The Inner Circle
I was once told
that everyone who wish to play in the wonderful world of entertainment needs to
have an inner circle. The first thing that comes to mind are those who are with
you in the beginning (and for reasons of their own) had chosen to become
something similar to a support group. Actually it is a support group and so
much more. There was a TV series that (in its own way) showed this dynamic and
the rewards of participation and sometimes the price that is paid to all those
involved. That show was called Entourage.
Although this was a scripted show and not another director controlled and
edited sensationalized reality adaptation of reality, it had a solid idealistic
foundation. What I had gained from the show (unlike actual documentaries about
artists), is that public persona and real life are never one and the same. It
goes without saying that there are numerous instances where artist start
believing their own press and the line between reality and public persona
intertwine, blur, or just completely vanish. However, no matter how it all
ends, it had to begin somewhere. For me, I believe it begins and ends (happily
ever after with as little property damage as possible and sanity for the most
part intact) is with the artist inner circle. For me (another disclaimer), it
should start with deep consideration with your brain trust to protect yourself.
This should be followed up with your entourage to help you enjoy yourself, keep
your sanity, remind you of who you are to deflate your head when you get out of
hand, and to have people whom will get you into and out of trouble. Let’s not
forget the unseen price for this roller-coaster ride that everyone believes
they can handle, but sometimes handle them. This is where it all leads back to
the importance of your brain trust.
The Brain Trust
With this wonderful age of technology, one person can wear many hats and have complete control of their destiny (to a point). The hope of any person’s artistic endeavor is to be heard. Yes, there is such a thing called fame and fortune, but it all starts with someone recognizing what one person has to offer that affects many. The title of this first topic of conversation says it all. who do you believe you can trust. Sure, there are family and friends you can trust, but that only goes so far. Once you hit a certain level, you will have to get other people involved. These people I am talking about are those who make a living providing a specific service. That particular short list will help your wildest dreams come true or cause you to lose everything. If you must have a simpler term, then brain trust, then think of them as your support group with precise professional skills.
I know I had made reference to this in a previous article (Ask SD #20) about the recording artist Sting (member of the Police) and his manager explaining to the people who were to make up the band that his client gets the lion's share (most money) from the project they were about to begin. As business like and emotionally detected this conversation was, it clearly showed the type of people you wish in your brain trust or what is commonly known as those who watch your back (or there percentage of the pot). Now don’t get me wrong, these people who you gather are there to help you achieve your goals, they can be friendly to you and you them, but they are not your friends (in some cases).
Your brain trust is there to take some of the weight of numerous responsibilities off your shoulders to allow you to focus on what brought you to the dance, your art. And here comes the disclaimer. Not all those who you bring in will stay so make sure you have all those involved sign none disclosure document! Your entertainment attorney is a subject of its own we may or may not discuss in another Reason and Reality. What we will discuss is getting bit on your butt, but later on in this article. Once you have your support group together, now you can take a look at all those who keep you grounded and hopefully doesn’t get you into too much trouble or arrested nightly and the top story in heavy rotation.
With this wonderful age of technology, one person can wear many hats and have complete control of their destiny (to a point). The hope of any person’s artistic endeavor is to be heard. Yes, there is such a thing called fame and fortune, but it all starts with someone recognizing what one person has to offer that affects many. The title of this first topic of conversation says it all. who do you believe you can trust. Sure, there are family and friends you can trust, but that only goes so far. Once you hit a certain level, you will have to get other people involved. These people I am talking about are those who make a living providing a specific service. That particular short list will help your wildest dreams come true or cause you to lose everything. If you must have a simpler term, then brain trust, then think of them as your support group with precise professional skills.
I know I had made reference to this in a previous article (Ask SD #20) about the recording artist Sting (member of the Police) and his manager explaining to the people who were to make up the band that his client gets the lion's share (most money) from the project they were about to begin. As business like and emotionally detected this conversation was, it clearly showed the type of people you wish in your brain trust or what is commonly known as those who watch your back (or there percentage of the pot). Now don’t get me wrong, these people who you gather are there to help you achieve your goals, they can be friendly to you and you them, but they are not your friends (in some cases).
Your brain trust is there to take some of the weight of numerous responsibilities off your shoulders to allow you to focus on what brought you to the dance, your art. And here comes the disclaimer. Not all those who you bring in will stay so make sure you have all those involved sign none disclosure document! Your entertainment attorney is a subject of its own we may or may not discuss in another Reason and Reality. What we will discuss is getting bit on your butt, but later on in this article. Once you have your support group together, now you can take a look at all those who keep you grounded and hopefully doesn’t get you into too much trouble or arrested nightly and the top story in heavy rotation.
Your Entourage
There shouldn’t be a need for me to point this out, but if you don’t have a life when all hell break loose when fame comes knocking at your door right before it drives a tank through when you turn the knob. There is no way you can be solely committed to your craft every second of every day. You will have to (a term passed on to me from a brother from a different mother) blow it out sometimes. You will need people (family and friends) who you don’t have to place a nondisclosure document in front of their faces. Oh, but there are a few you would wish you had. we aren’t talking about them, but those who you have total trust to let you be you when the spotlight isn’t pointing in your direction. There is an old saying that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but that is to destroy your enemies and not to gather a small group of trusted people to blow it out. Those in your entourage will make mistakes at time, so you should be a bit more forgiving than those in your brain trust when mistakes happen. This isn’t saying that they should remain with you. Only one person can destroy you quicker than family and friend and that person is you. Family and friends come in a close second, but they are family and friends who will have to deal with other family and friends when they screw up. besides, fame is fleeting, but you have little to say about who is your family and they with you. however, no matter if they are family or friends, there is a price. There’s always a price.
There shouldn’t be a need for me to point this out, but if you don’t have a life when all hell break loose when fame comes knocking at your door right before it drives a tank through when you turn the knob. There is no way you can be solely committed to your craft every second of every day. You will have to (a term passed on to me from a brother from a different mother) blow it out sometimes. You will need people (family and friends) who you don’t have to place a nondisclosure document in front of their faces. Oh, but there are a few you would wish you had. we aren’t talking about them, but those who you have total trust to let you be you when the spotlight isn’t pointing in your direction. There is an old saying that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but that is to destroy your enemies and not to gather a small group of trusted people to blow it out. Those in your entourage will make mistakes at time, so you should be a bit more forgiving than those in your brain trust when mistakes happen. This isn’t saying that they should remain with you. Only one person can destroy you quicker than family and friend and that person is you. Family and friends come in a close second, but they are family and friends who will have to deal with other family and friends when they screw up. besides, fame is fleeting, but you have little to say about who is your family and they with you. however, no matter if they are family or friends, there is a price. There’s always a price.
The Unseen Price
The most overlook aspects of any artistic endeavor which place the artist in the public’s eye is anonymity. According to http://www.merriam-webster.com; anonymity is the quality or state of being unknown to most people. In plain everyday terms, you can no longer go anywhere you once had without someone in your face. you can’t go visit people because they will now have someone in their face. and most of all, your entire life will go under a microscope for others to make money on who you have become so they can the all-knowing authority of all things that are you. They do this to sell you to anyone who wish to know how you made it so they can make it to. I would also be remiss not to mention about those who are a little left of center who believes they should be a part of your life and live in the world that is portrayed through the media. Oh, but there is more, much more.
With this new age of internet’s instant fame, electronic auditions, and self-promotion, someone forgot to mention historic bread crumbs. Those who have received both minor or substantial worldwide fame understands this monumental landmine. What I am talking about is those less than perfect moments when all eyes weren’t on you or you were just experimenting are coming back to bite you on your ass. We are not talking about a miss note (although they can be endearing), we are talking about those questionable things of bad taste or worst you removed once you caught a good case of the common sense, sobered up, or just woke up to the reality that you had screwed up big time. unfortunately, once that caged bird is let out, its out. Another price to pay is family and friends. That’s a book series of its own and many will have enough material in a short amount of time to write a ten year TV series.
There are too many cliché of jealous siblings and best friends claiming to be better or having more to offer than you, people closest to you waving you in front of any and everyone with promises on your participation on their word alone, and those who will be front and center to say they were the first to notice what makes you special that they were the ones who help you could not do without to become who you are. In simpler terms; if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be famous. However, no one wish to take credit when the tables turn when famous becomes infamous. Go figure. But, the first thing that comes to mind when family is involved is the disclosure of something that is embarrassing even if you weren’t in the public eye. I remember this one scene from a Korean drama called “That Fool” aka “Accidental Couple.”
To make a very good storyline short. An extremely overlooked and underappreciated mailman has an accidental run in with a celebrity he idolizes and because of this chance meeting he choose to help her escape a difficult situation. Because of his aid he is then asked by his idol to pretend the two of them are in a secret relationship. This is where family can bite you on the ass. The mailman has a younger sister who has a line that fits perfectly into this topic. Her brother returns home after a fail attempt to (what is perceived )as a elopement. His darling younger sister is angry with him for not telling her about the concealed nuptials as asked him what he truly thought of her. did he believe she would sell the knowledge of the elopement to the media? Then she says just as innocently that she might sell something small, but never something that important. You got to love family, no one else will. Oh, and this 16 episode series also shows what happens when the spotlight is turned off, relationships that occurs before fame, and the important things that are lost because of it.
The most overlook aspects of any artistic endeavor which place the artist in the public’s eye is anonymity. According to http://www.merriam-webster.com; anonymity is the quality or state of being unknown to most people. In plain everyday terms, you can no longer go anywhere you once had without someone in your face. you can’t go visit people because they will now have someone in their face. and most of all, your entire life will go under a microscope for others to make money on who you have become so they can the all-knowing authority of all things that are you. They do this to sell you to anyone who wish to know how you made it so they can make it to. I would also be remiss not to mention about those who are a little left of center who believes they should be a part of your life and live in the world that is portrayed through the media. Oh, but there is more, much more.
With this new age of internet’s instant fame, electronic auditions, and self-promotion, someone forgot to mention historic bread crumbs. Those who have received both minor or substantial worldwide fame understands this monumental landmine. What I am talking about is those less than perfect moments when all eyes weren’t on you or you were just experimenting are coming back to bite you on your ass. We are not talking about a miss note (although they can be endearing), we are talking about those questionable things of bad taste or worst you removed once you caught a good case of the common sense, sobered up, or just woke up to the reality that you had screwed up big time. unfortunately, once that caged bird is let out, its out. Another price to pay is family and friends. That’s a book series of its own and many will have enough material in a short amount of time to write a ten year TV series.
There are too many cliché of jealous siblings and best friends claiming to be better or having more to offer than you, people closest to you waving you in front of any and everyone with promises on your participation on their word alone, and those who will be front and center to say they were the first to notice what makes you special that they were the ones who help you could not do without to become who you are. In simpler terms; if it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be famous. However, no one wish to take credit when the tables turn when famous becomes infamous. Go figure. But, the first thing that comes to mind when family is involved is the disclosure of something that is embarrassing even if you weren’t in the public eye. I remember this one scene from a Korean drama called “That Fool” aka “Accidental Couple.”
To make a very good storyline short. An extremely overlooked and underappreciated mailman has an accidental run in with a celebrity he idolizes and because of this chance meeting he choose to help her escape a difficult situation. Because of his aid he is then asked by his idol to pretend the two of them are in a secret relationship. This is where family can bite you on the ass. The mailman has a younger sister who has a line that fits perfectly into this topic. Her brother returns home after a fail attempt to (what is perceived )as a elopement. His darling younger sister is angry with him for not telling her about the concealed nuptials as asked him what he truly thought of her. did he believe she would sell the knowledge of the elopement to the media? Then she says just as innocently that she might sell something small, but never something that important. You got to love family, no one else will. Oh, and this 16 episode series also shows what happens when the spotlight is turned off, relationships that occurs before fame, and the important things that are lost because of it.
What makes all
of this a blessing and a curse is the truth that no matter what artistic
endeavor you chose, we all hope for the best, are saddened when we experience
the worst, but continue on because we wish to share what we have to give. SD Tracy Harper
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