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TV Exclusive: Konversations with Keeme: A Chat with Jeremy Sickles
8K views
Oct 30, 2022
Fourteen year old Ajibola Tajudeen, better known as Keeme, is the host of New Paradigm Theatre's web series now in it's third season here on BroadwayWorld. 'Konversations with Keeme' is show where Keeme interviews seasoned television and film professionals like Tamara Tunie of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Renee Lawless of Tyler Perry's The Have and the Have Nots, as well as Broadway veterans such as Emmy and Grammy winner, Paul Bogaev, and Broadway pros Christine Dwyer, Kelly Grant, Juwan Crawley and more.
View Video Transcript
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Hello, my name is Ajavola Tajajin, but you can call me Kimi, and today you're watching
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Conversations with Kimi, a show where we ask stuff and we make stuff. Today we're going to be painting rocks for our rock star theme by By Birdie this summer
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Today's guest is Jeremy Sickles, who is an agent at Daniel Hoff Agency
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Let's start painting our rocks. How long have you been a young agent? Uh, so I have been franchised with the agency for about, I think it's two plus years now
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Being a young agent is really exciting, but very, very different. It's one of those lovely things where I get the opportunity to work with young people and know what they're going through
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But at the same time, as any young person trying to establish himself, you sometimes have some difficulty
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but I really love what I do and getting to work for the Daniel Hoff agency is really wonderful
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Do you always want to do what you do? I actually began studying performance for musical theater and I had no idea what an agent did when I was in school
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Originally I wanted to be in casting and I did that for about a year and a half between internships
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and some assistant work and different things of that nature and then as a casting assistant I worked with agents every day
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I've loved it ever since. When I was in casting, it was mainly it came down to two things
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You look for talent and you look for a good person. Can someone do the job and do I want to do this job with someone
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What's your definition of talent? Ooh, that's good. Someone who is trained and skillful and has something to say in whatever they want to do
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anyone in any sort of business. You have to have a certain set of skills
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to be able to succeed in this industry But then especially in the arts you need to have a point of view You have to have a reason to affect someone because the arts is all about exploring the human condition And having something to say and really putting your stamp on something is
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what makes people really interesting as performers. What's the craziest audition that you've ever seen
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So as an agent, I don't see as many auditions. People will audition for me if they take a class
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or if I'm doing a charity event like Meals for Monologues or something like that
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I was at a Meals for Monologue event, which if you haven't heard of it before, it's this wonderful event where, through CSA, the Casting Society of America
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I basically run a food drive so that the actors are allowed to audition for a set of industry members
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by donating cans of food to local food banks, which is a really wonderful program
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and at that audition I actually signed someone uh because she came in and she blew us out of the
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water um and she hadn't really done much before uh she came to this audition uh hoping on a whim
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and then luckily through hard work on both of our ends about a year year and a half later she made
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her Broadway debut in the musical Beautiful as someone who is young and who's having to prove
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himself a lot, I really think that it is sometimes lost on people of my generation or anybody
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that it's really, really important to hold yourself accountable for what you can control
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in this industry. Make sure that your materials are as representative of you as possible
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That if your hedge on a resume need updated, then you have the power to update it
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Do it. If your reels need updated, you have the power to update them, so do it
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how to be someone that everybody wants to work with because that's how you get longevity in this career
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It's very interesting that a lot of times the most talented person does not always get the job
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It usually comes down to who do you know? Who wants to work with you
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Who do you have a good reputation working with? And then your career just keeps going a lot more to do with who you are as a person than how astronomically talented you are How do you stay so organized Oh I very lucky that I very A which is the greatest thing and the worst thing sometimes
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for my work habits. But I have a paper planner that I consider my brain, and I have one folder
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that is considered my life, that everything goes in and out of that order. I'm big about marking
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things down, knowing things in and out, and educating myself as much as possible. But I will
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always work my hardest to be the most educated person in the room. All of the work pays off
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If you write things down, there's a much greater chance of you retaining that information than if
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you just say it out loud or if you just think about it. And it's really important to be able to
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keep organized or stay professional in that way. What would you like to say to young leaders who
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want to lead in the world? Oh, do it. We can sometimes get so wrapped up in our own heads
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of saying the things that we can't do or worrying about things that we don't have 100% control over
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just to start. Because once you start, whether it's through education or whether it's through volunteering
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or whether it's through joining something new, you get the opportunity to show up and get a seat at the table
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The New Paradigm Theater is doing Bye Bye Birdie. For more information, go here to NPT's website
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Our partnership this year is the Veterans of America. What are some words of encouragement that you would like to say
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to the young men and women in the service? oh uh number one thank you i thank you for your service we we take so many things for granted
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in our own lives every day because we get wrapped up in our job drama or relationship drama or do i
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have a nice enough car or nice enough house but we are afforded so many of those liberties and so many of those wonderful things because of the men and women of service I am lucky enough to do what I do in this industry
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because I believe I am helping toward a greater good and trying to affect people who may need to
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hear a message or may need some escapism or whatever their journey may be they have the
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ability to express themselves or love themselves more because of the arts. The men and women of
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service are contributing to society in a way that is unfathomable. They are a part of this incredible
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incredible unit that gives us all the ability to live safer and with more love and with more
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ability to explore what I do for a living. You're a part of something so large and we are all so
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thankful for what you do it's time to show our work yours is so much more elaborate than mine
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thank you so much germy for joining us on conversation with kemi i hope you guys enjoyed
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the lovely view here at emmanuel church they're so kind to let us use their space
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and i want you guys to remember young leaders out there your voice is your power so use it kemi out
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There's a bee in your hair. There's a what? Is it what
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Is it gone? Is it out? I can't tell. What's the craziest..
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A bee? What would you say to young people? Oh my god, what is that
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Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. There's a bee? What just happened
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There's a bee. Conversations with Kimi is produced with support from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency
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