I often say that most performers love what they do so much, they would never consider it work. Of course there a times during the ‘process’ that may not be your favorite (i.e, driving long distances or hauling equipment) but I’ve never met one comedian, musician or magician who abandoned performing because they didn’t like driving.
Comedians for examples drives tens of thousands (some even hundreds) every year. Some spend more time in their car than in their own home.
But every comedian knows that at the end of that drive is a gig waiting for them to, once again, show that talent to the world.
Some musical groups, bands, orchestras carry tons (literally) of equipment that they drag from gig to gig, city to city. Like an army, they come into your town and after unloading and building and sound checking and doing the show, they’ll get to the partying down. I know of a Beatles Tribute Band that travels in two buses. One for the band to live in and the other bus just for their equipment and costumes. One nighters? Long term gigs? No problem for these guys, they just hop on their magical mystery tour bus and head to the next gig.
Magicians? You have NO idea of the amount of preparation, the practicing, the expense of doing tricks over and over, the focus needed. Any great magician will tell you that they have to do it. They don’t think it’s work because it’s a calling. This is also true of ventriloquists. I’ve met several over the years and almost all of them, just like magicians, started when they were children and stuck with it. It’s not just a job someone takes for security. It’s the opposite. The performer’s life is rife with career insecurity (and in some cases, financial insecurity as well). Imagine your life if you had a job from week to week or month to month without any real security at all. This requires a lot of performers to take on non-performing jobs. That’s how much they love what they do, they’ll do what they DON’T want to do if they have to because they are still going to follow that dream.
Performers are luckier than somewhere around 95% of the working population on this planet as most of us DON’T get to do what we love for a living. Most performers worth anything know that and are always grateful for the opportunity to play that funky music or make them laugh or amaze them or whatever their great performing talent is.