Max's IMTA Experience!

About 2 years ago, I promised Max that I would do all that I could to help him along in his acting career.  I researched local Talent Agents and we interviewed with four of them--he was offered contracts from 3 of the agencies and after a lot of thought and prayer, we settled in on signing with his current agent--Deborah Maddox.

He has had a lot of success these past 2 years--winning awards for his youth theatre plays, 2 short films, two paying acting jobs, and one paid modeling job.  We know that AZ is very limited on what work is available for a kid his age.  It has been a goal for over a year now to attend the IMTA (International Modeling & Talent Association) convention in LA to get him signed with an LA agent for more possible work.

So Max & I flew out to LA for 4 days/3 nights to make this happen.  We of course had a ton of help from his AZ agent in preparing him for this competition--weekly trips to Scottsdale for training.  He was ready to take on the world and that's exactly what he did.

It was kinda weird because every day, it was just me & Max going to his assigned places at the assigned times.  We got ZERO feedback during the week so it was really hard to tell if the judges loved/hated him.  I just did my best to help him practice and be ready for each event.  I myself attended several seminars to learn more about this business.  He participated in 6 events:

1-TV/Real People 

2-Cold Read

3-Improvisation

4-Headshots

5-Monologue

6-Screen Test

In his age group (13-17) there were 35 boys.  Max placed in the top 5 of every one of these events and actually won two events:  Screen Test and TV/Real people.  On the last night of the event he was named the 2nd runner up (3rd place) for the Jr. Actor of the Year!!!  A very big accomplishment seeing that this was his first year there AND the youngest in his group!  CRAZY proud of this boy!

First day..
This is his "Emmett Forest" pose:)

This kid make friends faster than anyone else in our family!

Cold Read:  He was given a sentence and had a few minutes to decide how to present it.  He WON this event!  "Alright. Get this...If frogs could fly...well, we'd still be stuck in this mess but wouldn't that just be neat?"

TV/Real People:  He prepared this Twix commercial ahead of time and then presented it to the judges.  I did not get to be in the room with him for this event so this is him practicing in our hotel room.  He WON this event!

Improvisation:  Once again, he was only given minutes to prepare on a given situation.  At least he had another actor to play off of on this!  He again placed in the top 5 here.  Situation given--At a basketball game and another spectator keeps moving right in front of your view.

Monologue:  He placed in the top 5 for this event:

AWARDS NIGHT:

On the last day of the event, you may or may not have call-backs.  I was told to have "alternate" plans just in case there were no callbacks.  So we planned on going to Universal Studios our last full day there before we had to get to the airport.  Well...we never made it to Universal because the boy had 7 CALLBACKS!!!  He was called back by 5 LA agents and 2 NY agents!  I was not allowed to go with him to callbacks so I patiently waited outside for 2.5 hours while he met with everyone.  The thing he kept hearing over and over (and I've been told this multiple times myself) "You have something that can't be taught..."  I have always thought my kid was amazing on stage--something just lights up inside of him when he has an audience.  But now it's nice to know others see it too.

So now, we're home and we are waiting for Deborah Maddox to negotiate with all the interested agents in Max's behalf.  We will definitely sign with an LA agent, not so sure on the NY agents--that one threw me for a loop!  We've been working hard since we been back home to update his Instagram account--apparently VERY important--and putting together a Demo Reel for him.  And now we wait to see where this crazy road leads us next!  Let's do this!

Here's his Demo Reel we created:

Christmas 2018!

Oh man!  What a TREMENDOUS year it has been for our family--one of the best for sure!  How could we ever top it?  Having Carlie home for 2.5 weeks of course!!!

Carlie made it home in time to see Max & Tatum in their final performance of Annie at Higley Performing Arts Center.  We then settled in for a nice/quiet/relaxing Christmas here at home with JUST US!!!  

CHRISTMAS EVE:

We did our normal Christmas traditions--Christmas Eve PJs/slippers, light-looking, and of course SONIC!  

Max has been taking tap this year.  Here he is showing off his skills in his cool new slippers!

CHRISTMAS DAY:

We started with breakfast and presents.  Then hit the movies where we watched "Spiderverse."  We once again had a puppy with us this Christmas--this little tiny 1 pound chihuahua was stolen from somewhere.  The lady who stole him was arrested for shoplifting at a store.  When she was taken into the police department, they dumped out her purse to see all her loot.  Along with many other stolen items fell out this tiny puppy.  So I was called in by the Mesa Police Department to take the little guy in for the month.  We called him "Ralphie" (from A Christmas Story) and I just LOVED this little guy!  Seriously, every time I take in a single pup, I want to keep him for myself!  So I "try" not to let this happen too often.  But little Ralphie was a blast on Christmas morning!  He had the BEST time rummaging through all the discarded wrapping 

paper:)

We call him "Teen Groot" ALL THE TIME!

And of course our cute little Ralphie that we had all month!  LOVE LOVE LOVE this little man!  It about killed me taking him back in January!  But I did it--well, truth be told...Carlie did it for me:)

It hit me that this may be our last Christmas with our family dynamics just like this.  Carlie will probably on a mission by next Christmas and then Ethan gone the Christmas after that.  My family is growing up for sure.  But boy...what a great family its been.  Love these crazies to the moon and back.