"Cosby" Star Ridiculed For Working At Trader Joe's

https://www.today.com/popculture/stars-public-rally-around-cosby-show-actor-shamed-grocery-job-t136788 There are many of our favorite theatrical performers who are (or have been) in the same situation. Liz Callaway mentioned this on her Twitter page:

"After 3 Bway shows and a Tony nom. my unemployment ran out so I got a job at a gift shop. One a day a customer said, “has anyone ever told you you look like Liz Callaway?” I confessed it was me. He said “good for you!!” That was Ira Levin, who wrote Deathtrap. #ActorsWithDayJobs"

I was in an opera directed by Joe McDonnell, the director of the original workshop of Urinetown. He had a career in New York for years, was in two OBCs and a National Tour. The work dried up, and he moved back to his native Illinois, and now works as the curator of a museum. I'll never forget one day at rehearsal, he told us "Never be ashamed by the way you make a dollar. I cleaned people's houses in between Broadway shows, and I never was ashamed, and I never let any one treat me as less than."

That's the Trader Joe's I stop at on my way out of NYC, when I leave early enough for it to still be open... I just bought stuff there yesterday.

Sondheimite said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "Hey kids -

The average mid to large size Equity regional theatre job pays about $700 a week. Do the math.

Less than 1% of actors survive on money from acting alone. You don’t see that on the BFA program brochures, do ya?"

$700 is totally livable. I know retail and Disney Cast Members who would slit a throat for $700 a week."

Children . Not grown ups that have family’s to support . Most regional theater actors have other gigs as well.

Sondheimite said: "DAME said: "Sondheimite said: "The Distinctive Baritone said: "Hey kids -

The average mid to large size Equity regional theatre job pays about $700 a week. Do the math.

Less than 1% of actors survive on money from acting alone. You don’t see that on the BFA program brochures, do ya?"

$700 is totally livable. I know retail and Disney Cast Members who would slit a throat for $700 a week."

Children . Not grown ups that have family’s to support . Most regional theater actors have other gigs as well."

This is extremely disrespectfulto the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of "grown ups" who make it work and support their families working hourly jobs."

That’s what I mean .

It seems if you are lucky enough to snatch a tv gig when you were relatively young it is often hard to keep a career going. It is not like the actor had the career of Tom Cruise. It would make sense that he had picked up some kind of work to make ends meet. It was rude of the folks who decided to try and embarrass him. I guess they will just have to live with themselves.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Folks, I was not talking about $700 a week, 52 weeks a year. If an Equity actor works 20 weeks a year, that’s considered pretty successful. Keep in mind that many Equity regional theatres pay more like $500 a week or even less. The other 30+ weeks a year, an actor might do other acting stuff, like a TV guest spot or a commercial, but mostly they are just auditioning while waiting tables or something similar.

Most actors are poor. There’s a reason why at least half of all actors leave the business by the time they’re 30.

That’s the reality of it."

Yeah, and $700/week -- before taxes -- or thereabouts is what people make at large, well-known regional theaters. The reality at smaller theaters is much less. And as The Distinctive Baritone points out, very few theater actors are continuously employed for 52 weeks a year.

I live in a major U.S. city with a thriving theater scene. I can count on one hand the number of actors I know who derive 100% of their livings from acting alone. The rest all have survival jobs, whether in academics, the service industry, or manual labor. I even know several who also work for Trader Joe's -- which, as has been pointed out, pays well and offers benefits.

actually this headline should read FOX NEWS Ridicules Worker...the rest of us REAL news people understand a job is a job no matter the location!

Owens: 'No one should feel sorry for me. I've had a great career.'

https://deadline.com/2018/09/geoffrey-owens-shamed-working-trader-joes-no-one-should-feel-sorry-for-me-the-cosby-show-1202456607/

Good for Mr Owens for responding to this. I hope, as he says, that this puts him back on the radar and maybe helps open some audition room doors.

I would speculate that he used to get residuals from Cosby show reruns that are no longer airing ... Cosby's despicable actions reach even further than the women he abused.

NJ_BroadwayGirl said: "Good for Mr Owens for responding to this. I hope, as he says, that this puts him back on the radar and maybe helps open some audition room doors.

I would speculate that he used to get residuals from Cosby show reruns that are no longer airing... Cosby's despicable actions reach even further than the women he abused."

While I have no doubt that's true and those payments were helpful, I don't know how much he was getting in the past few years. They had to be down to the 5% rate which is the low cap (the % decreases based on the number of airings). And he wasn't in that many episodes comparatively. Plus isn't the rate the % is on based on what he made in the 80's? I might be wrong about that piece. Anyway, yes, that couldn't have helped his financial situation.

Fox News has been pushing this job-shaming story, but ironically, one of Fox's own anchors, Laura Ingraham, has come to Owens' defense: ''He’s working and there is pride in every job! Good for him!''

Deadline.com: Tyler Perry Offers TV Role to Geoffrey Owens

http://deadline.com/2018/09/tyler-perry-geoffery-owens-the-haves-and-have-nots-own-network-trader-joes-1202456982/