SPECIAL SKILLS – A Commercial Audition-Getter

When new actors first start auditioning for Commercials and they don’t have many credits, their special skills can be a major asset in getting auditions.  Many commercial and often theatrical roles are looking to cast actors with specific skills.

Skills and hobbies can be almost anything in which you excel, do well or have some experience doing and should be listed on your resume. AND how you list them is very important.  Your level of proficiency should be included when appropriate.  It can make your skill mores impressive to the casting directors and make you more desirable for their auditions. Some of the adjectives you might use to describe your expertise are: basic, experienced, intermediate, excellent, professional, etc. -whatever is descriptive and appropriate for you.

Here is a one-paragraph, format example of how to make the listing of your skills more effective:

SKILLS (or SPECIAL SKILLS)

Volleyball (state champion), singing (mezzo soprano, two- octave range), Japanese (fluent), Spanish and Italian accents, soccer (B-rated), Running (competitive), experienced cat breeder, excellent wood carpenter, intermediate saxophone player, miniature doll house expert, computer programmer, collector of Madonna posters, trained in archery, juggling, basic martial arts, crew rowing, Survivor contestant, balloon sculpting, valid drivers license and passport.

The order of how you state these attributes also significant. Start with your most proficient ones and then list those for which there might be a greater demand. Follow those with the ones you have less experience doing or are more obscure.

You could get lots more auditions when you have lots of skills, hobbies, talents and life experiences.