How do you break into entertainment when nobody hands you a roadmap? Brian Sebastian, host of Movie Reviews and More, tells Jeremy Van Wert how a drum and bugle corps mindset, a volunteer stint in radio and a one-way flight to Los Angeles led to interviewing film and music stars. His one-word answer is consistency.
ᛉKey takeaways
- Brian says drum and bugle corps taught him discipline, travel and independence long before he worked in media.
- He took the back door into every opportunity, from a night shift at a news radio station to promotions at a Los Angeles station.
- In radio, Brian says you move up market by market, and a voice that does not win in the first 10 seconds of an air check will not be heard.
- A job at a video store, he says, led to movie knowledge, relationships and eventually a movie review show on public access.
- Brian says the one word that matters most to him is consistency, which for him means showing up for the next live show.
ᛃ Moments in this one
ᚠHow to break into entertainment without a roadmap
Brian Sebastian says no one told him how to get into radio or entertainment, and no one around him understood what he wanted to do. His answer was to find a way in through the back door, over and over: in his words, through the chimney, under the fence or through the roof.
Today he describes Movie Reviews and More as an outlet with 20 million views and counting, which is his own claim. He opens with that line on purpose, since he believes people have a seven-second attention span. Jeremy asks him to start at the beginning to see how it all happened.
If you are standing at your own closed door, Jeremy offers a private 30-minute conversation where you can talk through where you feel stuck.
ᚢWhat drum and bugle corps taught him about discipline
Brian grew up in Connecticut watching drum and bugle corps from age six or seven, and he says his mother did three things that shaped him: she put him in drum corps, sent him to Europe and moved the family to East Lyme. He marched every summer, which meant he skipped baseball and family trips.
He says corps taught him to remember what he was shown, to work within a short window and to travel without his family. By the time he graduated from high school in 1980, he says he had been to 23 states and four countries.
Brian also credits a band director who loved drum corps and gave him freedom, while an earlier director did not. He says that contrast showed him how much one supportive adult can matter.
ᚦHow to get into radio: records, volunteering and air checks
Brian spent his money on albums and DJed his first sock hop at his high school. He skipped the SATs, believing they made no sense, and took classes at a community college on his way toward a communications program.
His first radio job was a desk assistant at a news station, working overnight shifts that he says he did for three years. He wanted top 40 instead of news, so he volunteered with a morning host at a Hartford station, getting up in the cold because he was determined to get in some way.
He explains that stations receive far too many air checks, which are short demo tapes, to hear them all. A voice has to win in the first 10 seconds. Brian made his own air checks during his overnight hours, because he says he could not make one during the day without the station suspecting he was leaving.
ᚨMoving to Los Angeles with almost nothing
In January 1987, Brian says he got on a one-way flight to California with very little money. He had planned to head to the northern part of the state to be near a drum corps, but he ended up staying in Los Angeles because a new station there was playing music he liked.
He broke in through promotions rather than as an on-air DJ, handing out flyers and driving the station van. He says he worked up to three jobs at once and took the bus across the city, sometimes for two and a half hours.
Brian's lesson from his first car purchase was that you can never ease up after reaching a goal, because things catch up to you. If you are in a stretch of grinding without a clear path, Jeremy offers a straight read on whether therapy and retreat work suits you.
ᚱFrom a video store to celebrity interviews
A manager at Tower Video, a Los Angeles video store, got Brian on the phone through a radio request line and offered him a job. Brian says that store was where many well-known people came to rent movies, and it taught him the world of entertainment.
He later worked in home video at another store, where he got good at recommending movies because customers always asked which ones were worth watching. When customers who worked in entertainment came in to rent and buy tapes, he told them they should start doing movie reviews.
He did not have the credentials to attend studio screenings, so he started a movie review show on public access. Video trade shows then gave him the chance to meet and interview stars, and publicists and studios began to call him.
ᚲChanting, goal lists and the idea of faith, practice and study
Brian says a friend introduced him to Buddhist chanting just before he left UCLA, and he still practices today. He describes chanting for specific goals, such as being on the radio and doing voiceovers, and he says it works even though he cannot fully explain how.
He describes this as his own practice and belief, not a claim for anyone else. What he draws from it is a daily habit: he writes a list the night before and crosses off each item, and he says Buddhism and drum corps go together for him because both involve working in unison.
He adds that you still have to be consistent. In his words, it is called faith, practice and study.
ᚷWhy consistency is the one word that matters
Asked for the single most important word, Brian says being consistent. For him that means showing up for the next live show; he says that night's live show was number 75 in a row, with season four starting.
He created Movie Reviews and More in October 1993 and says he always believed the "more" would matter more than the movie reviews, though he did not yet know what that meant. He and Jeremy plan a part two that picks up the story to the present.
Jeremy highlights Brian's tenacity, his relationship making and his willingness to be kind and follow up with people. If you want more conversations about persistence and finding your own path, the Mindful Mutiny community is a place for real conversation, live Fireside Chats and a course library.
Brian describes his Buddhist chanting practice and his belief in its results as his own experience. This is a personal story and not career, financial or spiritual advice.
ᚨ Questions people ask
How do you break into the entertainment industry with no connections?
Brian's approach was to take the back door: volunteer, accept entry-level jobs and make relationships while doing the work in front of him. He also says a drum corps mindset of determination kept him going when no one understood his goal.
How do you get into radio?
Brian started as a desk assistant on overnight shifts and volunteered with a morning host at a top 40 station. He says you make an air check, a short demo of your voice, and that it has to win in the first 10 seconds.
What did drum and bugle corps teach Brian Sebastian?
Brian says it taught him discipline, memory, independence and how to travel on his own. He credits that mindset with his drive to get into radio and later entertainment.
How did Brian Sebastian start Movie Reviews and More?
He says customers in entertainment who rented movies at his video store encouraged him to review films, and he began with a show on public access. He created Movie Reviews and More in October 1993.
What does Brian say is the most important word for a career?
Consistency. Brian says that for him it means showing up for the next live show, whatever happens.