The Price of Doing Business

I'm sure that no one needs to be reminded of money on this, the very day that Bernie Madoff pleads guilty and faces 150 years in jail. (150 years? I swore that sort of vengeful prosecution only happened on episodes of Law & Order. On that subject, God bless Jack McCoy.) But at the risk of being a downer, and without mentioning any specifics, this blog is about some of the economics of being an actor. Specifically, the economics of my audition tomorrow.

My audition is in downtown Manhattan. I live in the burbs of Philadelphia, so I'll have to take the train into Philly. From there, I'll have to take a bus to NYC. Then of course there is the four bucks for a roundtrip ride on the NY subway. The return ticket on the bus and the return ticket on the train get me back to my car, but there has to also be some sort of lunch in there tomorrow if I don't want to pack a brown bag sandwich to take with me. (I don't.) So you can see how all these tickets can add up.

But wait, there's more! If I did not have an audition tomorrow, I would be going into the office to work for my daily bread. So while I'm not technically spending that money to go to the audition, I'm giving up the paycheck for the chance to play Arthur. Such are the crazy demands of this business.