Moving My Career Into The Digital Age...

The beauty of life is that every experience is an opportunity to learn something new or kick your butt into gear to do what you need to do! With the euphoria of last night's performance drifting to a cherished memory,  I must now switch to the business side of acting.

Honestly, with all my training the thing I need to embrace most is the business side of acting. Performing all the nuances of a character is one thing, but managing my career like a professional and not a "starving artist" is a challenge. My nature is basically shy and that is not an asset in the entertainment industry. So, I am learning to expand my horizons and tread new territory as a professional artist.

Saturday I bought my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot A3400IS  from Fry's Electronics. I made this business purchase in order to document my journey and take any photos I could with cast members in case it could be used in the future for marketing purposes. I felt so proud moving myself a little further into the digital age until I realized the damn thing came with a cd, a million wires, a battery charger and an instruction manual I have no desire to actually read. Ugh... I know I will have to read it.

I got a little practice in with the camera annoying the hell out of Rusty who was my trusty "lab rat". To say he doesn't like getting his picture taken is an understatement. I definitely don't have one of those dog's who is a "camera hog". I snapped away and he either looked away, turned his back on me, yawned or stared at me like I was a complete idiot.

While on the Warner Brothers Studios lot for "2 Broke Girls", I took pics of everything I could think of where I was allowed to bring my camera including my dressing room. It was fun and helped me figure that sucker out. I was lucky enough to get photos of myself with cast members Garret Morris and Jennifer Coolidge. I also got a pic with my fellow guest actor  Ajay Mehta. Everyone in the cast and crew were so warm and friendly but Ajay is what you would call a "class act". I have seen him on countless television shows and feature films. It was so nice to meet and share the experience on the show with such a kind and generous spirit.

A part of my dressing room!!

Now, with the performance work done, I need to do my part to help this have the greatest impact on my professional progress. No matter how you slice it, as an actor, Kevin D'Arcy is my brand and I need to increase my "brand recognition". At the moment my only avenue is driving traffic to my IMDB page.

Industry executives check out IMDB for a look at where people rank to gauge what kind of following the actor might bring to their project if they were hired. I was recently informed by my manager that my rank is currently in the high 900,000's. Yes that is right, that is not a great ranking by any means. Regular visits to my IMDB page increases my ranking and getting people to click the Facebook "LIKE" button on my page helps as well. So what's the problem?  You mean besides being ranked lower than nearly 1 million other actors? Well, I have about 200 facebook friends who have liked me so far but how on earth do you draw interest until you are in a project that draws people to check out your IMDB page in the first place? As with so many aspects of the entertainment industry it is a "Catch 22". I need to get the word out. I have my work cut out for me.     

So, yes, I will be using this blog at times to shamelessly plug my work and encourage readers to visit my Kevin D'Arcy page and FB "LIKE" me there on IMDB. Hopefully that will just blend in nicely with my simply blogging about my life's journey without seeming too crass.:) Most of my life is focused on my passion for my career anyway. It will be a delicate balance but one I must do as a professional actor leaving his starving artist period in the past where it belongs.