On any given day, only 2% of actors are working as actors and only 5% of actors actually make a living on acting alone. Far more common than the “working actor” is “The Working Actor” who finds himself unemployed for long stretches at a time and often end s up working menial jobs.

I am one of the latter actors. Some of the jobs, outside of the TV and Film industry, I’ve had include –

Seismic Retrofitter

Construction Worker

Clown

Balloon Artist

Day Care Worker

Art & Music Teacher

Carnie

and Farm Hand, just to name a few.

I’m currently working as a Seismic Retrofitter and recently had the pleasure of being interview by Mark over at The Working Actor website. Mark’s site is dedicated to the actor who works, but unfortunately is not yet at the level where they make a living as an actor. It’s filled with wonderful, hard working artist, who fill in all the puzzle pieces on TV and film that otherwise would seem incomplete without them. Believe me, you would notice a scene in a restaurant with no other patrons other than the lead actors.

When I first heard of Mark’s website, I emailed him, told him what I did for my day job and sent him a photo of one of my many treasures I’ve found under houses over the past six years. He liked what he heard, was frightened by what he saw and we set up a time for the interview.

While he was setting up his camera, we were talking and I started telling him about the book I had written called, “Hollywood Clown” based on my years working as a children’s entertainer here in Los Angeles. He loved the stories so much that he wanted me to wait and tell them to him while he filmed me.

The three stories that he used for his website were –

When I played peek-a-boo with Robert De Niro while dressed as Winnie the Pooh, where I had a gun pulled on me, also while dressed as Winnie the Pooh and lastly, when I was directed by Steven Spielberg for one of his home movies.

I told him that those were just a tip of the iceberg. I’ve got a ton of stories about the rich and famous, as well as about your average Joey bag-o-donuts, being nice, very nice and downright inhumane and cruel.

“How do you remember all the stories?” Mark asked.

“Easy,” I told him, “I’ve been keeping a journal for the past twenty-two years and that includes all 845 of the parties I did.”

“I guess I’ll be in that journal now, huh?”

“That’s right. And it’ll be filed under ‘Acting’ stuff.”

Mark took a few photos of me working and was on his way. A few weeks later his feature on me was up at his website. He included a few of the commercials I did for Sprint, Dunkin’ Donuts and Long John Silvers in his teaser for my story. I had a great time working with Mark and am happy that he’s giving people a glimpse at the lives of the non-celebrities that are us… The Working Actor.

I AM the Hollywood Clown (insert Link addition special)