Josh Leichtung, John Casablancas Orange County RIP OFF! THEY JUST WANT YOUR MONEY..EVERYBODY GETS A "CALL-BACK" AND YOU CAN'T SEE AN AGENT UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED ALLTHEIR CLASSES Orange California

THIS IS A LITTLE LONG BUT IMPORTANT FOR ALL FUTURE MOTHERS OF HOPEFUL CHILD ACTORS TO READ AS I WILL INFORM YOU OF HOW TO FIND AN AGENT WITHOUT BEING RIPPED OFF BY THIS SCAM, SO PLEASE READ ALL OF IT SO YOU MAY SEE HOW I TRIED TO LEGITIMIZE THIS SCHOOL THE BEST I COULD AND HELP MY FELLOW MOTHERS WITH THE GOALS OF GETTING THEIR CHILDREN INTO THE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS WITHOUT BEING SCAMMED. I USED TO TEACH SEMINARS ON THIS SUBJECT TO PARENTS JUST LIKE YOU, MY PEERS.

I am an ex-employee who was hired as the Sales Manager a title Josh Leichtung preferred to call "Director of New Talent", not just for my sales expertise, but for my industry connections as my son was a very successful child actor and both of my children have a very reputable and respectable agent registered with the Screen Actor's Guild and they felt that would be a great selling tool.

My kid's agent said she would love to come down and scout for new talent at the school and she would even be happy to set up for some casting directors to accompany her. You can imagine how exciting that was for new students to hear about when they signed up for classes.

THAT IS UNTIL I STARTED SELLING THEM AND JOSH LEICHTUNG DECIDED THAT HE DID NOT WANT TO ALLOW HIS STUDENTS TO BE SEEN BY AGENTS BECAUSE IF THEY GOT SIGNED THAT THEY MIGHT STOP COMING TO CLASS AND MOST OF THEM WERE ON PAYMENT PLANS AND THAT HE WAS AFRAID THAT THEY WOULDN'T PAY HIM ANYMORE, SO HE PUT INTO EFFECT THAT NO STUDENT WOULD BE ALLOWED TO BE SEEN BY AN AGENT OR CASTING DIRECTOR WHEN THEY CAME TO THE SCHOOL. THEY WOULD NEED TO BE FORMER STUDENTS WHO HAD COMPLETED THEIR FULL ROUND OF CLASSES(APPROXIMATELY 6 MONTHS).

No matter how beautiful or talented I thought the student I was signing up, I was no longer allowed to let them sign up for our up-coming Agent Day sign-up sheet. It broke my heart because I knew a few that would have a really great shot at getting signed.

Even at John Robert Powers Agent Days were for EVERY student attending at the time. This man is nothing but money hungry. And don't believe anything about 1-3 years of additional training. It is all a lie to increase the prices. These "refresher courses" he told me are offered during signup which are thousands of dollars more are purposely held only a few times a year and on an inconvenient week night in hopes that many students will be no-shows, just as he likes it, HIS WORDS.

He doesn't care a rat's a*s about a student once they have paid in full. And I doubt they will be informed of any upcoming AGENT DAYS then either. And to think, I missed my best friend's funeral so as not to miss work. Even though I lost my best friend and had bronchitis he still expected me to work 6 days a week. When I could no longer come in he expected me to work from home even though I was breaking company records and outselling everyone there WITH bronchitis which didn't get better until I quit, after he told me my children were no longer welcome at the school.

Money is all that matters to him, not your children or his employees!

I did take days off with a doctor's note but returned before the doctor's date said I could return because JOSH LEICHTUNG said I had to. I kept working sick, with no lunch and still broke company records and he was never happy with me. He was always trying to trick me into cuting my salary in half since the first day there. He said I would make more that way. But I saw through his BS, I ran the numbers, and this hypothetical income was based on making the company about five times the revenue of what it was currently making.

Speaking of running numbers, Josh Leichtung likes to do anything but do any real work, other than wanting me to work sick w/asthma/bronchitis calling people for "auditions" which he only does once a week while all he does the rest of the time in his office is run a bunch of hypothetical numbers. And like I said, EVERYBODY gets a "callback". I'm sure his excuse for working is to count how much he is going to make off of these pooor, hopeful wannabes. I don't know of ANY boss who wastes so much time (6 days a week to be exact)on "what ifs." And yet he treated me like a common telemarketer, not the like the accomplished Sales Manager of a top producing team like I am and have proven myself as.

I was told in the beginning that I would be able to bring in and hire my own Sales Team and that changed, along with everything else daily and I had but ONE person on my so called Team who had never had sales experience, much less phone work. Sales is what makes the money and his receptionist was treated with more respect with less office paperwork and data entry required which takes valuable time away from making the company money.

He also has a RECEPTIONIST/OFFICE MANAGER/VERY, VERY, VERY CLOSE FRIEND, NAMED MARIA, who he often goes to lunch with (which I'm sure his wife would love) who also wanted my job, tattled on me whenever she had the chance (like how I told a beautiful girl who I sold the most expensive package to, one NOBODY had EVER sold before, that my son's Agent would be at the school on Saturday and that she should meet with her and sign up on the sign up sheet.) Well, what do you know, Maria ran immediately to "tell" on me and instead of congratulating me on my sale I was immediately scolded like a 2 year old for telling them that they could meet my son's Agent when she was going to be there that upcoming Saturday.

And then when his son, THE MOLE/SPY also named Josh joined forced with Maria and instead of treating me as the Manager I was both joined against me and bosses ME AROUND, which I could do nothing about since Josh was Josh Leichtung's son. They made no effor of helping me, such as writing a receipt for me while I made sales and even came up with new lists of things that they would no longer be doing that would be new responsibilities of mine which again, put them in a position of power above me and took more time away from my sales and running sales team.

It was the most UNPROFESSIONAL, UNWELCOMING, NO TRAINING, AND UNFRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE I HAVE EVER WORKED IN, and I felt completely ganged up on.

But the final straw was when my SUCCESSFUL child actor son and my just signed daughter were welcomed and encouraged to take classes there and what a good sales tool that would be, after their 4 hours of classes without a lunch break they were climbing the walls on a Saturday and I needed to take them home and finish my work from home and input it onto my laptop. Needless to say, because I took them home I was told by my boss, JOSH LEICHTUNG, that my children were NEVER ALLOWED AT THE SCHOOL EVER AGAIN, because I took them home after being there for51/2 hours without lunch and they were getting restless and I didn't want them to disturb the afternoon sessions, and I could take the rest of my work and call from home and input my set appointments for the last 2 hours on my laptop which I used at the office as well.

Meanwhile, Josh Leichtung was displaying my son's tv CBS tv series pictures, headshots, signed contracts, tv Guide articles, newspaper articles, autographed pictures from Seinfeld and Mad About You cast members, scripts, Talent Contracts, ALL HANGING UP ON THE WALLS ADVERTISING MY SON'S SUCCESS IN ORDER TO ENTICE OTHER MOTHER'S THAT THEIR CHILDREN COULD FIND THAT SAME SUCCESS. YET HE, MY SON IS NO LONGER EVER ALLOWED TO TAKE CLASSES THERE because I got them out of there not to disrupt classes in session and told his son before I left why and that I would finish at home and email my appointments set for the next audition that night?! And I get treated like that with less than 2 hours left and hungry children while he USES MY SON'S FAME TO MAKE MONEY AND HAVE THE NERVE TO TELL ME HE IS NO LONGER WELCOME THERE ALONG WITH MY SWEET 12 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL?

MY SON SHOULD HAVE BEEN TEACHING other kids his age THOSE commercial classes(he has done 18 national) NOT TAKING THEM AND JOSH LEICHTUNG SHOULD HAVE BEEN HONORED TO HAVE HIM SIT THROUGH HIS LONG AND BORING LECTURE FOR AN HOUR TO THE KIDS IN THAT CLASS. Use my son as a sales tool, and then TELL ME THAT HE NOR MY SIGNED TEEN MODEL DAUGHTER IS NEVER ALLOWED TO ATTEND CLASSES the week his agent is set to scout for new talent because of my contact with her and setting it up.

Here is all you need to do to find an agent: Go to the Screen Actor's Guild website and they provide a list of all of the registered child and teen agents. All you need to do is send them 4 snapshots and a return self addressed stamped envelope with your child's basic info and if they are interested they will call you and set up a meeting. If they need acting classes or modeling classes they will recommend someone legitimate to you.

I wished that I could have done more to legitimize John Casablancas Orange County, but the final straw was when he told me my children were no longer allowed to attend but yet he wanted to use their success, picutres on the walls and agent to create revenue for himself. ENOUGH SAID.

Your kids don't need these BORING CLASSES, THE WHOLE PLACE IS A SCAM, AND I AM STARTING TO WONDER IF MAYBE JOSH LEICHTUNG REALLY DID SERVE TIME IN PRISON, AS A PREVIOUS POSTER FOUND OUT FROM HER POLICE DETECTIVE HUSBAND. BUYER BEWARE. YOU DON'T NEED THEM TO GET AN AGENT IF YOUR CHILD HAS THE RIGHT LOOK AND PERSONALITY.

Lisa
Corona, California
U.S.A.