Devoted to show business and the entertainment industry

I am occasionally contacted by a family friend that uprooted everything to take her young daughter of about 2 to Hollywood to make it big. 

a

Reading a recent column in National Review by comedian Dave Konig reminded me of them and their pursuit of the Hollywood dream. 

a

Hollywood , when you look at the numbers is similar to sports hopefuls as they pursue their dreams of stardom, money and fame. When you go from professional sport to professional sport and count the minuscule numbers that are able to actually make a living at the pro level, it makes you wonder about those that pursue it with really little real hope. 

a

Konig comments upon this in relationship to show business: 

a

“Show business is quite a scam. If you're looking for a steady income or a reasonable sense of normalcy in your life — I would highly recommend any other line of work. Here are some numbers: There are about 150,000 actors nationwide in the Screen Actors Guild (movie union), Actors Equity (theater union), and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (a federation of...well, just about everyone on TV except for all the non-union non-actors cluttering up the TV screen on all those reality shows so that brilliant performers like me have to make a living in the lucrative field of online punditry!).”

a

“Now, for every one of those 150,000 or so actors, there's at least two misguided souls who want to be in show business but have yet to reach a level of professionalism that would bring them into one of the performer's unions. So now we are up to about 450,000 men, women, and children looking to make a living in show business. Out of that 450,000, only about two percent of the actors in the unions are actually making a living. This includes everyone from the third chorus girl on the left in the Poughkeepsie Dinner Theater production of Annie Get Your Gun starring Kaye Ballard to the hottest star in television Donald Trump.”

a

”This means at any given time there are approximately 447,000 out of work actors not making a living in this country. And, at any given time, I find myself in both categories. Some weeks I'm in the game right between third Poughkeepsie chorus girl on the left (her name is Miki and she's a very nice girl) and the Donald. Some weeks I'm amongst the 447,000 scratching my head wondering who put a gun to my head and forced me into such an erratic business and is it too late to open up a nice, steady Laundromat?”

a

While some of the numbers listed above as far as working actors go may surprise you, I have found it to be very accurate with what Konig is saying. I have had numerous out-of-work actors who spend a lot of their day talking about their several bit parts that they have played and who the star in the movie was. 

a

Along with that they always talk about their “agent” and the next gig their trying to land for them. Of course they’re all doing throwing-out-names thing that evidently is the real purpose for them being in the business. 

a

Hmmm. Still, we can’t seem to get enough of the actions and foibles that those that make it big in show business entertain the rest of us with. Evidently for some, this in itself is worth pursuing the dream for.