Perks

Last year, during audition season, I was in Houston auditioning and visiting my brother and his family. When I told my ten-year-old nephew about all the different cities in which I'd be auditioning, he asked me how I'd be paying for all that travel. I told him, "Well, a lot of the time in this business, we spend all the money we're making from our current job in order to audition for the next job." He responded simply, "Uncle Seth, it doesn't sound like you have a very good job." As we all know, often it feels like his simple assessment is spot on. We spend thousands of dollars every year on plane tickets, application fees, accompanist fees, overpriced food, publicity materials, and mailing. We spend countless, often sleepless nights on friends' couches, floors, or if we are really lucky, air mattresses, sometimes fighting off bedbugs. These are hardly ideal conditions for us, when we have to get up the next morning and try our best in seven minutes or less to blow away some strangers across a room behind a table with our unmatched vocal skill. So why is it a good job? Any one of us who is lucky enough to be working can answer that. The pure joy that comes from hurling your heart and soul out into the universe on stage every night makes every crappy audition trip worth it. The pleasure of practicing can be so fulfilling. I know, that sounds crazy, but we all secretly love that chore, especially when it is music that is satisfying to us physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Okay, that all sounds nice, but let's be honest. There are other perks too. Take today for example. First of all, it is always so nice to do a gig with old friends, but when one of them says, "Hey, let's go to the Japanese spa," it becomes very easy to forget all about last month's starving artist audition days. I know many of you have been to Santa Fe, NM, but if you haven't been to Ten Thousand Waves Spa, you need to go. Aside from the gorgeous view of the mountains, the baths are so relaxing. When I said to one of my colleagues how nice it was to be able to do this, she responded, "And to think, this is a workday!"

Anyway, I love this job, even when I hate it. I truly think we have to find the joy in all parts of what we do. When I am learning and coaching music that I feel will never stick, when I rush from my day job on my lunch break to squeeze in two auditions before finishing a full workday, when I feel like I just couldn't possibly stand one more flight to one more audition that will likely result in one more rejection, when I realize that my wife and I have never spent a birthday together, I simply have to focus on how lucky I am. How many people can say they are able to spend their lives doing that one thing they would rather do than anything else in the world? That realization is what made me tell my nephew that he was mistaken. I actually have a very good job. So chin up everybody. Remember how great it can be. And go to the spa!