39 years in the entertainment business
The show business shark first stepped on stage at the age of 18. He is 57 today; A. Valinskas has no intention of retiring from the entertainment business, he has a lot of work ahead of him, just try to do everything you set your mind to.
When asked how he feels among his younger colleagues, if he does not think that he is already old, the presenter answers that the question is not how long you have lived, but how much you have left, and according to that you can feel young or old.
“Of course, when you see your colleagues dying, that’s probably the first signal to think that you’re not young anymore. But none of us know how long we have left to live, and since we don’t know, it’s better to choose to be young and active as long as possible”, smiles the presenter.
A. Valinskas says that there are many representatives of the older generation in our show business who are over 50: “Here, Edita Mildažytė, Rūta Mikelkevičiūtė, without whom television is unimaginable, Andrius Mamontovas, Marijonas Mikutavičius and a number of other famous faces have been actively participating in the entertainment business for many years. The age limits of a person participating in show business have long been extended. It’s not like a person on TV has to be only young and only very handsome. If I’m on TV with my face for that long, even the most horrible people can be on it [juokiasi, – aut. pastaba].”
Many young people in show business think that the world will stop without them
When asked what he thinks about the young generation of show business, the producer doesn’t mince words: “Looking at some of our young debutants in the entertainment business, it makes me think that maybe it would be better if they didn’t try to do it.
A lot of the middle generation in show business impresses me, but most of the younger generation act as if the world owes them for being born, for being in show business, for living in general, and the earth will stop without them. Such things are not acceptable to me.
There is one golden rule – don’t ask if you can do without the entertainment business, the first question should be if the entertainment business can do without you. And if the second answer is “yes”, then maybe you should think and not go down this road.
A significant number of young people who entered the show business imagine that they will make a revolution, although all this has been going on since ancient times. The biggest problem is that those young people don’t know much about antiquity: neither having read nor heard it, they create something anew. It’s the same here – one budding poet comforts another: “I stayed up all night, I wrote, I created, I wrote the perfect poem “Castle of Trakai”. And how disappointed I was when I found out in the morning that Maironis had already written it”, laughs A. Valinskas.
My favorite colleagues are Tapinas and Jankevičius
When asked if he sees his successors, A. Valinskas says that he respects his colleagues and does not call them successors, but he likes Andrius Tapinas, Rolandas Mackevičius impresses, Justinas Jankevičius is one of his favorite partners. “But what kind of youth they are, if to some young people they seem old, and I am already, so to speak, dead and buried [juokiasi, – aut pastaba].
I really miss people who are 18-20 years old in show business. There are those who try to enter, but bright personalities do not come as much as they would like. There are many opportunities for young people today. It is not necessary to be on TV to become famous, to have activities, orders, the whole virtual audience of the world can be yours. All you have to do is create content, which is quite hard work. I often see young people throwing words like bricks, but those bricks don’t stick together without swearing.
I’m sorry that they imagine that the whole world is at their feet, that you don’t need to work, that you can imitate someone, make fun of them, change and it will be funny. It won’t be. Access to global information is both a plus and a minus. When you compare such pranksters in a global context, it is very often a tragic picture. I’m not saying this out of a desire to criticize or humiliate, I’m trying to advise those young people so that they at least know what they’re doing, or at least know what they want to do. You don’t have to chase TikTok culture, you have to have a purpose.
There are also good examples, for example, I am currently working with one of the most famous people in the country a stand-up artist Mantus Bartuševičius, we act in one play “Father-in-law”. In it, he is my future son-in-law. Talented guy. Really liked it stand-up girl Aistė Krušinskaitė, I saw her performance. She keeps joking that her shows can’t be called stand-upbecause she sits all the time.”
The officer has the Bunke gene
When asked why there are so few women in this show business, A. Valinskas says that this is the case all over the world, comparing the ratio of male and female comedians, the gap is very large – there are hundreds of times less women.
“When it comes to singing, there are about equal numbers of men and women. See what arenas Natalija Bunkė collects. Nijolė Pareigytė is not so bright on TV, but considering her busyness, she has the Bunke gene [juokiasi, – aut. pastaba]. And as much as we have women on television, there won’t be complete male leadership here,” the presenter notes.
When asked if he can see stars in the making, the producer replies that he doesn’t see them yet, he is more happy when he doesn’t get disappointed when someone predicts that a certain person will be a star now: “I have heard more than once when TV stations are recruiting project managers and they even openly say that there will be a new Valinskas here. One thing – you don’t need to be a new Valinskas, you need to be yourself, because you won’t repeat Valinskas, AA Šapranauskas, AA Vytautas Kernagis and others. After such loud statements, it happens that everything is so quiet and calms down. So I want to wish that there would be less of those loud statements and that there would be as many new people as possible to work.”
When choosing a team, the age of the employees is not taken into account
When asked how he chooses his team himself, what he takes into account, he answers that he certainly does not look at age or gender, but above all, he looks at the qualities required for the job: “A 15-year-old can do the same as an experienced 45-year-old employee , but can be a complete fool and a slob in his 50s. When I build a team, I’m not looking for just anyone, but a very specific person to perform specific tasks, and if he’s right, he can be any age, it doesn’t matter to me. If I need experience, ability, ability to work, and if a person has it, but he lacks another essential ability, well, for example, he is irresponsible, then everything will work out. There must be a set of qualities that are suitable for one or the other position.
After hiring, we always observe the employee for at least 2 months – how the person actually works, what he is like, not what his CV looks like. We observe, for example, how he works during filming, whether not stressful. Many people, instead of looking for a solution, shut down and say that it is very difficult. There is no time to stress, when there is time to do. Maybe women are more resistant to stress, my team is practically all women. I’m good at working not so much with women, but with anyone who works well. Here, my fellow presenters are men – the same Andrius Tapinas, Darius Jurgelevičius. But the behind-the-scenes team, the whole mechanism is screwed by female employees.
Another thing is that not everyone can withstand not only stress, but also the scope and pace of work. I had hired a young girl, it seemed that everything was going to be fine, and it’s a pity that our workload turned out to be cosmically too great for that young person. The man couldn’t stand it. What seems normal and everyday to us was unbearable for her; unfortunately, she left her job herself.”
When asked if there is a strict manager, A. Valinskas says yes, and always has been.
Helps those who ask for advice
The producer says that young people often turn to him not only to get a job in show business, but also to ask for advice, to check whether they are on the right path: “I try to help those who turn to me, not based on hearsay, but on real facts. It’s not difficult for me, I’m happy to help if I can and with what I can.
I’m just not the one to reach out to others with my advice, I never ask for help under duress – why cause a negative reaction. Even though I have my own opinion and can express it, it doesn’t mean that I have to explain how the other person should behave. If he feels that something is missing and thinks that I can be useful, he will apply himself.
There are a lot of know-it-alls these days, I myself have seen an infinite number of them in the show business for so many years, – they know how I need to prepare the same “Golden Onions”, organize festivals, concerts, how to host events or shows and many other things. Practically everyone knows everything, but no one does anything but talk, so I don’t jump in with my advice where it’s not needed. And whoever needs it, I can always be found.”
Tags: Valinskas generational differences entertainment business work age intelligence prevail
