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1. Stand between two really lame people at the open casting call.

A fabulous fellow named Iain Alexander interviewed me about my career as a reality TV casting director for his equally fabulous website, Film Industry Network.

It’s a great resource for any and all who want to get into the film and TV biz, or are already actively pursuing their dreams in the entertainment industry. I highly recommend you check them out and join! When it comes to getting ahead in Hollywood, it’s all about who ya know.

Networking is king, and this site is Lancelot.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Iain: What does it take for an actor to get ahead of the competition? Any tips?

Sarah: Have your story down. I call it your “personal sizzle reel.” Be able to pitch yourself as the perfect person for the project in 60 seconds or less. Tell a compelling story that will make me intrigued by who you are and leave me wanting to know more. Sometimes a Casting Director won’t even ask you any questions. They might just say: “Tell me about yourself.” You must have a compelling story and sell us on wanting to keep you around.

Check out my entire interview here: Tips from Prime Time Reality TV casting expert Sarah Monson

Thanks Iain!

Ever wonder what a reality TV Casting Director actually does… and why they’re hired in the first place?

I’ve been getting quite a few emails from folks who would rather go behind the scenes, instead of making one on TV. So, I thought I’d enlighten you with a quick glimpse into the inner-working of my world.

When a production company creates a reality TV show, they need a “cast,” which is the selection of people hand picked to be a part of the show. And it’s a Casting Director’s job to find all of those people.

Casting departments are almost always the first ones brought in at the beginning of a show. Why? Because it takes time to find people. Especially great people who are the right fit for the show. The casting team’s job is to find the very best people who will make the show as entertaining as possible to all those watching at home.

In most cases, multiple casting people are hired to cast a show. From the head honcho (typically, the Casting Director/Producer), right down to the junior person, the Casting Assistant, they all play a pivotal role in the process.

To be hired as a Casting Director/Producer, you generally need to have a lot of credits and experience, just like any other job.

Unless you have a rich uncle, most of us start off as Casting Assistants or even interns, and then we move up the ladder to Casting Associates or Casting Coordinators. Only if and when we get promoted to a more senior role leading the casting team do we get the title of Casting Director/Producer (on some shows, it’s the Casting Director who’s in charge and on others, it’s the Casting Producer).

Being a Casting Director/Producer means you produce the cast – as in, it’s all on your shoulders to hand over a cast that have been vetted completely and are ready, willing and able to rock and roll. The Casting Director/Producer is the final decision maker about who gets “pitched” (I’ll explain in a sec) to the Producers to be on the show.

The “ranking” for Casting Director and Casting Producer varies show by show.

It’s pretty much an interchangeable title, in my opinion. They both work their butts off to get the job done. One just gets higher ranking (and pay) than the others and gets their name first in the credits.

A “pitch,” by the way, is when a Casting Director/Producer tries to convince the Producers, networks execs, and other higher ups on the show that YOU are the perfect person for the show. It usually entails a short edited video of you, a one-sheet (which is basically your “resume,” based on your application and other things we know about you), and then our verbal seal of approval.

It takes a lot of hard work to have an entire show resting on your shoulders, that’s why they pay us the medium bucks.

In every show I’ve cast, regardless of my best efforts, the shooting schedule for the people auditioning or the contestants always seems to follow this hurry up and wait pattern. When we need you, we need you RIGHT NOW! But then there can be hours where you’re twiddling your thumbs wondering what the heck we’re doing and what’s taking so long. This can be incredibly frustrating.

Here’s an example: for the last reality show I cast – which was a celebrity dating show – the daters had to be ready at 8AM. Sometimes the celeb didn’t arrive until noon, and often the actual filming didn’t begin until 2PM. This, naturally, didn’t really sit well with the cast members. By the time filming started, they were tired, grumpy and annoyed. And I’d be annoyed, too. This can pose challenges to filming, since it can take a bit before people pep back up once we’re ready to roll.

But that’s just the way it goes when it comes to production and casting…

(I should mention that I was surprised and impressed by The Voice when I went to a recent taping – it was a tightly run ship, on schedule and no unnecessary delays or waiting time. Bravo, Mark Burnett!)

The reason for obscenely early call times is because, at the end of the day, we are creating a TV show and it can get expensive if there are delays once the production is ready to shoot. The idea is to have you, the cast member, there early and ready to go on a moment’s notice whenever the production is ready – even if that means you have to wait countless boring hours at our whim. We can’t take a chance we’ll need you for filming and you’re not around or not ready to go.

Yes, we want the cast to have a great time and fun experience, but we have a schedule to stick to and, if there is any sort of celeb involved, they tend to get priority over the cast and often only work within their own rules and schedule.

Not all shows are so cruel as to force reality show hopefuls to spend an entire day waiting for their shot to audition… but many do. The most notorious culprits: Talent Competition Shows.

I’ve heard American Idol is generally the worst. I’ve known a few peeps who’ve gone to that dreaded open call, where they had to wait all day under the blistering sun in a football stadium waiting for their chance to sing. And that’s after they woke up at 3AM to get there early! It’s nuts, right?!

I wish these shows would truly care more about the people auditioning and their comfort and well being, but the priority is just on what makes good reality TV and not the people on the show who actually entertain us at home.

Now, I won’t say which one just yet, but I’m coaching someone on a talent competition show right now. This person made it past the early rounds and is now going to be performing in front of the judges. The call time for the day of the audition? 8AM. Not bad…. but it came with a warning that the day might not end until 2AM… the next day!

Surely, this person won’t be needed the whole time.

I guess, once he/she makes the show, the lost frustrating hours will fade into memory. But when I run my own reality show, you can bet I’ll be on YOUR side! Be sure that if we know you won’t be filming until the afternoon, I won’t make you get there at 8AM!

Stay tuned…

Now that it’s been confirmed that Ashely and JP will tie the knot on TV, what will their big day actually look like?

Here’s what I think:

I bet it’s off to New York, where the nuptials will take place near JP’s family on Long Island. Now that ABC is footing the bill, the couple will seek out the crème de la crème Long Island wedding locale: Oheka Castle. Often booked for years, JP might have to grease some palms to get the date they want.

No worry, Long Island is where all the mobsters live, so that won’t be a problem. Ashley should head to Manhattan and hit up Kleinfeld for a possible cameo on Say Yes To The Dress, where she can try on gorgeous gown after gorgeous gown before settling on a truly over the top number to match the opulence of Oheka. (No one wants to get upstaged by a building.)

Ashley should also amp up her ring bling by picking a finger breaking diamond encased with more diamonds, surrounded by even more diamonds – courtesy of Neil Lane.

Let’s get real shall we – deep down the duo is pretty simple, so for their honeymoon they’ll cheese out and hit the Poconos for some old school romancin’ or maybe head north to Niagara Falls where they can canoodle in a heart shaped bed for two. Wherever they go, let’s hope it’s warm enough for Ashley to bare her midriff.

Even in wedlock, that belly button needs to breathe.

CONGRATS!

ELECTION DAY IS TUESDAY, NOVEBMER 6th. Make a difference!!

I watched the Big Brother finale last night to see if my buddy Dan Gheesling walked away with $500,000 again. He didn’t (sorry, spoiler alert). It was actually Ian, the engineering student who has been watching the show since he was ten years old, who won the money – and my heart.

He reminds me of that guy in Road Trip who falls in love with that zaftig leopard print undie loving lover.

I don’t regularly watch Big Brother, so I was utterly confused as to what HOH meant and why Danielle and Ian were throwing challenges. So I’ll let the experts over at HuffPo handle this one.

After 75 days in the “Big Brother” house, 21-year-old Ian Terry was crowned the winner of Season 14, walking away with the $500,000 prize. Runner up was former winner-turned coach-turned player Dan Gheesling, who lost in a 6-1 vote — a total 180 turn from his own season (10), in which he was unanimously elected the winner.

Third place went to Danielle Murphree, who cast the sole vote for her former coach. After both Ian and Danielle threw the first part of the final Head of Household competition to Dan, Ian won the second and third rounds, deciding to evict Danielle and take Dan (with whom he had a not-so-secret alliance) to the Final Two. It was a savvy decision on the part of the engineering student, since the jury’s resentment for Dan over their own evictions swayed the votes in Ian’s favor.

In addition, Frank Eudy was named America’s Player and received $25,000. Earlier in the day, “Big Brother” was renewed for a 15th season, which will premiere summer 2013.

My friend wanted to go on a weight loss reality TV show. She didn’t want to get famous, write a book, or snag a spin off: she wanted to lose weight. So instead of applying for the mother of all chub chiseling shows, the behemoth CBS show The Biggest Loser, she found a new, smaller Discovery Channel show that was casting, which at the time wasn’t as flashy and popular.

You may think that’s  a bad thing. Newp! In fact, it’s a great thing. Why? It was EASIER TO GET ON. How?? Because it received FAR fewer applications… and thus my pal’s chances were greatly increased. [Full disclosure: I did help out with her application and her submission video, too.] And guess what! She was cast on the show – and ended up losing 80 pounds!

My point is this: if you’re not as picky about which reality show you want to go on, you might be better off having your pick of the litter from shows which aren’t the most popular of their kind.

The Less Picky You Are, The More Likely You’ll Get Picked

For smaller shows like the one my friend starred on, the casting process is typically less intense. These types of shows are usually cable shows, where they don’t have the big network backed budget to fly potential contestants to L.A. for finals. If you opt for one of these, you’ll typically apply in the same way, with an application and a video, and play the waiting game to get called. But instead of a round of semi-finals and finals, you might only have to do one round of interviews to make the show – and sometimes that can be done with just a phone call, Skype or through a second audition video. Then, they’ll fly you out, or come to you – depending on the type of show.

You can still become wildly famous on these types of shows (New York from Flava of Love comes to mind. As does Snooki… ever heard of her? Jersey Shore IS a basic cable show, after all). And you can still get what you want out of them – big time. When I went on How Do I Look?, I was treated like a star for a week during filming and given thousands of bucks worth of free stuff. I got a new hairstyle, a complete makeover and tons of clothes and make-up. Don’t think you need to go for the Survivor’s, Bachelor/ette’s, and Big Brother’s of the world to milk your 15 minutes. (Unless you have a DIE HARD reason to do so, that is!)

So it’s up to you: go big or go small. Both types of reality shows can lead to fame and fortune.

But remember – even if you go big and don’t make the show, there is no need to get discouraged. There are so many other shows to go for, and there are new ones coming out every season.  You might have to be more creative in where you look for casting notices and be willing not to get as much exposure if you get cast.

But if your goal in going on a reality show is to get something tangible – like a makeover, new kitchen, well-behaved dog, etc. – skip the bigger network shows and hit up some basic cable ones.