This summer is no time to sit home and watch marathons of “The Jersey Shore” thinking, “I could be The Situation. I gym, I tan, I launder.” No, fame-obsessed friends: this summer it is time to be The Situation.
To give your new career a jump start you may want to consider enlisting the help of media coach Robert Galinsky, who has been running the New York Reality TV School for three years out of his Chelsea studio.
“I’d love to say I was a genius and had the forethought that this would be a huge industry, but the school actually came out of work with a client I was media training who wanted to be a reality star,” Galinsky tells Unlisted.
Galinsky’s first client was Jorge Bendersky, a shy and awkward Manhattan dog groomer itching to be on Animal Planet’s grooming competition, “Groomer Has It.” Galinsky thought long and hard about what made a personality work on reality television, and after coaching Bendersky in the art of selling himself to the casting directors, his first client beat out a pool of 12,000 to win a spot clipping Shih Tzu toenails for a national audience.
Since the summer of 2008, Galinsky claims he has trained some 4,000 students for a career in reality television. His successes include Lyric and Boston from “The Bad Girls Club”, Billy Garcia of “Survivor: Cook Islands” and Jonathan Fable from Fox’s “Hole in the Wall.”
“Students walk out with an understanding of the meat grinder reality television is. A lot walk out and say they don’t want to do this, but if they do it, they’ll be able to walk into an audition, win over the judges and make the most out of their airtime on the show,” Galinsky said.
Past students and a cabal of other reality folk attend Galinsky’s intensive workshops to talk about their path to faux fame on shows like “Survivor,” “The Real World,” “Big Brother,” “The Bachelor” and “I Love New York.” Their tips are essential to the process, because while Galinsky has a background in media training, acting and writing, he has not actually starred on reality television himself.
A lot of people ask Galinsky if he is coaching his students to fake it, to create a persona that will play on television. But that’s not his schtick.
“It’s about tapping into the real you. Getting on reality television is about three things: confidence, authenticity and knowing your story,” he said.
It’s the latter, knowing your story, that Galinsky stresses in his single day intensive ($179 for 2 and a half hours, private lessons run between $85 and $150 an hour). After he runs through the audition process for reality television and where to find out about about casting calls (Galinsky also works with a website to keep students apprised of upcoming auditions, RealityWanted.com), the instructor focuses on story-telling.
The big takeaway is that Galinsky will help you distill your life story into 30-second, one-minute and three-minute sound bites. Whether you make it to The Shore or not, if nothing else your short and sweet party banter will be a hit at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
Classes are scheduled by demand and happen about four times a month, with class sizes limited to about 20 people. Visit the website NewYorkRealityTVSchool.com to contact Galinsky to enroll.
