John Robert Powers, JRP,Barry Holcomb & Associates,LLC ripoff, Scam, Almost got me. Beware you may be next Campbell California

You definitely put the price in perspective for me. I think that rate is fair when you think about it! In fact, I know professional actors who charge more just for coaching!
I still think marketing is an issue, but I know thats a decision for the owners of the individual JRP's. Well keep up the good work out there in Cali! Take care

First, I would like to thank the person who responded to my rebuttal. They had some positive things to say about JRP that were very objective and we appreciate that.

In response to the comments about our price structure. I can only comment about the facilities that I work with on the west coast but our prices are $50 per hr. Which we feel is extremely competitive. Most of our instructors have their Master's or PHD's, and our curriculum is geared toward on-camera acting which is pretty rare for northern California. This, among many other reasons, is why we feel as though there is tremendous value in our workshops at the current price point.

Also, we completely agree that auditions should ALWAYS be free of charge. It is true that agents and casting directors use us to find talented new faces, therefore our students have the opportunity to audition for them, but this is not included in the price of our workshops. I would like to stress that this is an added bonus of being a student and is completely free of charge.

Thanks,
Steve

First, I would like to thank the person who responded to my rebuttal. They had some positive things to say about JRP that were very objective and we appreciate that.

In response to the comments about our price structure. I can only comment about the facilities that I work with on the west coast but our prices are $50 per hr. Which we feel is extremely competitive. Most of our instructors have their Master's or PHD's, and our curriculum is geared toward on-camera acting which is pretty rare for northern California. This, among many other reasons, is why we feel as though there is tremendous value in our workshops at the current price point.

Also, we completely agree that auditions should ALWAYS be free of charge. It is true that agents and casting directors use us to find talented new faces, therefore our students have the opportunity to audition for them, but this is not included in the price of our workshops. I would like to stress that this is an added bonus of being a student and is completely free of charge.

Thanks,
Steve

First, I would like to thank the person who responded to my rebuttal. They had some positive things to say about JRP that were very objective and we appreciate that.

In response to the comments about our price structure. I can only comment about the facilities that I work with on the west coast but our prices are $50 per hr. Which we feel is extremely competitive. Most of our instructors have their Master's or PHD's, and our curriculum is geared toward on-camera acting which is pretty rare for northern California. This, among many other reasons, is why we feel as though there is tremendous value in our workshops at the current price point.

Also, we completely agree that auditions should ALWAYS be free of charge. It is true that agents and casting directors use us to find talented new faces, therefore our students have the opportunity to audition for them, but this is not included in the price of our workshops. I would like to stress that this is an added bonus of being a student and is completely free of charge.

Thanks,
Steve

First, I would like to thank the person who responded to my rebuttal. They had some positive things to say about JRP that were very objective and we appreciate that.

In response to the comments about our price structure. I can only comment about the facilities that I work with on the west coast but our prices are $50 per hr. Which we feel is extremely competitive. Most of our instructors have their Master's or PHD's, and our curriculum is geared toward on-camera acting which is pretty rare for northern California. This, among many other reasons, is why we feel as though there is tremendous value in our workshops at the current price point.

Also, we completely agree that auditions should ALWAYS be free of charge. It is true that agents and casting directors use us to find talented new faces, therefore our students have the opportunity to audition for them, but this is not included in the price of our workshops. I would like to stress that this is an added bonus of being a student and is completely free of charge.

Thanks,
Steve

Well, I want to state that first off I think JRP is great for acting education and marketing young talent. It DOES offer great opportunities for talent representation. My situation is this. Why does it cost so much, when there are other schools that offer just as much training for a lot less? Some classes at JRP are an hour long, while others are two hours, and yet, they're the same price.

Now, of course the education is important. I myself have an M.F.A. in acting so I understand, but its very costly for a young child to take class. Also, I think the advertising is a little "misleading" to parents who don't know the industry. They say things like, "would you like to be on the suite life of Zack and Cody". Now of course, this does not say "audition for the suite life of zack and cody" but people read into it like that.

I think the advertising should focus more on the school aspect. Instead of saying, "would you like to be on this disney show, or that nickelodeon show" shouldn't it say things like, "would you like to learn the craft of acting? How about getting the opportunity to audition for network casting directors and industry talent agents?

Well John Robert Powers is the school you've been looking for". Or something along those lines. (I'm not in advertising so, pardon my attempt!) I would never doubt that the instructors and the marketing realm of JRP care about the students, but I think they need to draw in the talent a little more respectably (in my opinion).

I know how crazy this industry is, and how competitive it gets. I, by no means, am a movie star, but I work hard, and I make a decent living off of acting (which is very hard to do in its own right) so I can say that JRP is a tool in learning about the business, and getting a foot in the door, but all of this can be done a lot more "economically".

Its just simply too much money when there are other schools that offer the same education at a fraction of the cost. Now, I guess you could say that the kids are getting the audition opportunities, and thats why its worth the money, but in the real world (not to say that JRP isnt real), auditions are free (unless its a combined theatre/film audition such as UPTA, URTA, Strawhats, NETC, SETC, OTA, ect) but they only cost about $75 or so. Why is JRP so costly?

There are so many discrepancies in this claim I have a very hard time believing its validity. But if this is a legitimate complaint I would be more than happy to respond.
I
f this is not a fabrication I would assume that the complainant heard a radio spot inviting the public to come to one of our acting schools and audition for an agent (we frequently have agents come to our schools to search for talent). The first discrepancy comes in where the complainant confused the ad to say "audition for the suite life," and "200 people will be picked." Actually the ad states "audition for (agents name) who works with the suite life etc." the ad then states "we have limited space only 200 kids can audition." The ad invites the public to audition for an agent and then lists the agents credits. It then states that we have limited space it says nothing about casting for 200 spots on a TV show. I'm not sure how the complainant confused that? Then the complainant claims they called the radio station and the radio station said they were picked? How could the radio station pick anyone?

Next, the complainant said the JRP claimed to have discovered Lee Majors, Danny Deiveto and Rosanne Barr and nothing was mentioned about a TV show. When we host an audition often we will take the opportunity to speak with the kids in the room about the importance of academics, family values, and drama and theater programs at a local level. In this speech we use the three listed celebrities as examples of how important determination is in the industry and in no way shape of form do we claim that they were students. The guest agent then speaks and at the conclusion the public is allowed to go on camera and actually audition for the agent. Again I'm not sure how the complainant came to the conclusion that there wasn't an agent at the audition? If the complainant did actually attend the audition they would of meet the agent and would have auditioned for them on camera?
Now the letter gets very confusing. It sounds like the complainant then actually auditioned for our school? I apologize but I can't decipher exactly what the complainant is saying in this part of the letter so I will outline the process of JRP working with a potential student. First the potential student goes through an auditioning process.

If we feel the child is a good candidate for the school we will speak with the parents on the phone and set up a time and day to go through a final test and registration. Registration includes, taking care of the tuition, scheduling and rules and regulations. Then the student starts classes and is on their way to becoming a better actor or actress.
The discrepancies continue such as the classes are upstairs? We are actually on the 10th floor of a 10 story building? Also the complainants description of our office is completely false. We are actually in the Pruneyard Towers, if your familiar with San Jose you know that this is the best commercial real estate in the market. The complainants claims that we are a "fly by night company" but the fact is we have been there since 2003. The complainant said that JRP told her "if they registered for classes they would get a job in six months and that they would automatically by on a Disney show or a nickelodeon show." The fact is in every piece of material JRP has it states "we are a private school we offer an education in the arts and in no way do we promise or guarantee work."

If the complainant did register her daughter she would of had to sign about 3 or 4 disclaimers stating that we do not promise or guarantee work. Also, I looked at the enrolments from the dates that the complainant claims they registered and we didn't register any students with Shirley as a parent name during that time frame? So again I question the validity of the complaint.
Finally the complainant claims we "prey on kids." I take this personally. The fact is we are a private school and that is what we claim to be, we value education in the arts. Our business philosophy is to fill a void in the arts left by our public school system. We have received praise by hundreds of parents on our programs and we are very proud of all the things we do for the community.

Again there are so many discrepancies in this complaint I have a hard time believing it's valid. Please keep in mind that we audition thousands of people annually and sometimes stage parents who are living vicariously through their children take things very personally if we don't work with them.

In conclusion, I would encourage anyone looking for information on our schools or about the industry to check your sources very well before coming to any conclusions. I would advise being very skeptical of any information posted on the internet and would encourage people to actually talk to agents or casting directors and get the information from the actual professionals. Hopefully this helped you become more informed.

Thanks
Steve