Northeaster
Showcase “Teaches you how to avoid the traps of modeling”
Bob Wothe
February 24, 2005
 
Natalie Wright was just 18 years old when she made her first foray into the modeling.

“I wanted to get money like so many other girls,” Write said. “And everyone wants to be a star, so I just wanted to get noticed.” But, as many other aspiring young models, Wright got stuck in a bad situation.

“Some sleazy guy ended up offering me a deal—(charging me) $100 for photographs instead of $600,“ Wright said.

“But the pictures weren’t high quality, and he wanted to go out with me on top of that. At the time, I was about 18 and he was 30—so it was creepy.”

Because of her bad experience and her hope that other young models won’t have to go through the same, the now 22 year-old Wright is co-producing the 3rd Annual fresh face Showcase, a fashion show, April 23 at The Quest Club.

In addition, the showcase is holding auditions for models Feb. 26 at 7p.m. and Feb. 27 at 1 p.m., at Hennepin Ave. in downtown Minneapolis. The community event will feature more than 70 new models, and independent designers boutiques from the metro area.

Wright said the mission of the showcase is simple: To protect and educate models and actors, especially when they’re new to the business. “

”You hear stories from other people and recognize that the modeling calls on the radio are simply not good opportunities,” Wright said. “the showcase teaches you how to avoid the traps of modeling.”

While Wright's experience sounds anything but wholesome, it was nothing compared to Shaan Sharma’s.

Sharma, the creator of the Fresh Face Showcase, was only 18 when he joined a popular local modeling school after hearing an ad on the radio. After being encouraged by the school, he eventually went on a trip to New York with other local models.
But $4,000 later, he was left without any job prospects.

“They screwed with the wrong guy,” Sharma said, and added that many other modeling the Showcase over the past two years have had the same type of experience. “In both of the shows we’ve done, about a third of the models have been through a school like I was.”

Sharma said there are lots of similar "schools" still out there and he hopes the Showcase will be able to educate young models currently in positions similar to the one he was in.
“These organizations are truly predatory,” Sharma said. “One of the biggest problems is that so many people want to get involved—and they think that to break through that you have to go to a "modeling school" or pay thousands of dollars for pictures.”

Wright said that scenario couldn’t be farther from the truth, and she hopes that the Showcase will give aspiring models the knowledge to make good decisions. She said she hopes they’ll realize that she and the other producers want to help the younger, less experienced models.

“You just need a good head shot to promote your face—one good picture is all it takes,” Wright said.

Wright was a model in the first-ever Fresh Face Showcase production, but wasn’t involved with the last show since Sharma tries to avoid having models in the Showcase more than once.
But she said that the opportunity to rejoin the showcase was too great to pass up.

Future Ambitions
Sharma says he has high hopes for the showcase in the upcoming years.

“I have no interest in being an agent," Sharma said, “But I hope that this can be a truly educational organization where hopeful models know they’ll be safe and introduced the right way.”
The fashions show deliver the message in a fun and entertaining way and provides models and actors with runway experience, he said.

“We could go do seminars at high schools and colleges to tell people what to look out for and what to do, but everybody would be falling asleep." However, one person who is not asleep is Jill Mickelson, an agent at Moore Creative Talent in Minneapolis.

Mickelson said that the Fresh Face Showcase is one of the most positive things to happen in the Minneapolis modeling scene in quite some time. "It’s a great opportunity for prospective models,” she said. “A lot of people pay a lot of money to get into the business but Shaan teaches them then correct way to get into it.”

Although Mickelson said she and most other modeling agents don’t go primarily to scope out new talent, she wholeheartedly supports the mission.

"We mostly go for fun—Shaan doesn’t want us to feel like we’re going to work,” Mickelson said. “His intention is for it to be a fun first experience (in modeling), and I want to support what he’s doing because it’s great.’

As for Sharma, well, the Showcase has come a long way from its first show..

“It’s been an awesome experience,” Sharma said. “I have been so careful to build this thing with such purity and there’s no competition or envy among the models at all—it’s been all about building relationships with trust. We’ve found ways to make something form nothing time and time again.”

Asked if he could tell young aspiring models one thing, Sharma laughed and said it’s very simple.

“You don’t need to spend more mone than $300 to get started,” Sharma said. “You don’t need to go to modeling school. Just get a good head shot and approach the real agencies.

“Or,” he said with a smile, “call the Fresh Face Showcase.”

For more information, visit the web site www.freshfaceshowcase.