When people talk about Hollywood, they often widen their eyes and say, “Well, it’s all about who you know.  You know?”  And  that is, actually, completely true.  The very first day I started my theatrical training, the school’s director, a well-respected and successful actress in her own right, sat all of us first year students down and said, “This is your first big break.  The people who will give you your second big break are not us, your teachers, but your new peers who you are sitting next to right now.”  We all gave each other sidelong glances, sizing each other up.  Could that pimply kid next to me really make me a star?  Chances are…yes.

If the entertainment business is all about being in the right place at the right time, who you are with at the time is going to really affect your life.  Maybe that pimply kid on Day One decided he wasn’t going to be an actor at all, but a casting director.  Wow!  Instant in.  Maybe that other kid next to you became a producer, or a director, or got a starring role on Broadway last year and knows a thousand other well-situated people.  Sound crazy?  Well, that’s because it is.  But crazy or not, the truth of the matter boils down to a little rule involving the one-and-only Kevin Bacon: everybody knows somebody.  (If you’re not getting the Kevin reference, it refers to the 6 Degrees of Separation game.)  Which is the heart of networking. Read More