This update is from the actor in New York with a young family and variety of sporadic jobs. Original post here. The reader writes:
Earlier this year I was an out of work actor living in New York. Now I'm an out of work actor living in Los Angeles. My wife and I had been planning the move before the recession hit, and I must admit that the financial crisis gave us pause. Others might very sensibly have decided to hunker down and weather the storm, putting off the move to some hypothetical future. But we decided that the move was always going to have an element of risk, and we might as well subject ourselves to that turmoil in a year when turmoil would seek us out anyway. Never waste a crisis, so to speak.
We've received mixed reactions to this decision.
One very nice but alarmed career counselor at the Actors Work Program in LA looked at me white faced and goggle-eyed, saying, "Why would you move to California?" and told us to prepare for nine months of unemployment. (He also nearly passed out from worry when I told him I was getting a scooter to save on gas, so take that into account.) Other friends of ours think we've made a great decision. But then a lot of them are actors themselves, and used to risk. They know us, and they know we'll figure it out one way or another. Here's a short list of how our lives have improved after living here for one month:
1) We are paying less for a better apartment than we had in New York, and we even got a month's rent free. It's a renters market in LA right now.
2) We can wear short sleeves and go bike riding and in December, rather than hiding out from the cold in a cramped apartment with our 2 year old son.
3) We live closer to some very old friends and their kids.
4) There is five times as much paid acting and voiceover work here as there is in NY, and some recent meetings have been very encouraging on that front.
5) Despite the career counselor's worries, we're already finding some part-time work. Not a lot yet, but enough to make our savings last longer.
6) We landed in a fantastic school district. Not to be taken for granted in LA.I don't know if I'd recommend this move to everyone, but this is the third major city I've come to with no job (my wife's fourth). After a while, you just have to believe in your own ability to find and create opportunities. It helps if your partner shares those beliefs, and mine does. The future looks very sunny for us here.
The Dish 