Carol Elizabeth Barlow casts several specific types of people. She casts hosts for game shows, sketch comedians and improv performers for variety shows and pilots, and supporting players for major music videos. Her special niche of the casting industry covers shows ranging from reality programming like Blind Date and Chains of Love to the sketch shows Hype and Culture Clash. She has cast the hosts of such game shows as Press Your Luck, Russian Roulette, Friend or Foe, Smush, and Hollywood Stock Exchange. Her music video clients include Ray Charles, Rod Stewart, Peter Gabriel, Billy Idol, “Weird” Al Yankovich, Richard Marx, Janet Jackson, and Counting Crows.
This busy young casting director flits from one office to the next, personifying that nomadic tendency of casting professionals who freelance. She is on the town scouting almost as often as she’s running casting sessions in an office. She works on her feet–just like she expects actors to do. What does Barlow really look for, when casting? Humor—as she always wants to laugh—and timing. Everything else is negotiable.
First Casting Job
Barlow had been working as personal assistant to performer Bill Boggs in New York, 17 years ago. “I got a call from MTV. They wanted me to cast a video with 5000 Latin kids for a concert scene. I’d never done any casting and I have no idea why they called me. But I said, ‘Sure!’ I didn’t know what I was doing. It was between school and camp so I just got out the phone book and made calls. I had no idea how many kids would show up. On the shoot date, 10,000 kids showed up. I was so lucky,” Barlow said of her first casting assignment; an anti-drug video for pop group The Jets called Be Smart, Don’t Start.
Barlow then worked for WNYW, the station that would become Fox Television, as well as working at Ogilvy and Mather Advertising doing commercials in New York. “I loved it,” she said of casting commercials. In 1989, Barlow moved to L.A. and began working with commercial casting director Sheila Manning. By 1992, Barlow was working for Fox Television in LA and she has been doing freelance host and sketch comedy casting for television as well as casting for music videos ever since.
Coolest Casting Gig
“Long ago, I was doing—I think—a Sprite ad that was in the theme of The Wizard of Oz,” Barlow recalled. “We were working with famous basketball players and I was casting little people—60 of them—to play basketball with these celebrities. Turns out, there are a lot of little people who play professionally! We shot the game they played and that was the campaign.” This particular ad won a Clio Award. More importantly, to Barlow, casting the award-winning spot removed emphasis from the in-room element of the craft of casting and placed it more on scouting. Barlow continues to use out-of-office scouting to complement submission-based casting. “I love going out in the field,” she said.
Currently Casting
Barlow is currently the non-exclusive in-house casting director for the Game Show Network. She is looking for hosts (she is not the contestant coordinator) for three of their new line of four shows—Kasino, WinTuition, Smart Allecs—and is casting a panel of comics for the fourth show in production for the Game Show Network.
She recently wrapped casting on the ABC pilot Letters from a Nut. It’s a mid-season sketch/improv show based on the successful line of humor books written by Ted L. Nancy (which may be a pseudonym for Jerry Seinfeld. Barlow won’t say). Barlow is keeping her fingers crossed for episodic pick-up. “The show has already gotten a lot of publicity, so that’s promising,” she said of the show that presents—in sketch comedy form—letters written to and from major corporations on the most inane elements of corporate America.
Barlow is on tap for casting a host for an NBC reality pilot and a crew of sketch comedians for a new improv/sketch show for TelePictures. Additionally, she casts sketch comedians for segments in Martin Short’s Primetime Glick, which has been picked up for another season on Comedy Central.
Key Things She Looks for in a Host
Particularly for game show hosts, Barlow looks for a sense of timing. “It’s hard. It sounds easy, but it’s not. You are dealing with the rules of the game, with the contestants, and with a studio audience, as well as the viewers at home. It’s all in the timing. You have to think on your feet.” A game show host audition for Barlow includes reading copy from the show (introducing the contestants and providing game show rules) and interacting with mock contestants. “I’ll see 75 people a day when I’m looking for hosts. We’ll do about 15 minutes of the show, and then at callbacks, we’ll do a whole show.”
Where She Finds Actors and Hosts
“There are a limited amount of hosts in this town. I’ve got to be honest about that,” Barlow said of using official channels to find actors who may want to work as hosts. “I do go through agents and put out Breakdowns, but I also scout at comedy clubs.” Does a good comic make a good host? “We never really know until we get them in the office,” she admitted. “They may be great with their 20 minutes of stand-up but they can’t think off the top of their head in the room.”
“For the sketch comedy things I cast, I need improv actors. I need character types—young and old—and improv must be a strength.” Barlow will attend theatre, if you invite her to your show with a flyer. Her favorite spot to scout? The Groundlings. “I go to all of them, though,” she added. “I need characters. I need actors with a character look. I like to go a little off-base. We just hired an 85-year-old woman for a show. I need to know where to find everybody.”
Advice for Actors who Want to Host Game Shows
“To be a good host, watch game shows. See what the timing is like and how people interact with one another. Look at the interaction and the ability the host has to think quickly. So much of that work is not scripted. Actors need to know that,” Barlow said.
What She Expects in the Room
Of course, Barlow wants to see actors prepared, but stresses that being on time is a major factor. “When we’re seeing 100 people a day, if you’re late and the producer is in the room, it’s bad. Don’t come in and ask what you’re auditioning for, like, ‘Is this a comedy?’ after you’ve read the sides.”
Barlow advises that actors do their homework, whether coming in for a host or character spot. “And don’t ask, ‘Did I get a callback?’ while you’re in the room,” she requested. “A lot of times, we’re not the ones to make those decisions. We videotape all auditions and the director and producer may have to look at the tapes before we know about callbacks.”
As for out-of-the-room behavior Barlow dislikes, calling tops the list. “Don’t call the casting director. Your agent may call on your behalf, but please don’t call us for feedback. If you get the callback, that’s feedback that you did a good job,” she explained. “I can’t get my job done if I’m on the phone all the time. We’re swamped.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
“Through an agent,” she responded. While representation may be the best way in, Barlow is happy to receive headshot and resume submissions, as well as demo reels and host audition tapes. “I’m always looking for new stuff,” she said. “A lot of the things I cast are on an immediate basis. So, there’s always a rush.” Because of that fact, Barlow is known to go to her submissions for fast turnaround. “If you see a breakdown, immediately send something out to me. We are casting the next day sometimes. The project is already done if you wait a week to submit yourself. Just get your headshot and resume to me right away. We go from show to show really quickly.”
Her Opinion on Alternative Submission Methods
“Online casting is not ready yet. If every agent submitted their pictures online, I would love to do casting that way because it would save time and all the trees for all the headshots, but every agent hasn’t signed up yet. It’s going to be years and years before [Internet casting] is ready. Every agent has to sign up for a service first and then casting directors will be eager to come on board,” Barlow opined. It took Barlow two days to open all of the headshot and resume submissions she received for the role she was auditioning on the day of our interview. “I’d love to have the speed of online casting,” she added. “But, as long as we have to go to the mail for any of it, that’s where I need to receive all of it.”
Until Internet casting is up to speed, Barlow only goes online for research. “I’ll look up a celebrity bio or something, but not [go online] to discover new talent. Where would I go [online to do that]?” she asked.
What She Would Change about the Casting Process
“We’re in such a rush, in casting. Producers often call casting directors last-minute. I think more time to prep for casting would be great. Lately—like in the past two or three years—we get calls on Friday night for Monday morning sessions. I’d just really like more time,” Barlow restated. This rush is another point in favor of Internet casting, according to Barlow. “I would love it if we could do casting from the computer and just look at actors that way. I always feel horrible when we have all of these headshots left over at the end of a project. We can’t take headshots from one show to the next,” she said.
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“Watching what I’ve cast on television. I love seeing what I’ve cast and then seeing the actors I’ve cast in one show doing another show. I like seeing where they go. I love to work on comedies because I love to laugh. I like to have fun while doing my job and I live to laugh. So, working with actors and getting a kick out of what they do is a blast, every day.”
This interview was conducted on July 11, 2002, and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.