Many young people dream of being actors, musicians, dancers, comedians or singers. To achieve major success in any area of the performing arts is difficult whatever the discipline and everyone entering the industry needs a strong work ethic, a good deal of tenacity and a fair bit of luck.
I've been asked many times by young people what is the most important asset a person needs to succeed in music, drama or comedy. To answer that you have to define success. If someone enters the performing arts purely because he or she wants to be famous then they will have an uphill struggle with very little chance of ever achieving job satisfaction. Excellence in the performing arts isn't always measured in magazine covers or the size of your fees. The first thing I always ask a young performer is 'would you do it for nothing?' If you love something enough to get involved with the same degree of enthusiasm even though it's difficult to make a living from it then you stand a chance of being successful. For every rags-to-riches story of some young person being discovered and catapulted into the big-time, there are hundreds of others cases where dedicated young people are diligently improving their skills, taking every opportunity available to learn more about their chosen area of performance and receiving very little in the way of payment.
The performing arts are a little like football, of the many thousands of people who enjoy the activity, a small number make most of the money, the vast majority work for quite small recompense and often have to supplement their performing earnings with other types of paid work.
OK, that's got the gloomy part out of the way. On the plus side there is no feeling to compare the the satisfaction gained when you've learnt and rehearsed a piece of work and then performed it to an appreciative audience. There aren't many jobs where you get applause if the customers, service users, clients or patients like what you do and believe me, once you've experienced that applause, you'll want lots more and often it feels like payment enough.
If you have an ambition to perform for a living, check out your options thoroughly, look realistically at all the negative as well as the positive aspects of your chosen path and if you're still excited by the prospect of entertaining people, go for it – memories are better than dreams.
