People in Entertainment industry...commiserate here

Don't blow your brains out, OP!

I've worked in live theater my whole career - 35 years. My entire life is decimated. I can't get a minimum wage job. Nobody wants to hire me at my age without experience. I cry every day.

Why at this time? What is at this time? Has the casting couch been removed since stein is gone?

R2 I'm very sorry for you. Just a suggestion, I don't know where you live but if there are any museums, house museums, or guided tours there I suggest you become a Tour Guide - a great use of your acting skills.

I feel very sad for you R2. There has to be something that you can do for work. 😢

I always thought some of the best advice I heard was do NOT have a fallback career or else you will. It was true that those people had more drive but now I worry about them. How long will it take and where are the jobs to support this and it's not just live theater performers. I'm thinking of all the people connected to the experience. I think actors need to perform and I wonder how they are doing without being on stage.

be a whore darling.

I'm R2. I am not an actor. Management/production. I thought my administrative skills would be marketable in other fields but it's no different now than it was before. There aren't more jobs. The middle and upper management jobs require years of experience in that particular field - health care, insurance, finance, marketing. No employer wants to train someone pushing 60. I've applied for dozens of positions requiring some similar skills but I have not had one single reply email - never mind an interview.

It will come back but theater and entertainment will lag behind once things open up again. When it does come it will likely come back with a vengeance as people will have missed it so.

But between now and then....a girl's gotta eat

[quote] No employer wants to train someone pushing 60.

I was laid off at *40* and most companies now are hiring women <35 because they can pay them less.

(I don't say that out of meanness or any anti "frau" sentiment, it sucks for the women, but it's what's happening.)

I have my own freelancing but I'll never have a career again.

Is the porn industry shut down worldwide too?

Find Something New

I live in a part of LA where "industry people" want to live. There's a high percentage of them here because of the types of homes and the school system. They are arrogant, entitled, self involved and delusional. They believe they're the saviors of the city and the money that is generated by them is essential. Covid has proven them wrong. Old money is what rules many parts of LA. As new money should know better. Now they do.

My brother is a pretty successful photographer - does key art for big shows on AMC and the CW. He would make on average 200k - but usually more.

He hasn't worked in 6 months. He and his wife left LA and are waiting it out in Chicago. They are lucky - her family is in real estate and they are giving them work doing painting and property management. But he thinks his life is over and he is 53. All of his friends are really struggling. It's just awful

Liberty biberty.

R12 Be best, bitch!

OP, Have you thought of starting your own business? Or working as a tutor especially for still wealthy foreign students in the US or abroad?

There are still people everywhere who aren't financially hurting and many of them need someone with varying skills. Find out what they want and offer your services at a cut rate price until you gain a clientele.

R8, I'm in production-or was-and I just want to say please hang in there.

I'm in my mid-40's and I know I'll get shit from everyone here-but I just was hired part time at of all places, Target. I don't like it, it's not a career, the pay is much less than production, but surprisingly more than another part-time job I'm still furloughed from. I'm slowly adjusting to the co-workers (some out of high school that never had a job before) but it's something. I'm in L.A., so I know I'll be humiliated when I eventually see someone I know, so I'm almost grateful for masks at this time.

I certainly don't want to be there either. But I am surprised they hired me, due to my age and experience (I did have a lot of customer service history in my past). I also haven't been 'the new person' in many, many years.

Point is, try applying ANYWHERE, even if you think it's a place that won't take you, or, a place in the past you would have NEVER seen yourself being. Times are different now, and quite frankly, I was desperate. But part of me is grateful for any kind of job at this point.

My audition numbers are way down, too.

R13 Do you have some specific stories of these entitled asshats?

@all: You can share your gossip here! We won't tell anybody and you're out of work anyway. It can't get any worse.

What industries are "Old Money" in L.A.?

I thought aerospace went Straight Down the Shitter.

[Quote] What industries are "Old Money" in L.A.?

Farming, oil and real estate.

Nothing wrong working at Target- I think their minimum wage is $15 an hour. That’s better than a lot of places.

If there’s one near you, r2, apply!

R18, good for you, and good luck if you’re doing customer service! People can suck.

The Target on Sunset/Western that never felt like it would be built has been built. They're surely hiring.

PR guy here. Yeah work is down across the entertainment industry. Agents getting laid off, managers making no commission - and my phone does not ring as much.

Costco is another place to consider applying. Their benefits, pay, and work environment are good.

I'm in the market for a houseboy.

[R18], fuck anybody who would make you feel humiliated because you took care of yourself. Don't even think that.

R13, you're anonymous, tell us the name of your neighborhood. Thanks.

Dear R2, I'm sure we all condole you.

Maggie Smith provides some guidance.

Learn to code.

The industry makes too much money to just go away. These are really hard times, but it will be back.

R30 Very apropos. I worked on that show.

Don't listen to r1, OP!

I understand, and condole you, OP. I work in costuming, and everything I had lined up for 2020, and it was to have been very busy, is on hold. Even the children's dance company I do pro bono work for every year. I am considering sewing gowns for instagram queens at this point, my own version of working at Target for $15/an hour.

Thank you R23, you are spot on with that amount, and thank you, R28, I know I have to get past this point to feel confident again.

R24 Ironically, I was supposed to open that one. It's been awful there though for quite a few of us still in training, and I don't think a lot of these people will make it to opening (by Halloween but don't quote me; I swear it changes daily) but we'll see.

In LA, one of the locations down La Cienega (as in, way down La Cienega, not the Beverly Connection one) is in a rougher part of town, but the customers have been pretty nice. The big one on La Brea/Santa Monica in West Hollywood is so different...from the people to the co-workers. I personally have not had any issues but I feel for other employees when I hear a customer getting louder, etc. Beverly Connection is normally rather quiet, due to being a smaller store.

Besides the younger kids at their first job I've met, others were hired for full-time work so I don't want to appear ungrateful, but it's definitely more 'work' than my production or other job I currently cannot work at the moment. I now begrudgingly admit, I was somewhat 'spoiled' at my previous jobs...in my previous life.

There are a lot of departments though, so if anyone is looking for ANY work right now, there is no harm in applying. It's something to hold you over, as I like to think, and if you grow from it, more credit to you.

R36 what part of production are you in? Lighting? Rigging? Etc. I guess the union cannot provide any benefits to members?

R18, no shade from me at all because I’m in the exact same situation (substitute Target for the grocery store.) I’m a writer, so between the psycho customers and the amateur dramatics from my co-workers, I tell myself it’s good fodder for future projects. And most days, that’s enough to keep me sane and semi-amused.

I am very grateful to have this job, but sometimes it is very demoralizing. I have a a fucking Ivy League education. I don’t say that as a brag, but this is not where I thought I’d be in my 40s.

“Suffering for my art,” doesn’t seem like such a noble choice now that I’m no longer young. I wish I had gone to law school like everyone else I graduated with.

No one should feel ashamed about getting a job and doing honest work, I don't care what it is. I think any of you who are able to go out during a terrible time like this and find something to bring in an income are to be applauded. And for those still looking, please don't give up.

PS I have zero customer service experience and still got hired. So to anyone who is looking for something to keep them afloat, don’t let that factor stop you from applying to a retail/service position. Sending good luck to all of you.

I know of 2 under-employed choreographer/ milliners/ theatre queens and they both are now sewing up cloth face wear for sale.

I’m seeing all these reports that SAG health coverage runs out after a full year of not working. Since so many productions are stalled, are all of these TV actors going to lose their health care?

Show your portfolio on OnlyFans and present dong and hole there as a quasi-semi-famous actor. You'll make some money while waiting for the movie industry to rebound next year. People would pay to see at least quasi-semi-famous actors naked.

Any writers on here?

Quarantine (and potential unemployment) offers a great opportunity to finally finish a script or two, but there's a nagging concern that there's not going to be any demand for new scripts (particularly projects on spec) for a long, long, long time.

R44 how long do you think this will last?

And to think, China and an asshole "Trump" who had everything handed to him his entire life has put the country and the rest of the world in this position by being careless and irresponsible by not carrying out the responsibilities of being president.

It never had to be this way, but it is and that's what's so maddening about this situation. And the assholes who voted for him and all of the corruption that got him "elected" in the first fucking place.

It did not have to be this way is all I keep thinking.

Wow, it must suck to be in the entertainment industry and have no marketable skills.