Tanner Schut moved to New York with close to $25,000 saved.
Almost all of it was gone before his career caught up.
That’s the part nobody tells you. You can have the chops. You can have the savings. But if you don’t know how the scene works, the money goes fast and nobody’s calling.
Tanner knew how to play. He grew up in Oregon and Idaho on Steve Gadd, Jim Keltner, and Roger Hawkins. He landed a cruise ship gig in February 2020, then watched the world shut down. He went back out anyway and spent three years on the ships, sight-reading shows in front of live audiences almost every night.
What he didn’t know was how to network. So on his last contract, he started listening to the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast to learn how people really get the call.
Today he’s the drummer on the Book of Mormon national tour.
“I moved there with a lot in my savings and it was amazing how quickly that all disappeared.” — Tanner Schut
In this episode
The 30-minute, 55-style audition video that got him a call the next morning
How one message to Jordan Rose turned into his first gig in the city
Playing Into the Woods and Annie on a cajon for children’s theater, and why it mattered
How an audition that didn’t work out still put his name in front of the Book of Mormon team
His first-90-days plan for anyone moving to New York. It starts with “get a job.”
Listen before you move. Your bank account will thank you.
The audio came out earlier this month. If you missed it, you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. The full video is above and on our YouTube channel.
Tanner’s story shows how the next gig usually comes from the last person you met. On October 29th I’m going live to go deeper on exactly that. More soon.
Follow Tanner on Instagram: Tanner Schut
