What I love about Matt Sklar’s success story is that it’s a great reminder of how important it is to get into the business doing anything you can, as early as you can, and then slowly but surely work your way up to the top.

Because before Matt composed the scores to The Wedding Singer and Elf as well as the upcoming Half Time and Prom, he played auditions, rehearsals, and lived in the Broadway pits playing other people’s scores.

And is there any better education?  (I know I learned how to produce by managing other people’s shows, myself.)

We talked about how Matt learned from playing great scores (and how you can also learn from the not-so great ones), as well as . . .

• How he ended up onstage accompanying Marvin Hamlisch at 14 years of age . . . with NO rehearsal.
• What the Mickey Mouse Club had to do with the beginning of his composition career.
• How he bounced back when his first show, The Rhythm Club, canceled its Broadway opening (the posters were even up around town!).
• The secret society of the up-and-coming composers . . . how this group of future legends helps each other, in spite of competing with one another.
• What he does while he waits for shows to get Broadway theaters.

I remember when I first heard a Sklar melody.  I remember thinking, oh, this guy is going to write some good @#$%.

That was over fifteen years ago, before even one of his show’s got to Broadway.

Just imagine what he’s going to do over the next fifteen years.

Listen to it on iTunes here.  (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review, while you’re there!)

Download it here.

Sorry about the sound issues in this podcast. We found the bug and fixed it in later episodes. It gets better, I promise 🙂