Agent

  When I moved back to South Carolina from Texas, people told me I needed an agent to get more acting parts in movies and television.  I couldn't just do it on my own.  The agent would have connections with all of the studios to get auditions for me, and I could make more money.  At the time, I had just left my federal government job after being "phased out", so I needed work.  I saw an ad in the newspaper for a woman, who said she was an agent, and was looking for clients.

 I answered the ad and went to her house over in the Shandon area of Columbia.  She lived in an area known for rich people.  Her house was next door to the Shandon Presbyterian Church. There were other people who had answered her ad, and we all sat in her living room as she explained what an agent does.  She said that we all needed 8x10 pictures of ourselves known as "head shots" for the casting directors to see.  She knew a photographer that we could use, but I knew a guy at church who could do mine for free.  It turned out she got a commission for every person she recommended to her photographer.  She also told us that she would take 15% of our income from acting work for representing us.  That sounded like a lot, but I could get work which was all that mattered to me.

 Each week, I would call her to ask if she had any roles for me, and she would say no.  I asked a couple of others she was representing to find out if they had gotten any parts, and they said no.  Things were seeming a little fishy. We had all paid her an upfront fee to represent us, but nothing was happening.  One day, I called her and found that her phone had been disconnected.  She had skipped town with our money and moved to Atlanta.  She hadn't told anyone.  We discovered that she was a con artist and had no interest in being an agent.  We contacted the police, but they told us that they couldn't do anything.  

 A year or two later, the church next door bought the land that her house sat on.  They bulldozed the house and used the land for parking.  I guess it was a fitting end to that woman in Columbia for taking our money.  I got an agent a little later on who was more reputable.  That is until I had a chance to play a role in "Forrest Gump", but I took a part in "The Program" instead.  That's another story.