We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patrick Barnitt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patrick below.
Patrick, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I was very blessed to have very supportive parents who encouraged me to pursue a career in the arts. My mom was incredible. She was my biggest fan. She loved music, theatre and films and had several subscriptions to local theaters and several off-Broadway theaters when I was young and she brought me along. I saw Dracula on Broadway with Raul Julia when I was 10. She was very involved in the productions at Seton Hall Prep. She would grab me by the shoulders and smile and say go light up that room. My younger brother, Chris and I had an agent when were in grammar school so she shuttled us into Manhattan for a good year or so. That was a rather eye opening experience. My dad was fascinated by anyone who could sing, dance or act. He always told me that there was a magic to it. Years later, I sent him a film that I had the lead in,. He passed it around to all of his friends and was very excited for me. His older brother, my uncle, Roy Barnitt was an attorney turned actor, who appeared in several Oliver Stone pictures, JFK and Nixon. He had huge impact on me. I’ve been been very fortunate to have had several angels in my life who have guided my way.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a crooner and an actor based in Los Angeles. I’m originally from New Jersey and have been here in Los Angeles for the last 30 years. Who’s counting, right?! One of the first things I heard when I first landed in LA with dreams of a career in show biz. was time “Time flies when you’re lookin’ for work”. I’ve had the good fortune of working on some very exciting projects over the years. Some of my credits include Star Trek: First Contact as a Borg and several episodes of Star Trek Voyager. I played the lead in horror thriller, Coffin, with Bruce Davison and Kevin Sorbo and the sequel Coffin 2. I was coproducer on that film. I also appeared in the Lost Day with Danny Trejo, Billy Baldwin and John James. As a vocalist and crooner and I have played in venues all over Los Angeles. I have appeared at Herb Albert’s Vibrato, Vitello’s, Catalina Bar and Grill, Campus Jax, The Cicada Club, The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Century Plaza to name a few. I was a frequent guest at the world famous Dresden with legends Marty and Elayne. I have played the Mammoth Jazz Festival, the California Center for The Arts in San Diego, Melvyn’s and JazzVille in Palm Springs. I recently appeared at the Jexa Awards with 5 time grammy winner Diane Reeves and other legends and most recently appeared at Catalina Bar and Grill for Martini in the Morning’s Mother Miriam’s 85th Birthday Bash. I will be at Herb Albert’s Vibrato on Thursday, August 10th with the Paul McDonald Big Band. My latest big band record with the Paul McDonald Big Band has been played on jazz radio all over the country and has been played her in Los Angeles on Jazz KKJZ. My main objective as an entertainer has always been to swing, and leave people smiling. If I can be a small part of someone’s special evening or provided a memorable diversion for someone, then I guess I’ve done my job.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think that every day spent in this business is a lesson in resilience, in perseverance, if you will. You really have to do it because you love it. It takes awhile to develop your craft and adopt a state of mind that can help sustain you during the slow times. I was rehearsing for my last album a few years ago and getting ready to record when I had a pretty serious knee injury playing basketball. I had to have to have surgery and was facing a long rehab. It was a very tough time. Everything came to a screeching halt. Everything had to be pushed. I got very depressed and things were pretty dark for while. Everything felt so far away, and insurmountable. I knew I had to turn this dark time into something. Find the humor in it. As I started to slowly get back on my feet, I sat in my car one day after rehab and wrote ACL Blues. I brought it in to my producer, Paul McDonald and we finished the tune. As my late acting teacher, the great Harry Mastrogeorge once said, At any moment consider all of the people that have helped you and supported you to get you where you are today.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Most of the work that I have gotten has been from someone seeing or hearing me at a gig or from some production that I have been in. As the legendary Thelonius Monk once said, “Be on the scene” I’ve found this to be true, though oftentimes in this business you have to be direct and bold in reaching out to casting, bookers, agents, managers, etc. It’s amazing the power of social media in business. I’ve gotten straight bookings from Instagram of Facebook. It’s been very helpful to me to post clips of shows. During the pandemic, social media took on a whole new significance for all of us. It was all about connection and reaching out to people. I’d go Live and just chat and sing to whomever might be out there. And it was healing and I realized in that moment that no one cares about perfection, They just wanna know that you’re there in real time. It was a very important lesson for me. I’d say don’t get hung up on how slick something is. How perfect it is. If it comes from the right place, people will respond. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.PatrickBarnitt.com
- Instagram: @patrickbarnitt
- Facebook: @patrickbarnittlive
- Linkedin: @patrickbarnitt
- Twitter: @patrickbarnitt
- Youtube: @patrickbarnitt2002
Image Credits
Ashley Eberbach Bob Barry Spencer Johnson Patrick Barnitt Patrick Barnitt Patrick Barnitt Karli Cadel Kat Podell