4 “they were both naked” and “retching over the sink”

00:00

A guy hired me. He did not specify the description of the task. He just says a video shooting. I said, okay, well, I have never shoot a video before. He said, no, they will teach me how to do it. It's just as simple as holding the camera. So I said, okay. When I walk into the room, it was two guys. They were both naked. They said they want me to shoot them video. So I just have to hold the camera and shoot them while having

00:29

They have sense. What the... It's my job. I said, no, I can't do it. I run out of the room and then just cancel the task. You definitely have to work very hard to be able to live in New York City. Especially if you want to live in Manhattan, like where I'm living. My apartment alone is $6,000.

00:56

But my income through tax revenue right now, last month was $8,000 and this month I'm planning for $9,000 on tax revenue, which is very difficult to achieve if you are working for a company or something like that. That is how far I have come with this type of job. When I finished school, I did business. So when I finished school, I got employed in...

01:24

Wall Street, it was an international import and export company. So I was managing logistics department and everything. And then when the pandemic came, most of us got laid off. And then I decided that I'm going to tax rapid and see how that is. And that very month, I think I made close to $4,000, which is quite better than what I had.

01:53

my regular job used to pay me. So I'm like, okay, well, maybe this might work. So the following month I made $3,000 and then the following month I made $5,000. It requires you to be dedicated to it because they have an algorithm that runs on the tax rabbit. So the more tax you do, the more tax

02:21

The more they send you tax because the algorithm see that you finish his tax, you get reviews. And so my phone keep on ringing every time you can stop two, three days because the algorithm just send you back to the line. So you have to constantly be doing it. So personally, I have no weekends. I have no days off. I'm moving this man to a penthouse. I don't have.

02:50

time to even arrange my apartment because my phone is always ringing for tasks and I have to follow it up. So even if the day that I want to miss doing that, I'll just do about two or three and then switch my apps off. So it seems that I have accomplished something on that very day. I used to play soccer. I played in Europe. I played in...

03:18

cried on the South London and I went to German and the wrong back and I went to Istanbul. So I played there for a while and then I got a knee injury and then I returned back to the States. Somebody hired me to Yankee Stadium to watch a soccer and get commentary for him. So I went to Yankee Stadium and I was giving a commentary for him.

03:46

And then he gave me a taste of high thunder. A guy hired me because he was having trouble with his girlfriend. So he hired me to come and be his business partner. In the house, I had to become his temporary business partner, introduce me to the girlfriend as a business partner. And then I had to put on my business suit, dressed like a real, real businessman.

04:14

And I went to him, we're in his living room, and we're talking, discussing business that I have no idea of. And then, so we chatted, and so the girlfriend was traveling. So we chatted for three hours for the girlfriend packet things, and then left.

04:41

And then he was so happy that he gave me $1,000.

I guess there was one time when I was working with a fairly esteemed cabaret legend and we're shooting a film it was in it was in the days just after Covid lockdowns where like some stuff was allowed but there were very strict restrictions and we were filming in central Soho and everybody had to take a Covid test before they came in but the lead diva that was involved was very skeptical of taking Covid tests at this time and so I agreed to come up particularly early

05:31

to go directly to this artist's flat in Soho, who was renting a flat, to say, look, would it be helpful if I came and took a test with you? Would you feel more comfortable with that? So I found myself getting on like a 6 a.m. train going up to London to administer a COVID test to a rather like established cabriolet eyes on the scene. And as I was stood with them while they were retching over a sink in their bathroom, I just thought, yeah, this is my job.

06:04

I ended up doing fairly strange things like that. Same artist. My main stress for that whole gig was that I'd been informed by other producers that there would be hell to pay if there was not a bath in their apartment that we rented for them. So I was super stressed about getting them a bath and I was really happy that I'd managed to get them a bath in central London in an apartment that was actually affordable for the budget.

06:33

and was like, phew, at least I got them a bath. Then on like day two, got informed that actually the bath was not working by the landlord and that it was okay. And I was like, oh my God, this is literally the only reason that I've built this apartment and then spent the rest of the week trying to negotiate some sort of bath for the artists, of which I think in the end, they were like allowed to use the bath of the upstairs apartment and like mutiny was just about avoided, but it was like very, very close, very on the line.

07:03

I ended up sharing a post-show discussion with the cultural minister for Israel with some Palestinian artists and that was, I was incredibly out of my depth at that moment in time. So a typical day in my job is I'll probably start off with my emails and have some emails coming in that is like...

07:30

actually I thought I could do those dates but I can't so then I probably have to like think about like who else can do this role in this show that we're producing then I might have a couple of zooms like probably have a zoom of like one of the artists that I'm working with and be like what do we need to do for this show so like yeah today I had a zoom about like what what things do we still need to organize like what's still in place um sometimes I might be

08:01

like some sort of information that people need to know. Probably get emails from venues being like, can you proof this marketing copy?

08:08

But then on like a show day, arriving, getting to the venue at like 10am, working out where the dressing rooms are, making sure we've got like correct signage for people, meeting people who are coming in to either perform or work on the show, like showing people where to go, troubleshooting anything that's come up. It might be that like something hasn't arrived, like working with people to work out how we're going to get a replacement, sorting out like complimentary tickets for people, like programmers and VIPs. Who might like be going to see?

08:38

to see the shows, let's face it. Like talking to the cast or the artists before the show, making sure they feel all right, like kind of pepping people up a little bit, and then watching the show, meeting anybody important that's coming to see the show, and then also being around in the bar afterwards to like chat to people about the show, to talk to like potential bookers, and to also buy like the team a drink.

09:07

I write a lot of funding applications and I organize schedules and I manage teams and I recruit people and I basically do everything that is behind the scenes to make a performance happen.

09:29

For years and years, producers have just come under administrators, so there haven't been any guidelines for really what we're paid. So it's always been massively fluctuating what I get paid. With my own theater company, my pay has ranged from zero to 200 pounds a day. I average around a salary of somewhere around between 25 and 30 grand, but that's 12 years into my career and for quite a long time I was averaging a salary of 20 grand, with that, and for the first few years, much less than that. But...

09:58

The first five years of my career, I was working in steakhouse and bar and was doing that. And then would like pay myself a little bit if we got like some Arts Council funding to do a show. Slowly, slowly started to get more and more funding for our work so I could pay myself more. But I also did jobs like working as a programmer in a venue part time that was like on salary for a little bit.