There's No Business Like Show Business Like No Business I Know

I'm a lucky guy. 

I work in show biz!!!!

"There's no business like no business like show business like no business I know.
Everything about it is appealing!
Everything about it is a show!"

I spent my day today putting together scenery, assembling props, and generally being useful at 30 Rock for NBC, primarily for Saturday Night Live.  I watched Kelly Clarkson soundcheck her spot on SNL ---- and I got paid for it. 

I often think about how hard I've worked to get here.  You know, it's been worth it and I would do it again in a minute.  I have no regrets.

But I know what prices I've paid...

I work when there's work, as many hours as I'm called to do.  

I go through periods of unemployment, simply because that is the nature of the business.  Feast or famine.

But I get to be involved in the world I dreamed about when I was a kid.  And I like it that way.

Sure, I do other things --- but all of them are in the business of show.. 

I direct (whenever I can), I act (rarely) and I write (more and more).  I teach (acting)

I also exercise daily ---- which I love intensely. 

But ONLY when I am working in show business do I feel that I am useful --- and it's been that way since I was 13, from the day I decided I would get involved with this world of work I love so much..

If you feel the way I do, you will find your way into the artform.  I guarantee  it.  Your life might not look like the one you fantasized about when you were a kid but you will find your way.  (Lord knows, mine is nothing like what I intended --- but it's a good life and I am proud of having come as far as I have).

Part of why I enjoy my life now is that I worked very hard when I was younger to prepare myself for this time of my life.  I know how to do the things I wanted to do; act, direct, teach.  Granted, everything is an evolving process ---- but I put in the hours, days, weeks, years to earn my place at the table.

LOOKING FOR WORK
Ours is not to reason why....

I've been looking for work my entire working life. That's right, over thirty years. Since I was 15. The first job I had was washing the windows of the stores on the Upper West Side, near where I grew up. I think I got a dollar a window, big money if you add up how many windows you can do in an afternoon (and you're a fifteen year old kid in 1979). I loved it and held that gig for several years.

I had a job as a busboy in a deli on West 57th street the same year. Cleaning, mopping, doing dishes. I didn't like that much --- not because of the work but because it was steady. I had to be in the same place, the same hours week after week. I lasted two months.

I'm a freelance person by training and temperament. I've always loved hunting for the next gig, show, experience. When I was younger this attitude extended to my dealings with the opposite sex. I am much more settled now when it comes to my dealings with women (one woman, getting remarried, life is MUCH simpler that way) but I'm still a rover in my work life --- and I like it that way.

Of course working in theater, where there is little consistency and few long-term jobs, help with staying freelance. At this stay of the game I am probably ready to go to work on a daily basis.

But who knows? Possibly I will work this way for the rest of my professional bouncing from job to job. I know that I love the challenge of making something where there was nothing before.

What about you? What's your style? What do you prefer?