into contemporary musical theatre than it being the other way round, because it's harder. Because all that legit technique helps you to be able to belt healthy eight times a week. Whereas if you are I'm just a belter. I'm just a belter. That's great but can you do my fair lady? No. Then you're not versatile. This industry is a marathon, not a sprint. You don't want, I don't think you want to get there straight away. It happens for some people and it's incredible, but it's a further place to fall from. You know, you want to, especially graduating, you want to grasp every opportunity with both hands. Don't shut doors before they're open to you because a lifespan of a graduate is tiny. Because then at some point you're not a graduate. You're an actor who hasn't worked or you're a performer who hasn't worked. And people will forgive that initially because they go, well, they've just graduated. They're finding their feet. But as that graduate, if you're saying, no, I don't want to do that because I want to do that. I don't want to do that smaller contract because I'm aiming for that. Whilst your peers are going, yes, I'll do that. I'll do this six months. Yeah, I'll do that. They they're going to overtake you. They're going to have credits on their CV and they're going to have real life experience performing. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Oh, top three things. My first one would be your availability. Okay, we - years ago the pendulum was too far this way. Let's say it was this way. And it was expected of you that you missed birthdays, Christmases, weddings, funerals, celebrations, to go on jobs, to go on auditions. Now, I don't think that's necessarily completely healthy. And unfortunately, I think at the moment the pendulum has gone past the middle and swung to the other side whereby people are sometimes prioritising those things over their career. And that's absolutely fine. You have to have fun. You have to live. You have to earn money. But this industry is so tough. It has to be a priority for you. So, keeping that availability open - book that holiday, go see that friend, travel, do what you need to do to live your - what we call our best lives, but know that at a moment's notice, you could be called in. My second bit of advice is, and I don't know who said this originally and it's not my quote, but if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. And I just think that is so brilliant and that applies to so many things. For example, you're being asked all the time to self tape two contrasting songs. Make your life easier. Pre-record them, have them in the bank ready to go so that if you are on that holiday, no stress. It's already there on your computer or on your phone. Yeah, if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. And my third thing would be...It would be don't be average. And I don't mean that within people's talents. Of course, you don't want to be average within your talent, but don't be an average human being. And an average human being to me is someone that walks in the room and goes, "Hi, you all right?" No. "Hi, how are you? How's your day been? Weather's hot!" You know, it makes such a difference when when you are able to show a little bit of yourself before you step into any situation, whether that be on a self tape, an ident - an ident should be exciting and interesting. That is your walking into the room. And walking into the room should be exciting. It's not to say you have to go up to every single person, give them a hug, shake their hand, and offer them a Lindor chocolate. It's not that. It's just eye contact with people. Hi, how are you? How's your day been? Thank you so much. A thank you goes such a long way. Yeah. Yeah. It's not to be trifled with. Reputation is everything - in life but especially within this industry.