A few of you reading this post are making enough money just from your acting, that you don’t need a ‘B’ career or job. You are to be congratulated as you are in select company! The bulk of us actors, however, are working at jobs so we can do something very meaningful and not at all esoteric. What is that meaningful thing? PAYING the BILLS. No one told me when I moved from Iowa to Hollywood that it would cost more than an arm and a leg to survive. Turns out, it’s requiring most of my torso as well. I don’t know, there’s just something comforting about having money to put some gas in the car to make that audition or have the coinage to use the public transit system to make all those important connections.
Short of buying winning lotto tickets each month to take care of those obligations, we’ve got to find work that still permits us to make auditions, book the job and then go shoot the darn project and not get fired by the boss. They’re the classics like waiting tables, tending bar, tutoring, late-shift clerical at professional offices and commission sale’s work. What I like about the commission sale’s work is you control those hours to accommodate your acting pursuits. What I like about the late-shift gigs is the day is all yours for planning and attacking your career. Good luck on getting all the sleep you want with the shift work, but with good discipline, this works well for a lot of actors.
So, I hope you’re in the best fit job-wise so it accommodates your acting goals. More about that in my next blog.
Tom Katsis