Part of your broadway world podcast(S3 EP16)| A conversation with Kimberly Faye Greenberg

[00:00:00] This podcast is brought to you by Casa de la Zissa. Excuse me.

[00:00:39] Part of your broadway world podcast. We are talking with Kimberly Faye Greenberg about um, she's a teacher who teaches people about broadway and everything so we'll talk to her about it and she's on tiktok too and she uses tiktok to teach people.

[00:01:08] Um, so we'll talk to her about that and yeah let's bring her in. Hi. Hi. How are you? I just kept watching your audio thing like circle and I'm like oh it's like a neck and neck jerk. Yeah, that's all good. Uh, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me. Thank you for agreeing to come on. You're welcome. I found you on tiktok then that's where I initially reached out I believe I actually I think I reached out.

[00:01:37] In one of your lives. I think maybe so. I can't recall. I cannot remember. It's all good doesn't matter. Yeah, it's all good. Um, but yeah, I really I been I've been following you for a while. So, well, I really do love what you do. I love that you like take like every single video of you yours on tiktok you teach people. Oh, but how Broadway works. Yeah. And like I love that.

[00:02:08] Oh, thank you. That's so nice because sometimes with social it just feels like it goes into a void. Right. Right. Right. So how about we start off with you first telling us how that came out to be like my life basically. Yeah. So I've always loved being in the arts my whole life. My mother actually said that when I was born I would like dance in my crib, which was funny.

[00:02:35] So I guess it was destined in fourth grade is when I kind of got exposed to theater. I went to a theater arts day camp during the summer and loved it. I also started playing the violin and I was a really quick study with that. So I stuck with that for a lot many many years. But in junior high and high school I started getting into drama in school. And I was taking dance classes. And then I kind of as things progressed very early on, I just loved it.

[00:03:03] And I started doing all the research I could about being a performer. And I would get like a subscription to backstage which is the big magazine. It was online now, but it used to be hard copy and you would get it in the mail or you would have to go to the bookstore to buy it. And I would read it cover to cover even though I was like still like 14, 15. And I would taught my mother how to put together my resume. And then I started working professionally later in high school.

[00:03:31] I did a lot of professional community theater and professional theater while I was in school. And I did the same thing in junior college and then in university when I went to California. University of California, Irvine. And then I literally started auditioning for more professional jobs like full time professional jobs. Even before I graduated school. And I got a job and I actually graduated early from my university and started working professionally. Ended up on a national tour.

[00:04:01] Ended up moving to New York City while I was on a national tour. And I had like 300 bucks and two suitcases. And I had this other thing that I did which was I really loved working backstage too. I was working backstage at a regional theater in Sacramento. We started out as an intern, which we did everything. So I was in the shows, but we're also doing all the backstage stuff. And I loved it and I fell in love working with costumes.

[00:04:23] And so a couple of summers when I was in school, I was actually heading the dresser department, which was like the people who, you know, put all the actors in their clothes. So not only was I performing, but I was learning all the stuff about working backstage. So that when I moved to New York, I was standing in line for an audition and I was doing all the normal actor stuff that we do, which was like waiting tables and working in offices. And I ran into somebody who worked with me as a dresser backstage and asked why I wasn't also doing that on Broadway.

[00:04:52] I was like, I didn't even think I could do that because I'm here to be an actor. And I ended up getting on my first Broadway show, which was Aida working backstage in costumes and becoming a dresser swing on Broadway. So I worked on over 25 shows on Broadway while still being a performer full time. And that's kind of everything just kind of kept going.

[00:05:15] And about 10 years into my performing career, I became the first and only actress to play leading roles in two off-Broadway musicals at the same time. One of them was Fanny Bryce, who people know from Funny Girl, the musical. And I play like a more real life version of her and her real story. Funny Girl is not her real story. It's like partly her real story, but I share more of her real story with the world. And I did that show off-Broadway and I got rave reviews and I have a solo show that travels the country and I still work backstage.

[00:05:43] And all that combined together to now that I teach other performers and backstage artists and creatives and writers how to do what I did on their own terms, using their own unique talents. So I'm now known as the Broadway expert, which is like a performing arts business coach. I have a book out called Business and Marketing Strategy for the Product and Performer. I teach at colleges and universities and I have one-on loan clients and I have beginners and I have people who, you know, are advanced and working themselves.

[00:06:12] And so now I do all the things, which is great because the pandemic happened. And when the pandemic happened and I'd already been doing a lot of these things, people thought I was crazy because they were like, how can you do all these things? And what they realized during the pandemic is when one of those things goes away, you're stuck. You don't have any way to earn money. But because I had been doing so many different kinds of things, I wasn't necessarily stuck during the pandemic.

[00:06:36] I could still work on coaching people or, you know, I wrote my book on coaching and I had my Fanny Bryce show that started streaming online. So that kind of now it's a thing where all where I can easily teach people how to do more than one thing, work on stage and work backstage or do other things. You know what I mean? And it's been really good. So that's like the story of how everything came to be. And now here we are today, sitting, talking.

[00:07:03] I mean, and like I said before, like, I love those. I love it. I love your videos so much, like, because there was like things that you talked about. And a lot of your videos that I never even knew about. Oh, wow. Thank you. I try to be. The thing about Tick Tock is people are give a lot of advice on Tick Tock and on the other social media sites. But it's very general.

[00:07:31] And or it's very like, sure, everything's going to happen. It's going to be great. Now, while I totally I'm I'm I'm an optimist, but I'm also very much a realist. And I understand this and I want people to be smart about what. So I try to be very real, but also still be supportive so that I don't want to like make anybody feel like, oh, I don't want to do this anymore. That's not what I'm trying to do. I just want people. I threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall, as the saying goes through my years.

[00:08:01] I've been doing this for 25 years and I don't want to have people shouldn't have to go through the same things to achieve the same goals. Yeah. You know what I mean? So that's kind of what I try to do. Yeah, because I do. I love the your last to talk video about like you're not going to get every job. No, you're not going to get every job. You're barely going to get a job. Even I'm pretty established and people know who I am.

[00:08:26] I'm not famous or anything, but like, you know, I've made a niche for myself playing Fanny Bryce and most of the people in the community know me. But like even I have issues booking work like you're I can do. It's about doing really good work over a long period of time and for people to get to know you so that the right role comes along, then you'll get the job. It's really hard. I'm not. I even have a hard time with that, too. So, right.

[00:08:52] Yeah, I think like sometimes in movies and TV shows, people like you think that it's just going to happen right away and then everything's going to be amazing. And while we wish that were what is actually the case and maybe it might be for somebody, but it's very rare. CDZ Collegia Musica is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

[00:09:19] It is a kind of school of music, a concert series and an agency that promotes the musicians, dedicated artists and educators who we feature as our performers. The goal of the Collegium is to bring community together through music performance.

[00:09:43] These performances vary in musical style from classical to jazz and music from different parts of the world, from India to the Middle East, that'd be like Persia and Japan and China.

[00:09:58] The goal is to also educate us to how music functions, not so much as a musical universal language, because there are differences in the way that these languages of music are expressed, but to educate us to be able to be more appreciative, not only of the music, but the culture it represents.

[00:10:27] And by doing this, it brings community. I'm excited because I'm going to be in New York this year. Oh, good.

[00:10:55] I'm coming to New York this year and I'm very excited because I want to see Broadway so bad. Oh, God. Well, Broadway is much more accessible now because you can watch some things on the internet and we have all the tours and all that. So, yeah, that's awesome. What advice would you have for someone that's never been in theater at all and doesn't really know where to start? I get that question a lot, especially like on TikTok.

[00:11:23] I think the biggest and best thing to do is kind of like do what I did, which was like you need to take drama and theater classes, whether it's in school or in your community or at the local theater or, you know, find teachers who are working, who can teach you.

[00:11:44] That's like the biggest thing, because anything you do, let's say I'm from Sacramento, anything I did in Sacramento through school and through my community theater and all that is what I'm still doing now, just at a bigger level. But it was like the building blocks of what I needed to be able to do, what I need to do as a professional. So, and it doesn't necessarily mean involve, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to go out and spend a lot of money. Like a lot of what I did in junior high and high school was just do theater in my school.

[00:12:14] Do you know what I mean? So, and then that actually introduced me to a few other people who wanted to be professionals too, which is how I then found out about a couple of the professional troops that I was in that I got paid to go do shows. You know what I mean?

[00:12:27] So that's the best thing to do because you just need the experience and you really learn by doing and then finding people who are doing the things that you want to be doing so that you're not just like taking with some rent, taking class or coaching with some random Joe Schmo who may not know what is actually involved. Or sometimes I feel like there's so many amazing teachers out there.

[00:12:55] As long as they've worked in as an actor, then you're good. But I feel like if there's a teacher who hasn't done any of the things that they're actually teaching, then I think that's possibly problematic. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. If you want to be a professional. If you don't want to be a professional, that's completely different. But like if you want to actually be a professional. I mean, I work in community theater, but I'm an usher. I volunteer usher. Oh, cool. Amazing.

[00:13:24] I've been doing it for like years. And I kid you not, I have like a binder full of playbills that I take to of every show that I usher. And it's like that thick. Oh, wow. Yeah. I'm sure. So you see a lot of shows then. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, people are ushers professionally too on Broadway. That's what it's your job. Yeah.

[00:13:52] And someone that I interviewed, I can't remember who, but someone that I interviewed had also said like, that's another way to get in, in like your foot in the door is usher. And so, and someone might, you know, spot you and be like, oh, you might be able to do this. Yeah. I think it's, I don't think, well, I would say yes, because it's not quite that simple, but I would say yes. Because like, I work backstage, right?

[00:14:20] So I'm meeting a lot of people in the industry when I'm working backstage. I'm working with backstage artists who are also actors and creatives and writers and writing music and all that stuff. And then I'm working with actors. And that is how I've gotten a number of my jobs. I was in a show that was working toward, well, should have, was hopefully coming to Broadway. And then, and that was somebody I met working backstage on a show who we became friends.

[00:14:45] And then he saw me in a show that I threw a couple rounds of auditions, ended up in a Broadway workshop of his show. So that's absolutely, my cat just says hello. For those of you who are listening, my cat just came to sit on my lap. So there you go. His name is Charlie. Hi. Oh, he likes to be part of the action. But yeah, I mean, I totally encourage you can do a lot of things in this industry to meet people.

[00:15:15] And then the more people you meet who are doing a lot of things, the more opportunities might open for you. So like I some, it used to be a thing where people used to say, well, you can only pick one thing and then do that because, you know, you can't lose your focus. And in this industry, I think it's super important. Like if you look at the big stars like J-Lo and Reese Witherspoon and some of like the big Broadway stars too. Like they do more than one thing. They're not just on stage or on screen.

[00:15:43] They're producing, they're writing, they're creating content, they're opening businesses. So the more you too can do the things in the realm that you want to be doing, then the better off that you'll be. And actually, funny because this, my book, Business and Marketing Strategy for Active Performer, I have like a whole chapter on that. Which is like, you can do all those things. You can work backstage. You'll meet the people, you know what I mean, that you can collaborate with for years and years.

[00:16:10] Yeah, because I guarantee it because my all-time idol and favorite actress is Lauren Patton. Oh, okay. Yeah, so, and I guarantee you she, hey, there's a little pop up in the head. I know, he likes to be in the action. And I guarantee you she didn't just start off on Broadway instantly. She did other things. Absolutely.

[00:16:38] Most people, it's, I mean, it happens sometimes. Every, there are people who hit it right away, like just after school, graduating, or there's something about their talent that matches a project that's happening right at that moment. And then they like get the thing that changes everything, the job that changes everything. But for the most part, there's a saying that it takes 10 years to make an overnight success.

[00:17:02] Meaning you got to plug away for like 10 years before you even achieve the thing that will take you to the next big thing. Right. So, and that's the case for me. It took me about 10 years. I worked a lot when I moved to New York, but over my first 10 years, but I didn't get the job that changed my life until 10 years in. Right. And that's why I feel like it's a misconception to people. It's like people just think it's like a snap of the finger and then you're big. Like, it takes me.

[00:17:31] I know. I think that's the misconception that I'm trying to change when I'm talking. Yeah. Because for, I mean, don't get me wrong. I think I had a few of those too when I moved here. Yeah. But like, but that's not the reality. You have to look at this as something you're doing your entire life. Mm-hmm. Because you just don't know how it's going to play out. Mm-hmm. Your journey's not going to look like everybody else's. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.

[00:18:01] And I think the more people understand that, the better it would, it will be. Because once you get that mindset, that mindset, then it'll be easier for people. Yes. Because yes, exactly. Because then you just are okay with just being in it for the long haul. And however it goes is however it goes. When you're putting pressure on yourself for something to happen right away, you're almost like pushing the thing away that you want. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:18:31] So anyway. And I feel like that's true with everything in general. Like anything and everything people do in general. It's very true in life. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely not any different in a career as a performer or even a backstage artist or a creative in some way, shape, or form. Mm-hmm. Right. Kind of want to talk about the Tonys for some reason. I don't know why. Oh, gosh. Okay. Okay.

[00:19:00] I don't know if I'll have much to say on that, but you can ask me. Oh, my God. Have you been? Yes. Okay. I've been. I think I've been once. Once. Maybe I've been twice. But I think I've been to the Tonys once. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like it is on television. No. No. No. Not at all. No, because you have to remember that it's being filmed for television. Yeah.

[00:19:29] So when you're seeing the shows on the stage, you've got, you're sitting in the audience and it's all grand and all, but you know, you got the cameras on the stage taping the performers performing. I guess it was a while ago, so I don't know how they capture it now, but like, it's a lot of sitting and waiting because you have to, don't do anything during the commercial breaks. You just hang out. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. So it's not as exciting as it is on television. I actually tell people it's better just to watch it on television.

[00:20:00] Just go home and sit on the couch and watch it. It's uncomfortable and you can eat whatever you want. You don't have to dress up. Yeah. And you don't have to look at the cameras because you're seeing the actual action. Yeah. Better than you see it in the audience. Yeah. Yeah. Damn, I wanted to go to the Tonys one day. Never mind. You can still go. I might be a little jaded. Oh, it's so funny. It's so funny.

[00:20:24] I wanted to circle back to what you said before because I had mentioned that I'm coming to New York City. What advice would you have for somebody who is moving to the big city to start their business? Yeah. A business? The biggest... I teach a class about this to high school kids and college kids.

[00:20:52] And the biggest piece of advice that I teach is do what I did, which was I moved here and the next day I went out and got a job. Well, I went and interviewed to work for a temp agency because what I didn't want to have to do was worry about money. Yeah. That's like the most important thing. You got to have stability before you can go out and audition and stuff. Like I was very clear that I was here to be an actor, so I wasn't going to like get stuck

[00:21:22] in a day job or anything. I definitely had options as far as how to make the schedule I needed to be able to do the things I needed to do for acting. But I did... I mean, I came here with $300. I needed more than $300 to pay my rent. So that's the first thing. I would either advise people to save before they come. Yep. So they have a nest egg and they don't have to worry about a job right away. Or I would just say, go get the job first.

[00:21:50] That work with your schedule and then pursue the things you want to pursue. Because the city is very expensive and in every corner there's money to spend. So I would... That's the first thing I would tell somebody to do. Right. Exactly. Like, because folks, I hate to tell you all this, but New York ain't cheap. It is not cheap. It's very expensive. It is very expensive.

[00:22:20] Yes. Yes. And the cat agrees. Even the cat knows. Even Charlie knows. He is very much a center of attention. He is. I've seen a few TikToks because he's kind of a ham. I think I've seen him. I think I've seen him. Yeah, I've seen him a few. But come on. Go on. You can go, honey. It's okay. No, he's like, I'm not leaving the lap. I'm getting attention. I don't want to leave.

[00:22:50] Yeah, he doesn't want to go. He's very happy here. It's so funny. Every time I do a Zoom interview, a lot of times he ends up on my lap. I'm not sure why that is because, yeah, it's very funny. Trying to steal the spotlight? I guess so. He looks pretty good in the spotlight. He just needs to make money. That would be very helpful, right? Yeah. Make mommy money? Now he wants to leave.

[00:23:20] I'm cute. I'm cute. Anyway. Yeah. So that would be my one. That'd be my first big piece of advice. Hmm. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was like getting distracted because it's like, he's like. I know. He's too cute. Oh. Your listeners aren't going to see the cat. You're going to have to put pictures of what this looked like so they know. Well, I have video and audio. So.

[00:23:50] Oh, cool. So I have both. Okay, cool. So the top of them will see them. Yeah. Okay. So. Anyone who's listening on the audio format, here's a cat. And he's very cute. Yes. He's adorable. He's adorable. I mean, having animals in your videos, they get more views, right? I don't know. Maybe. I don't know.

[00:24:15] So then I'm kind of curious because, as you know, TikTok kind of perched itself last night. Yeah. That was weird. Yeah. That was very. Then it came back. Then it came back. I don't know why. Well, there's many thoughts going around about that, but that's, we don't have to talk about that. I'm confused. We'll see.

[00:24:43] I mean, the thing I tell, like, performers and anybody, really, who's like, the big piece of advice I have about social media is, obviously, it's a free tool that you can promote yourself, right? Which is great. Yeah. I mean, yeah. But we don't own it. So it could go away at any point. So I'm always preaching. I think I put a video out like this right when it came back, which was like, you don't own this.

[00:25:08] Go create a website that you own so that you always never lose your content. Yeah. Because how can you put so much work into something and then it like just disappears randomly? Yeah. Yeah. No. I just found it funny because it's like, I told my friends this too. I was like, I have whiplash for how fast all that happened. Yeah. I think we all have our opinions of why that happened, but who knows?

[00:25:38] I'm not going to worry about it at this point. We'll see how the theatrics of it plays out. Right now, it's good. We can keep talking. That's good. That's fine. If it's here to stay, it's here to stay. Yeah. And if it's not, that's okay. There's other options in the world. Yeah. I just had to ask that because I'm like. Yeah. Well, I think we were all stunned because I have a habit of just turning it on, which is really bad.

[00:26:03] And I accidentally turning it on a couple of times when it wasn't working and reminding myself, oh, it doesn't work. And then I turned it on and all of a sudden it was like, we're back. And I was like, huh. I did that too. I kept like every 20 minutes like doing that. And I'm like, oh, wait, wait a minute. Because I couldn't doom scroll last night or that night. Yeah. No, it was probably healthy that you couldn't do that. Aw. But I want to doom scroll.

[00:26:34] So then what are your goals then for the, for this year then? For me? Personally? Yeah. For me? Yeah. I have, I have a lot of different things in mind. I, as a performer, have been working more towards a lot of more TV and film versus theater. I've been doing a lot of auditioning for really exciting stuff.

[00:27:03] And I just haven't booked something. I have my last big booking for TV and film was in 2019. So that was right before the pandemic. So I'm hoping that 2025, we will actually go from being called back and being up for really fabulous things on TV and film. And I'll actually book one of them. So, or more than one. We'll see. We'll see. It'd be great. So that would be great. Do more theater.

[00:27:29] If, you know, the opportunity arises from an audition or from me meeting somebody, we'll see. And yeah, I continue to grow my coaching and I love teaching. I really like doing that. So hopefully I'll have a lot more opportunities to do that. I have a children's book that I wrote that I'm currently putting pictures together for. It's all about vaudeville and putting on your own show. So hopefully that will get published. And spending time with my cats.

[00:28:00] As is appropriate on the Zoom. Yeah. So I literally, my goals are so long-term because I, you know, I am understood. I understand because I preach it that, you know, everything takes a lot of time. Nothing happens as fast as you're going to think it's going to happen. So I do my best to just keep plugging away and doing the best I can at the things I offer the world and helping. I hope I have many more successful people that I coach this year because it's really exciting. It keeps me excited.

[00:28:30] It keeps me learning and growing too when I can help others. So, you know, we'll see. If TikTok sticks around, maybe I can get to 10K. Yeah. That's my dream. I'm only at like 3 over like 3.3K or something like that. You have more than me. So there you go. So it took me a while to figure it out because I'm. Yeah. But we're getting the end of it now.

[00:28:58] Speaking of your book, for my listeners and my watchers, can you tell everyone where you can get the book? Of course. So let me show it so that. Okay. So for those watching the video, you can see what it is. If you're not watching the video, it's called Business and Marketing Strategy for the Proactive Performer. Don't let the name fool you. It's a very easy, easy read.

[00:29:23] It's got everything from teaching you how to do your resume, how to know what kind of headshots you need and set goals and the casting websites and all of those very easy, more beginner tools as a performer. And then it goes into more advanced things like how you can pitch yourself to get the big auditions and how you get an agent or manager and lots of really good tools like that. So it's available on Amazon.

[00:29:50] And it's available at the Drama Bookshop in New York City. It's available on my own website, my coaching website, which is thebroadwayexpert.com. And I should also mention, if you want to learn more about me as an actor, you can go to KimberlyFayGreenberg.com. And if you want to learn more about my fabulous Fanny Bryce solo show that travels the country, it's called fabulousfannybriceshow.com. And then you can also get an e-book of this, which is cheaper.

[00:30:16] I think it's 10 bucks versus 20 from my publisher, which is headlinebooks.com. So there's a lot of ways to get the book. I personally prefer the paperback because in the middle you have a whole reference section. And I can guarantee you that people who buy it totally like look at the reference section all the time. Yeah, so I hope people check it out. If they want to work with me, you could always go to thebroadwayexpert.com. You can Google me. There's pages and pages and pages and pages of stuff about me as a former and videos.

[00:30:46] And I have albums that are on the streaming, like iTunes and Pandora. I have a couple of albums. You can even find my music on TikTok. Yeah, so there's a lot of ways to learn more about me and what I do. And if your listeners like have wonderful questions they want to ask me, find me on TikTok. That's a great place to do it and ask me questions. Because you know me now because you've watched my videos. Like I love to answer questions.

[00:31:16] That's always super fun for me to do. So I always encourage questions and things like that. I know I said 45 minutes, but I'm running out of questions. I think we got so much done. That's amazing. I love talking to you. This was great. This was so fun. Good. I'm glad. I can't wait till it comes out. Let me know. I will. And bye, Charlie. Say bye. Say bye. He's like, no. He's like, fuck that.

[00:31:46] I ain't doing it. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and we will see you next time. Bye. Bye, everybody.