The Actor-Waiter Conundrum

     I recently received an email from the lovely Unscripted reader, Maria! I thought I'd share a bit of our exchange on the blog and get you all in on the conversation. She asks: 

   "I would like to be a performer but I would also like to make a decent living. I am a freshman at college and I am unsure what path to take. Is it indeed possible to be a performer and have another job on the side that isn't waitressing or the like? How do you use your marketing degree to your advantage? Thank you so much for your time."

   A toughie, but not uncommon - anyone who has pursued acting has had their parents ask them this question at some point. Can you be an actor and not be a waiter?

  

It boils down to what you define as a "decent living." Do you mean being able to support yourself while making art? If that is your pursuit, then yes, you will certainly be able to do that. While starting up a professional acting career, many find it necessary to have a part time job(s) to supplement their income. The most important thing about that part-time job is finding one flexible with your schedule; that will let you take time off to audition or for rehearsals.

   And thus: the actor-waiter was born. :::ta-da!:::

  

   I know other performers who do temp office work, retail, teach, walk dogs, write, and pretty much any flexible job imaginable. I can say from personal experience it is difficult to have a full-time career that will "share" you with the full-time pursuit of acting. Offices prefer to hire someone who is committed to one career instead of dividing their attention across several passions. Even though I have an undergraduate degree in Marketing, what firm is going to hire someone who needs flexible enough hours to leave at 2pm on a Tuesday if an important audition comes up? You are a lucky duck if you find an office that will support you, full-time, in dual career paths.

  

   Once you build your acting career, hopefully you will find acting jobs with a high enough paycheck to cover your expenses. Joining the various performance unions can help you with salary protection, health insurance, and other incentives. 

  

   It is possible to live humbly yet comfortably on an actor's salary. I do not want for anything, but I do keep a careful eye on my spending. However if your goal is to lead a more luxurious life, you may want to seek another path. Geoffrey Soffer, CD for Ugly Betty said in a recent Backstage article, "...Also know that this business is not for everyone, and not everyone can remain optimistic and focused. So if there is something else you'd rather be doing, do that." 

  

   It is a highly competitive field for little monetary gain, but you make up for it in personal satisfaction.

  

   Any advice for Maria? 

  

(photo courtesy of Tara Welch)

-- Brittany Baratz

   PS: Happy Hanukkah! 

Comments

[ValerieW (SF Bay Area Actor)]

The quote Brittany uses near the end of the article is really important: If there's anything else you know you'll be happy doing, do that instead. There's a reason actors drive older cars, rent instead of own their homes, and shop thrift stores and bargain stores. We can't imagine doing anything else for a living, and are willing to make the lives we make in order to act. How much money do you need to live? Make a budget. What are rents, cost of living, etc. in the area that you want to live in after you graduate from college? What do actors get paid who work there (check the union websites for rates that union actors make)? Know that a union actor doesn't work 52 weeks/year in most parts of the US. Day jobs: flexibility is key. If you have to be in a specific location (to watch children, answer a telephone, etc) from 1 specific hour of the day to another specific hour of the day, you won't be able to drop it all and go to auditions, which you need to do. Low-stress is also important - find a job that you can forget about when you're not at work - you want to be able to put your energy towards your craft and career. It's not easy, but if acting is your passion, you'll find a way to make it work.

[Jordan]

Clearly the ideal survival job would pay well and be intellectually stimulating. It's not worth it, though, if it interferes with spending the majority of your time investing in your actual career. Another reason the actor-server is such a cliche is because it is possible to make enough to survive on while only working 3 nights a week. It's not just the flexibility. Time is money, especially for actors. You can easily delay your progress as a professional actor if you spend too much time and energy at your day job.

If she needs help understanding how much her cost of living will be, she can look at my website and search "cost of acting." I detailed expenses and how much it's necessary to make an hour to cover everything. It's all specific to LA, but it should help for wherever she wants to go.

[Jordan]

http://www.toactors.com/welcometola/2010/06/25/the-cost-of-acting-in-los-angeles/#

There's the direct link to make it easier actually.

[Justine]

You all have brought up good points so far. I've always been one who believes that you can have a full-time office job at certain times in your life (certainly when you're starting out)--if it gets to be too much, quit!

For a lot of actors though, when you first start out, you aren't going on very many daytime auditions. Especially if you don't have an agent yet. Maybe you're doing theater and auditioning at night or performing at night. An office job that gets you out by 5 or 6 will work fine. Just don't take a job that expects you to work overtime often.

I've always liked temp work, but work through temp agencies has really slowed down over the last 2 years so it is hard to find enough work that way.

Many actors have more than one part-time job to make ends meet. Some also do self-starter work (I recently suggested this on Lira's page). This might be starting your own dog-walking business, or typing papers for people who need typing work, etc. Find your skills and use them. This can be either a part-time thing or more of a full-time business, and if it's your business, then you can set your own hours.

[Brittany Baratz]

Valerie - Totally agree. Budgeting is a crucial skill, as it learning what you can from other working actors in your area. Its not exactly a "conventional" career path and the best way to learn is to talk to those that are doing.

Jordan - If your "survival" job is intellectually stimulating, you are very lucky, but sometimes its less stress to pick up an "easy" job that you can walk away from. Great feature on your site, very helpful.

Justine - If a full-time job works with your schedule; thats awesome! More power to you. It has personally been difficult for me to get a full-time position during the slower points in my career. As soon as I describe my previous work experience (acting, touring, etc), they get concerned about my 9-5 reliability.

[Justine]

Brittany - Kind of the same with me, actually. I think for a brand new, just out of school actor it can work, especially if they don't *tell* an employer that they are an actor. (Later on down the line, if it gets to be a problem, they can 'fess up about their auditions and see if it works out for them to miss a couple of hours here, make it up later on there, etc. It really depends how frequent their daytime auditions are.)

For me though, I have a lot of temp experience on my business resume, so whenever I've applied for a "permanent" job, they want to know why I've done so much temping. I told them I did a lot of acting in the past so temping was ideal, but "currently I just do some occasional theater at night, so my days are free." It's kind of a little white lie. IF I get an agent and start going out on daytime auditions, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure I attend those auditions.

I'm currently working part-time and occasionally I do get daytime theater (or other) auditions. So far I've been able to do it on a lunch break (taking a little extra time, for an "appointment) or scheduling auditions first thing in the morning.

I think the ideal thing is for an actor to luck themselves into a good long-term temp job. If down the line, the employer wants to hire them as a full-time employee, they have a little leverage. This happened with a friend of mine--she was temping and several months later they wanted to hire her. She told them she was interested in the job but she wanted to let them know that she was an actor, she had an agent, & there would be times when she had to go on an audition during work hours.

And they still hired her! Now, this won't work with every employer, but I think it worked in her case b/c she had been working there already & they liked her. Easier for them to keep her than to break in someone new.

Last I spoke with her, she didn't have a theatrical agent but she did have a commercial agent, and was occasionally going on daytime auditions. So it's still working out.

[Justine]

I guess I should add that the key to the above (with regard to auditions)is "occasional." If you're going on daytime auditions every week, then more power to you & a full-time job is most likely not going to work out, unless they're verrrrry flexible about letting you come in early or work late to make up time. And most employers aren't.

So my post above is more about people who are going on occasional auditions and haven't gotten into an extremely busy sphere.

Brittany, you also mentioned touring. Yeah, for that, I'm sure most employers would be scared off.

So it really depends on the individual situation.