‘IT GIVES ME ENOUGH MONEY TO LIVE WITHOUT OVER- ENGAGING MY BRAIN'
there‘s no obligation to be nice to them.‘
As duty manager at the Arches. Bratchpiece is responsible for maintaining customer safety during club nights and gigs. He‘s also been working as a stand-up since 2002. ‘l was already working at the Arches at that point. and they‘ve been totally accommodating about my career. We're putting on a I’ringe show this year. and I‘ve been able to take the whole of August off.
‘The money you make as a stand-up varies: I earn loads for IS minutes‘ work compering a corporate gig but then play tny poor wee heart out to ten people in Newcastle and barely cover tny petrol costs. I’ve still got the security of the Arches job at the end of the day. Besides. when people ask me what I do. I just tell them I‘m Britain's premiere Shaggy impersonator. The one from Scooby Doo. not the Jamaican dude.‘ www.myspace.com/bratchycomedy
Job 1 Theatre-maker Job 2 Secretary, Edinburgh City Council ‘lt's utterly unsustainable. There are only so many years that you can put all of your youth. all your resources into your work and get nothing back
Laura Cameron Lewis
financially. then have your career stopped dead by a prescriptive funding system.‘
Laura Cameron Lewis‘ bitterness is tangible. In 2005. Highway Diner. which she co-founded with Kelly Crow. Chris Morgan and Kieran Mcl.oughlin. had the Scottish theatre scene at
their feet. Their site-specific street piece Works of
'liwzpnrmjv Solace had won a Fringe First. they were nominated for a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland. and almost everyone claimed to have seen their interventions with Franz Ferdinand in Glasgow‘s art/rock den. the Chateau. Despite a string of acclaimed productions across Scotland and Europe. and a residency at the Arches. the company haven‘t received long term funding. and are supporting themselves with whatever work they can find.
‘My boss is very understanding about the nature of my artistic work. but maintaining a balance can be frustrating. You can‘t afford yourself the luxury of having creative thoughts when you‘ve got a paid job to do. You have to wait till you get home. and often whatever creative impulse you had is gone because you‘re knackered. If I were working alone. it might be easier. but Highway Diner work collaboratively and finding times when everyone‘s energy is at the right level gets difficult.
‘There are existing structures of funding artists that work perfectly well in other countries — in Holland and Ireland. artists are given a wage.
DAY JOBS
That makes so much sense to me. I trained for eight years to be a theatre-maker — the govermncnt invested in me to do that. Why then do I have to sign on the dole or work a minimum wage job when it wouldn't take a substantial amount of investment to allow people to make work for proper amounts of time'."
Job 1 Independent filmmaker
Job 2 Cocktail waiter Michael Callaghan has a CV most film graduates would kill for. At 22 he was in Hollywood. working on Sea Biscuit. The Cu! in the Her and Punch-Drunk I.()t'(‘. He then spent time working in London. assistant directing music videos and adverts. Two years ago. he gave it all up and moved back to Glasgow‘s West lind where he now works as a cocktail waiter. in between writing and directing his own short lilms.
‘I wanted life to slow down. The demands of '—
l.ondon were getting in the way of what I wanted to do creatively — working on commercials is
good experience. but you do start to wonder if
it’s really going to get you anywhere. Waiting
24 May»? Jun 9007 THE LIST 1 1