What Kind of Job Security Do Performers Have?

[D'Snowth]

I've really been curious about this, mainly because I've heard the stories about certain actors and performers (certainly not big-name, A-listers who can live off their wealth inbetween projects) who have to work menial jobs throughout the year because of the no work/no pay downtime/hiatus inbetween whatever it is they work on; for example, Caroll Spinney once shared an anecdote about meeting Clarence "Ducky" Nash, and to his shock, learned that despite working for Walt Disney as the voice of Donald Duck, he spent most of the year working as a mailman, because they only did new Donald Duck cartoons a few months out of the year, and he had to make a living otherwise. Similarly, Bill Byrge, who played Bobby throughout the Ernest P. Worrell franchise, would work as a mailman and a librarian when not playing Bobby. I'm curious as to what kind of guarantees do these people have that their "day jobs" will still be there for them when they're finished filming or playing in whatever? I can't exactly imagine these kind of conversations where they say to their bosses, "Yo boss, I'm gonna need the next four months off, because I'm going to be acting on a TV show." Are there some kind of union regulations or something?

 

[fuzzygobo]

Maybe that's why Caroll squeezes in as many Comic-con appearances as he can. He has a little table set up, selling samples of his artwork, or will make a customized cartoon right before your eyes. He won't charge the exhorbitant fees some celebrities do for autographed stills (Lou Ferrigno, for one), but I guess with his work on Sesame Street down to a few months out of the year, even he has to hustle a little.