Peter Sklar Speaks

PDAWG'S
Famous & Wise Sayings for
Young Performers

Copyright © 2006 Peter Sklar

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Making it as a performer has everything to do with how you feel about yourself and how you take care of yourself, particularly in regard to eating habits. It has relatively little to do with talent, looks, connections or luck, despite the fact that virtually every performer views these as the primary reasons for their success or failure.

Getting into the performing arts is a major problem. It’s such a major problem, that you have to solve all your other major problems first, or it will never happen.

The absolute worst, most destructive career advice for young performers is that they should spend time cultivating something seemingly more realistic and practical to fall back on in case they fail.

Your qualifications for pleasing an agent or casting director must be something other than the fact that you want to.

Success in performing is realizing that it's all about the other person. This includes your scene or dance partner, your agent, and your audience.
Whenever a girl between the ages of 16 to 25 gives up pursuing a dream, any dream, there's always a boy involved. Always. Without exception. And later, either the relationship breaks up or the career never happens. Always. Without exception. And no young performer who's in a serious romantic relationship will ever think this applies to her. Ever. Without exception.

As you approach age forty, you will start to realize with much sadness and anxiety that your greatest mistakes in life were not any of the wrong things you did, but rather all of those things you did not do. In fact, the mother of all mid-life crises is waking up at age forty or so, realizing you never did what you wanted to do with your life, and it's too late.

No matter what it is, if it won't hurt you, and it won't hurt anyone else, and it won't get you into big trouble- do it.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to get a few of the most important things right.

In life, you will struggle with many people who are happy but less than intelligent, and with many people who are intelligent but unhappy. Nothing however will cause you as much grief as those people you are forced to deal with who base their important decisions on fear. Such people are both unhappy and unintelligent. You must strive to quickly identify and avoid such individuals at all costs.

Problem people always act in a series or pattern. There is no such thing as a person who behaves irresponsibly or immaturely just once.

The worst stage parents are those with daughters under the age of seven who have just had their first significant success. Such parents are convinced in their hearts that they are raising the next Shirley Temple.

The difference between success or failure often rests on knowing when to stop talking. This applies to characters you may create as a writer, those you may play as an actor, as well as to every conversation you ever have in real life.

Never forget that although young people travel faster through life, older people have a better view.

The sole purpose of all self-discipline is to keep bad things from getting in the way of good things.

There is no such thing as laziness. So-called “laziness”
is predominantly fear.

Never expect much from an aspiring actor who has neither an abundance of life experience, or who graduated college without studying history, psychology, and sociology. Such an individual will bring very little depth and credibility to most characters, and will find it impossible to communicate effectively with most directors.

It is not enough to have a dream, nor is it enough to work hard at it. You must work intelligently.

You should occasionally remind yourself that not terribly long ago, virtually all of the most wise, sophisticated and highly educated persons in the world knew in their hearts that the earth was flat.

The only people less knowledgeable than those who contribute to Internet message boards are those who rely upon them for research.

It is far more desirable to provoke a director into saying “Give me less” than “Give me more.”

Failure in life should always come as a complete surprise.

All of the best life has to offer can be achieved by adhering to both of the following two pieces of advice: Feel good and do good. You will find that one almost always results in the other.