Getting Into A Different Type of Gig
Nearing the end of a side hustle event gig yesterday evening, as I slowed down enough to feel my body beginning to ache, I hopped on my InstaStory ranting about how I’m pretty much over it.
I’ve enjoyed working high end events aroundLA, but enough is enough.
People from back home, down South, and elsewhere, even some here in L.A., find what I call my “side hustle” to pay the rent, very interesting. They want to know who was there and what were they like. They want to know what it's like to be in those exclusive spaces. And, they want to know how they can get there.
Tend to the buffet at Piccadilly, or tend to the buffet at Will Smith’s Calabasas compound?
I can understand how the latter inspires a little more inquiry.
Never wanting to seem ungrateful, I added the disclaimer on my InstaStory that I am thankful for being able to have and do these more rare ways of making money for as long as I have.
Now, it’s been long enough. I’m ready to use the other 90% of my being with which God blessed me.
Being a woman of my word, I’ll give y’all a blog post, and/or maybe even a YouTube video, on side hustles in Los Angeles… eventually. (Get on my tail and eventually will come sooner than later.)
At this very moment though, I don’t want to think about those social event side hustle gigs. I want to think about something new, what’s next.
(If it isn’t obvious, I’ll still be working them for the time being, because baby, one thing about these bills, they gon’ come, and I’m gon’ make SHO they paid, one way or zhee otha!)
Background acting is what’s next.
I started typing this sitting in the onboarding office of Central Casting’s Los Angeles location.
Do I plan to, or have a desire to, make a career out of background acting?
Not at chance.
First of all, it’s not enough money in exchange for my time.
Let me give you an example.
A month or so ago, I worked a 2-day event for the luxury designer brand Prada. Prada transformed the long-standing Ghengis Khan restaurant on Fairfax into an immersive art experience, featuring a panel one second and a nightclub vibe the next. I was responsible for tending to a lounge of VIP guests, and I worked my a** off because they didn’t hire enough servers. (Yet, Prada hired a slew of white girls to stand around wearing a Prada uniform shirt-dress, doing nothing.. no exaggeration.. nothing. I asked them, the “brand ambassadors,” what they had to do and they specifically said, “just stand here…” for $30/hour!! I immediately applied for that event staffing agency, am now on their roster, and am scheduled to work a $40/hr gig I booked thru them to kickoff Coachella this Friday. Moving along..)
Prada Mode Los Angeles got that work out of me, you hear?! But, I made a thousand bucks in two days.
Would I be foolish enough to think I’ll make $1,000 for 2 days on set as a background actor? I’d be setting myself up for disappointment if I did.
Background acting is only a lucrative industry for the entity employing the background actors, in this case, Central Casting. From every case I’ve heard, and from the numbers I saw on the paperwork I signed at onboarding today, background acting gigs aren’t paying anywhere near the amount of money good event gigs pay.
How much do background actors in Los Angeles get paid?
When you begin working as a background actor in Los Angeles, the pay rate is minimum wage. Who can survive off of minimum wage in Los Angeles? Sure in tf not Te’Keya Krystal!
Note: I didn’t look this information up on Google about the pay rate for background actors in Los Angeles; I’m telling you what I know from personal experience, as this is a personal lifestyle blog. There may be other entities out there that pay more, I’m not sure; I’m sharing what I know thus far from friends in the industry, and from myself joining the first and most popular major casting network in Los Angeles, or whatever that video playing at onboarding said today.
If these new gigs won’t pay more than your previous gigs, why do background acting?
Networking!
Experience.
Though I won’t make enough money to feed myself with background acting work (or I’ll make enough money to feed myself, but won’t have time to eat), it will put me closer to the entertainment industry.
In college, I studied broadcast journalism and minored in performing arts. I’ve always wanted to be in the field of entertainment. Then I moved to Los Angeles without much planning or preparation, got distracted with making money to make ends meet, and never pursued my passions. That changes now.
Pride is The Devil
all my pride gone
had to lose it all, then I got rich- Lil’ Baby on J.Cole’s Pride Is The Devil
Okay, I have to take a pay cut, but is a temporary modification not worth long term gratification?
I’ve decided to take the chance of making sacrifices now, to worry a little bit less about the now, to benefit myself on a deeper level in the future.
Once you’re exposed to certain levels, it’s difficult to accept less. No one ever wants to feel as though they’re going backwards. We all want to be on an upward trend in life. However, I’d be remiss if I counted my growth in only dollars. I wouldn’t want to let “oh, uhnt uhn, I’d make triple this doing thus and such” hinder potential growth in other areas. (Shoot, if that’s the methodology, instead of serving drinks, I could make a thousand times more serving blow jobs. I giggle, but it’s true; I told y’all over on the LA opinion column how gold diggers, damn near prostitutes, really exist aroundLA.. and live well!)
“Money is the motive” is a popular adage, but I don’t want money to be the motive for me. Money being thee only, or the deciding, factor in matters, ignoring morals or passions, is where all sorts of other problems begin.
I want to let my heart drive me, not my bank account. And I don’t want to let my pride interfere.
At Central Casting onboarding, potential background actors are required to take a headshot and full body for their CentralCasting.com account.
So, here I am.
In addition to not making any money, I’ll also have to get over not liking the way I look on-camera, if I plan to make money doing on-camera work. I’m posting this very imperfect, completely raw (unedited), image of myself, even though I strongly dislike it, to force myself to get over it. It’s the mandatory photo taken at Central Casting onboarding, and it’ll remain on my Central Casting profile that (hopefully) hundreds of casting directors will click on.
To be continued
This isn’t the end all, be all. As previously stated, I do not plan to make a career out of background acting in Los Angeles. I also don’t expect the exposure and experience, gained background acting, to be a sure way into something I would like to do long term.
I’m simply opening myself up to possibilities by trying something new.
Special thanks to one of my former luxury retail co-workers, now close girlfriend, Shirley Chung, for not only suggesting I sign up for Central Casting Los Angeles, but also scoring me one of their extremely-swiftly-filling time slots for onboarding.
If you all would like to know about the onboarding process for Central Casting, comment on this blog post or on the @aroundLAwithTK Instagram account. If I start getting booked on gigs, and you want me to do a follow-up post, along the lines of “how is it to do background acting in Los Angeles,” let me know that as well!
