Gary Spatz's The Playground Young Actors' Conservatory Gary Spatz's The Playground The Playground "Talent Management Company" inviting kids at the mall to screen test for agents is really as a bait and switch hustle operation for exorbitantly overpriced acting classes. Woodland Hills, California

 Ok so Gary IS a legitimate acting coach . My daughter is a working child actress and started at playground in 2012. She already had an agent when one of Gary's scouts approached us at the grove. (I'd say this is his biggest downfall-but most certainly NOT a scam) Your daughter is beautiful do u have an agent or manager.? I said yes she does but she mostly does print. Of course you do she is stunning, she said. We are having open auditions Monday night cone by, maybe you will like it. I politely took the card and said, under my breathe. Over my dead body. My daughter begged me for the entire week. Mommy we MUST go ,please please mom. It's not every day you are stopped by a talent scout and told to audition simply because you were at the grove. That is a huge ego boost to hear for a kid.

In actuality kinda brilliant on Gary's part. My answer was I was firm in believing this was LAME and we were NOT going. After she would NOT give up. I said fine, lets call your agent on speaker phone. You can hear how she will sat No laugh and then it's done. My daughter agreed. So we called her agent who is The largest/best kids commercial and print agent in town. To my surprise she said go, audition What could it hurt.? Gary Spatz is a big deal trains a TON of working child actors. If she likes it sign her up. She could use acting classes to perfect her craft. We were never misled to believe this was anything but classes. She would audition and get a chance to meet Gary and several agents that may like her for upcoming shows. We went to the Monday night audition and met a woman from endeavor.

She stopped us and said wow she is stunning does she have agent? I said thank you and told her who her agent was. She said we will talk in a few months....I'll be watching to see how she does, good luck My daughter placed first in the audition. I was so happy proud shocked as I didn't know she had it in her and I wanted to NOT be there. We then signed up for 6 months at rouhly 2400 To me not bad at 400 month for her to do what she is apparently good at and is excited to do. Her gymnastics coach wanted her 5 days a week 3-4 hours a day for closer to 1000/month. All of our weekends jammed up with gymnastic meets, no life. Any sport , hobby or craft warrants training and I find this to be same.

Acting may not be your kids calling, I know it's not my personal path but just like practicing at soccer practice for the big game, acting class is necessary if you want to nail the audition,be seen by casting agents and Gary Spatz. My daughter stayed 6 months. And my only complaint was. Definitely not enough Gary. He should really teach the classes their acting coaches are not experienced enough and it falls short to Gary's expertise. And the classes are only 1 hour. We have moved on to another acting school. And my daughter finished her 2nd feature film and is booked a nick show. We will forever credit playground for giving her the start. It's not a scam and if your kid d is happy then keep it up. If they are not happy with the format, then don't sign up Make sure it's your kids dream not yours pay attention !! Any of us parents whose kid is actually in the school and happy, we all know it's a great place. Good luck

 They are teaching you the real ins and outs to this business! I am a professional producer and send all my kids to Gary and they come back better prepared as actors! Even the co-president of SAG-AFTRA said the same thing online...Google it for yourselves! Doesn't GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT folks! I recommend them to everyone because they are the best!

I was at Macy's and a cute young lady asked my 6 year old daughter if she wanted to be in a commercial, and dropped the Disney name quite a few times.  We went to a tryout at a hotel, and then a second call back to Gary Spatz the playground.  We were told we were the top 20% of all the people that tried out.  But some of these kids could not read their lines, and were really bad.  Then they said we would have to pay for classes. What happened to the commercial?  I fell for it hook, line and sinker, but they are not getting my money!  The lady said we were the cream of the crop, that was her first mistake, as I could easily tell we were just the suckers that fell for the bait.  No commercial, no acting gig, just feeling lied to.  I just dont understand why, if Gary Spatz is so great, why does he need to stoop and use these lying tactics to lure us in to his studio.  Why not just rely on advertising and word of mouth. I am just feeling disappointed and suckered!

Parents PLEASE BEWARE!  I am not a plant or a disgruntled ex-employee or a competitor.  I am a casting director and I'm a member of the Casting Society of America, and I've been casting film and television for almost 30 years.

If someone comes up to you in a mall or a grocery store parking lot or a state fair - or ANYWHERE - and  tells you how cute your kid is and that he or she should be in TV and commercials or modelling, it's FRAUD.  There is no such thing as a "talent scout".  Unscrupulous "entertainment" companies or scam management companies or schools are the only businesses that employ talent scouts - to sell very expensive competitions, conventions, modelling and acting talent camps and more.  In this case, recruiting for very expensive classes is outsourced to "talent scouts" who pretend to be managers or say they have a line on a great audition for a TV show or a commercial for you kid.  They don't.  They never will.  They are paid a commission for every head they deliver and use a tactic called "bait and switch" to lure unsuspecting parents and eager children into a sales pitch - in this case one for thousands of dollars - to enroll in acting classes.

I have received a dozen emails over the years from parents describing exactly the scenario described above.  They were duped into believing their child was being offered a real audition...yet it turned into a high-pressure sales pitch for (in my opinion) an overpriced acting course.

So.  No matter how the proponents of The Playground try to explain away the negative reviews, there are negative reviews and for a reason.  This is the RIP OFF REPORT fergoshsakes!  You don't get written up for making consumers happy.

For a great resource, check out bizparentz.org - an organization run by parents that helps other parents and kids in the business find their way.

Seems like you really have it in for us (The Playground). You're copying and pasting huge chunks of text into our reports without making any claims at all to have EVER been our customer.

Sounds like you must be a competitor... Since your only purpose in posting is to move these reviews up so that they look like they are recent. Here's all the posts you made yesterday (plus this one)...

http://www.ripoffreport.com/bait-and-switch/gary-spatz-the-playg/gary-spatz-the-playground-gary-b52e6.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/modeling-schools/gary-spatz-s-the-pla/gary-spatz-s-the-playgound-g-ec788.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/modeling-talent-agencies/gary-spatz-acting-co/gary-spatz-acting-coach-gary-s-d392e.htm

Well, if anyone is still reading this it should be pretty obvious to you by now that there are a group of people who HAVE NEVER BEEN CUSTOMERS of The Playground that are out to make life hard for us.

I applaud you for coming to rip-off report to check on our business and urge you to look a little farther. I've compiled a list of resources to get you started - these are (almost) all public reviews made by people who have to provide their real email addresses in a public way...

http://www.squidoo.com/Gary-Spatz-The-Playground-Scam-Ripoff-Report

Check us out - if you are still concerned but open minded you are welcome to come visit us. I'll make sure that you don't have to talk to a salesman - just you and me and the students and parents who acutally know (and love) us.

Sincerely,

Tom
"let's Talk"
Web customer service for The Playground.

Approached in Target or at a kiosk in the mall?

 SCAM! SCAM!

There is no such job description as a "talent scout" of any kind in Hollywood. Rather these are front men and mostly women of acting school scams and rip-offs. The first rule of thumb is to understand that in this industry is that more expensive doesn't equate to better. If someone could 'buy' success everyone would be a star. Sometimes the most expensive services actually provide the least benefit. These scams committed against children and their families are very common as they prey on our love and pride for our children. That is one consistent across all scams - they all say everything a parent would ever want to hear about how great, talented, beautiful, "star in the making" their child is. That is closely followed by playing on the guilt for a parent who might not be "allowing their child to follow their dreams".

So how does a parent spot a scam? One step is to really listen to your instincts. What seems too good to be true usually is.

 RESEARCH. Researching every company you are going to work with is of paramount importance. Use Google and check the names of the businesses as well as the names of the people you meet and put the word scam after it. Ask other parents.

Look for common red flags. Some red flags of a scam or rip-off include: Being approached in a mall, family store or other public place Name dropping such from shows LIKE The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana or the use of Disney and Nickelodeon logos (call the studio and let them know your experience with the scam school and how much they charge)

Promising work or access to talent agents through "show cases" or "agent auditions" Using several different names for their business on the internet to confuse people and load up the search engines so all the bad reviews won't show up first. (luckily it can't be done)

Putting pressure or time limits on the offer such as "we only bring back 10-20% of the kids we see, not everyone makes it", "we can only hold the spot for 3 days", etc. You can cancel if you don't like it.

Long term contracts that must be paid for in advance. Legitimate acting classes are offered for 6 weeks or less at a time, with professional level group acting classes costing around $45 per class. Anything longer, or costing more is a red flag. Exceedingly nice sales people.

Predators have to be nice. If they weren't, they wouldn't get their prey. "But some people say it is OK...."

Of course every story has 2 sides, and you may find a former client 'vouching' for a business because they *felt* successful or they had fun. Most of the the "great" reviews are posted and written on the company on their own "moderated" website review sites. And they remove any bad reviews.

Getting an agent can be accomplished for under $100 via picture submissions. Really. Just get a list of agents that handle children and send them a photo. That simple. Of course you will be told that having these expensive classes will almost guarantee a top agent.

Same story here.