In this video Aaron Marcus explains why he chose to live in a secondary market on the East Coast instead of moving to New York or Los Angeles. He emphasizes that family and lifestyle outweigh the sheer volume of opportunities in major cities. Aaron details his long‑term commute to New York, describing the evolution from cheap train rides in the 1980s to today’s more expensive options, and outlines the various ways he travels (NJ Transit from Journal Square, driving, and buses) along with associated costs and inconveniences. He argues that despite the longer travel time and short audition windows, a secondary market can still provide steady work, citing specific projects he’s done in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other nearby locations, as well as TV commercials, student films, voice‑over gigs, and training films. Aaron highlights Atlanta as an emerging market that sometimes outpaces LA in production volume, though lead roles remain centered in NY/LA. He encourages actors to develop talent, learn how to find work locally, and points viewers to his website howtoactandmodel.com for video tutorials and a PayPal donation link. The video ends with a call for suggestions, email contact, and a reminder to subscribe.
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Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to click the subscribe button and also the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you will be notified. So a lot of people have asked me, how come you don't live in New York? How come you don't live in LA? So I live on the East Coast, so New York certainly would be the closest major city for, for me to be in as far as acting and modeling work goes. And look, this is just I mean, part of it certainly is business, but it's a personal decision as well. Look, there is no doubt that if I lived in New York, there would be more opportunities for me as far as work goes. My wife is from New Jersey. She grew up right outside of New York. So, you know, it certainly would make sense for us to live up there. But you're not going to be able to do the work that you're doing in New York. But the reason why I chose not to move to New York or LA— LA, it's not a city that I would really enjoy living in. And once again, this is just my personal opinion. I'm not saying anything bad about it. It's just with my lifestyle, I wouldn't want to have to be in a car all the time and drive such long distances for auditions. Or sitting in traffic all the time. And so, and for New York, look, New York, as far as driving goes, it's great. You don't need a car. You know, you can either walk, you can take subways, you can catch Ubers, you know, to pretty much any kind of audition that you, that you're going to be going on. And even if you choose to live right outside the city, You know, it's the, the public transportation is just incredible. But just, you know, just to let you know, I mean, the reason why I chose to live in a secondary market, it was just for personal reasons. Um, as, as important as acting and modeling and my work is for me, uh, it's not my number one priority. Um, for me, it was my family and my life. And I truly believe that I would have a better life if I lived in a secondary market where, you know, I can have a house where my kids could grow up and actually have some land to play on and be able to walk around easily. And so, yeah, I mean, without a doubt, business-wise, it doesn't make Any sense at all, but life-wise, it made a lot of sense. And, you know, the nice thing for me is even though it's a commute, you know, it's, it's not an easy commute for me to get to New York. I've been doing that since the late 1980s, which, man, that sounds like, you know, caveman times. But yeah, I've been commuting to New York since the 1980s, late 1980s. And it has allowed me to still have representation in New York, work in New York. And it's hard. I mean, I'm not going to deny that. There are many different ways that I have and still do travel to get to auditions or jobs. When I first started going up there, I used to take the train. It was simple. It was economical. And that completely changed. It got so expensive. It's tripled in price. And, you know, just the expense of going up there with the train, especially for an audition or a go-see, a modeling audition, it just didn't make sense to me financially. So the other 2 ways, either I drive, and I don't like to drive into New York if I don't have to. I mean, I do sometimes, but what I prefer to do is to drive into New Jersey. There is a train station there. is great transportation. I go to a stop, it's called Journal Square, and I can take the New Jersey Transit, which is very inexpensive, a couple bucks, and it will drop me off right into Midtown. And parking there, it's actually very convenient. You can park right at the station, and that's also very economical too. I don't know, something like $10 for the day. I mean, it's just, it's not that much. So that's one way. That I will do it. There are also some buses, which I really don't like to take, but they are very economical. And depending on which one you go with, you can actually park free. And it's pretty, you know, it's a very safe area. And then you just sit on a bus, which once again, it's not something I'd like doing, but I do it just because sometimes I just don't want to drive. It's a long hike. So for me to get to New York, it's a long day. And I can tell you that for go-sees or auditions as well, they're very short. I might go in there and I might have to wait a little bit of time, but once I go in, I might spend 2 minutes. 2 minutes. Maybe 3 minutes with a casting director or a photographer, and then I just turn around and start heading home again. So it's a very long day. It's tiring. But once again, I made the decision that it would be a better life for me to not live in the city, in New York. And look, the fact is there are plenty of other jobs in smaller markets as well. Now, Typically, you're not going to get the bigger projects, although, you know, sometimes that, you know, that's not necessarily the case. I've worked on a TV show, Halt and Catch— not Halt and Catch Fire, Do No Harm, an NBC show in Philly, which was great. It was just 2 hours away. I worked on House of Cards, which they shot actually outside of Baltimore. There were times I had a 10-minute drive to the set, which was just unbelievable. I had to drive further for the audition than working on 3 episodes. And so there are jobs that can be available to you in smaller markets and even smaller jobs too. I mean, there were just tons of TV commercials and training films, student films. I mean, there are so many other things— voiceover work. There are so many other things that you can learn how to get. in secondary markets. And I've created videos that will show you how to do that. You can just go to howtoactamodel.com and visit my store page, and you'll see a bunch of videos there that will teach you how to get work. So anyhow, I just wanted to share with you, if you don't want to, or you're just not in a position to pick up and move to LA or New York or maybe Atlanta, Although I've got to let you know, look, Atlanta is an incredible market. Atlanta, certain years they have more productions going on there than in LA. Having said that, typically the lead roles are still being cast out of New York and LA. And I'm not saying there aren't some exceptions. Of course there are. But it's normally the smaller roles that are happening in Atlanta. But Atlanta is just a phenomenal city for working. So if either you're just not interested or you're just not prepared, you're not in a place in your life where that would make sense to you, stay in a secondary market. Be great. You know, be incredibly talented and have some amazing skills and learn how to find the work because there is work for you there. So anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you. And as I do in all my videos, If you would, I'd love to have you be a part of my YouTube channel and help support it. There is a PayPal link and you can make a donation of any amount that is good for you. But I would love to have you support it and keep it up and running. So anyhow, just find the link and you can make the donation. And feel free to share this with, with your friends, other people in the industry. I mean, that's why I'm doing this, just to help others in the industry. I've been very, very fortunate in my 33-plus years being a full-time actor and, and a commercial model. So feel free, share it with other people. If you have any suggestions for topics that you want me to cover or questions you want me to answer, just shoot me an email. You can get to me through my website, howtoactandmodel.com, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.
