Obviously, the talent is the face of the business.
But true talent possesses far more than stage presence. While that’s an absolutely necessary component, there has to be far more than that.
That’s why talent agent Mort Meisner finds it depressing that the industry is moving away from hiring singular talent and replacing it with teams.
And when it comes to recognizing true talent, he’s one of the best in the country. He’s found more than his fair share.
Success Stories
Craig Nigrelli
When Mort first started his agent business, one person who stood out among others was Craig Nigrelli. When Mort met Craig, he had aspirations to become an anchor. He also had an agent who didn’t believe in him. As Mort recalls in his book, Enough to Be Dangerous:
I recognized he was rough around the edges, but believed he could do it. So he fired his agent and I got him a morning anchor job quickly. Of the large pool of talent I now represent, Craig continues to be with me. Today he is an anchor in Wichita.
As he became more established as an agent, he was frequently approached by those not in the broadcasting industry looking to change jobs. Irika Sargent was one of those people.
Irika Sargent
She called me a number of years ago and said she was an attorney and was interested in becoming an anchor woman. I recognized that she had all the necessary elements in place to make it as an anchor, but it would take some time. I told her she would have to be okay with taking a major pay cut. She was. Irika started in a small market in the south, moved up to Houston, then eventually Miami. She is now in Chicago where she’s the top female anchor both in background and credibility.
Not everyone has been as great as Irika, though.
And the Not-So-Success Stories
Mort once repped a reporter in Cleveland whom he got an anchor job in Las Vegas that paid $100,000 per year. At one point, she owed him $7,000 and as months went by, she kept giving him excuses as to why she wasn’t paying. He finally got her on the phone and asked when she was going to make her first payment.
“I’m sorry, Mort,” she said. “My grandma has been sick and I’ve just been overwhelmed with everything. I will pay you next month.”
Well, I wasn’t about to come down on her and demand payment, given her situation.
But the next month, she gave me the same excuse. This went on for several months until she told me her granny died and she would have to pay for the funeral. I didn’t want to challenge it because, what if she really had died?
But six months passed and she still hadn’t paid. So I contacted her again. She said she still couldn’t pay me. “Granny had her other leg amputated,” she said. That clinched it.
“They must have dug up her body to do it,” I said to her.
It was amazing. She wasn’t even able to keep her lies straight. So he sued her and eventually prevailed.
Straight-Shooting “Shatterer of Dreams”
As an agent, Mort always shoots straight and tells it like it is. One day, he received a call from a man who was inquiring about becoming an anchorman. He was a bank manager in Detroit and had been watching Mort Crim and Bill Bonds for years, and didn’t think it would be “all that tough.”
Mort agreed to meet with him because he likes people and is always hoping to find the next Bill Bonds or Diana Lewis. The man, probably in his late 30s or early 40s, confidently handed him his demo reel. Mort popped it in and started listening.
Now, I generally have an 18-second rule, whereby I can tell if someone has the right stuff, so to speak. So after that 18 seconds, I popped it out and asked my visitor if he had a thick skin or thin skin.
“I’d say it’s thick,” he said with confidence.
“Good,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes. “That was one of the worst, if not the very worst demo, I have ever seen.” I then held the reel in two hands, snapped it, and dropped it in my garbage can. “I suggest you keep your job as a bank manager and I truly wish you well.”
It sounds cold, I know. Yet, he took my words surprisingly well. He stood up and thanked me. Then as he walked to the door, he turned and said, “Thanks so much for your time.”
Two hours later, Mort received a call from the man’s sister, who had some choice words for him that amounted to what a son of a bitch Mort was and how he’d shattered her brother’s dreams. The next morning when Mort came into his office, his assistant at the time posted a sign on his door that said, MORT MEISNER – SHATTERER OF DREAMS.
It’s still displayed to this day.
Mort Meisner – Agent of Change
Today, Mort continues to be a champion for news talent all over the country. In spite of the changes in the industry, he fights every day to ensure they get the benefits and the pay they deserve.
Read Enough to Be Dangerous to find out more about Mort’s life experiences that brought him to become a true agent of change.
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