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

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 9/3/18 at 8:43pm

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"

[markypoo]

Posted: 9/3/18 at 9:30pm

After working since 1973 at several different endeavors, I took my Social Security in 2016.
To get out of my apartment 16 or so hours per week, I now bag groceries and round up carts at a local Jewel-Osco.
And I get a weekly paycheck.
And I have the best cameraderie with my coworkers.
Where's the shame?

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 9/3/18 at 9:50pm

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."

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/3/18 at 11:48pm

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?

[haterobics]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:12am

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]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:29am

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. 

[DAME]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:34am

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]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:37am

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 disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of "grown ups" who make it work and support their families working hourly jobs. 

[DAME]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:47am

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 .

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 2:20am

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.

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 3:39am

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. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 3:45am

Yes. That's the whole point of the article.

People in this country are a$$holes, by and large.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 6:14am

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.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 9:15am

"After working since 1973 at several different endeavors, I took my Social Security in 2016. 
To get out of my apartment 16 or so hours per week, I now bag groceries and round up carts at a local Jewel-Osco. 
And I get a weekly paycheck. 
And I have the best cameraderie with my coworkers. 
Where's the shame?"

That is awesome, good for you !! I am going to retire at the end of this year and would love to do something like you are doing to get out of the house and make a few dollars.

[broadwaybabywannabe2]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 9:16am

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!

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 9:28am

I think it's funny that this whole thing happened because of a write-up in the Daily Mail and then was picked up by Fox News. I thought Fox News was supposed to be the trusted news source of "real" Americans who work "real" jobs for a living. I guess they don't mean those who work in the service sector (the growing majority of Americans). 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 11:48am

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/

[JSquared2]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 12:28pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I think it's funny that this whole thing happened because of a write-up in the Daily Mail and then was picked up by Fox News. I thought Fox News was supposed to be the trusted news source of "real" Americans who work "real" jobs for a living. I guess they don't mean those who work in the service  sector (the growing majority of Americans)."

Surely you know that in Fox-land, "real" America = white America.

 

 

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 12:57pm

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. 

[sharona39]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:11pm

Work is work and I applaud and respect Mr. Owens for working.  There are many capable people who choose not to work and collect welfare.  There is NO shame in honest work.  I have been driven by former executives who have been downsized and are now limo drivers, I have had retired folks help me in many retail establishments. Shame on the person who took the picture, sold it to a tabloid (if that is what the Daily Mail is - I have no idea) and FOX news for making it newsworthy.  Seriously?   What is wrong with people!  I am so glad it backfired so beautifully.  Trader Joes is lucky to have you!

[SueBee06]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:16pm

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.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 1:20pm

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."

Yeah right. Try living on that in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, DC, Houston, Philadelphia . . . need I go on?

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 3:48pm

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!''

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 6:58pm

Fosse76 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."

Yeah right. Try living on that in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, DC, Houston, Philadelphia . . . need I go on?"

 

Exactly. $700 a week is not enough to live on in New York - maybe if you are sharing a two bedroom apartment in a fifth floor walkup with three other people in Queens. And have no family. And no car. And you can survive entirely on Pop Tarts.

Being an actor is a bit more doable in the other regional theatre cities you mentioned (I lived in Chicago for a while, and am now based in Phoenix), but everyone still has alternate sources of income. I make a couple thousand dollars a year from my acting, but most of my income is from being a high school drama teacher. Sometimes I feel ashamed of that, but I have a wife, a kid, and a house, and still get paid to act in at least one show a year. Although a few people I went to college with have starred on Broadway and HBO, most of them have left the business.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 9/4/18 at 7:07pm

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/