Wow, Blog World!!! Well, as you can tell, I've taken quite a big hiatus from having a Life In The Big City! Where was I, you ask? I wrote and produced my own one woman cabaret show. Let me fill you in!
Living in New York, it is very easy to get wrapped up in the crazy hustle and bustle of the city. Everything here is so expensive that everyone puts in long hours at the office. For the past six and a half years, I have had three jobs. The first was being a realtor for the Manhattan division of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy. I went to school at the New York Real Estate Institute, and the schools around here pump out over 150,000 realtors per year. Because there are so many of us it is very competitive and people usually only last 3 months and then quit. It is extremely easy to become a realtor and only cost me $310. I took two weeks of classes, and BAM! I was a realtor. I got a job with the help of a friend and with NO training was thrown into the trenches. We were pretty much left to fend for ourselves. About three years after I started, they finally began a training program for new people. I learned from eavesdropping on other people in the office, asking questions, and later, after my friend's business partner committed suicide (long story), I started working with him. Being a realtor is all about networking. You have to know people with money. I unfortunately, only know poor actors and waiters, and not a lot of them can afford to purchase an apartment here in the city where prices range about $1000/sqft. Also, they don't hang out with people who have money - double whammie! So, no rich people. Plus, we have these little things called coops, which make up about 70% of the market, and although they are cheaper per square foot, they require 25% down, plus an additional 2 years worth of mortgage and maintenance payments left over in the bank after closing, so you need about $105,000 to financially qualify for a closet sized $300,000 studio apartment here. It is insane. Also, the seller side gets 3% and the buyer side gets 3% of the commission, which is always paid by the seller. However, that 3%, really equals 1% - Coldwell Banker kept 6% of that 3% for desk fees, then some was taken out for insurance just in case I got sued, and then I made 55% of what was left. So, for every $1,000,000 of sales, I made about $10,000. The most money I ever made in one year of doing real estate was a little over $30,000. Being a realtor is just like acting and takes the same mentality. You put yourself out there, talk a lot, every day you try to show as many apartments as possible or go to as many auditions as possible, for that one big break, or that one big sale. ONE transaction or ONE casting could change your life - kind of like winning the lottery. But I never cashed in on either of those prizes. So - $30,000 - hardly enough to cover my rent alone, so I had to have another job - waiting tables, where I made more money working four days a week than spending countless HOURS of doing real estate. No one likes waiting tables, which is probably why I stayed with real estate for so long, praying that I'd end up super successful and could leave waiting tables forever. So for six and a half years, I worked between 60-80 hrs a week for practically no money, I am still single, because I have no social life, and have no health insurance - how depressing. I was miserable. Then after the mortgage crisis, New York was hit hard, and the end of May 2009 the Manhattan division of Coldwell Banker went out of business. So, I lost my job, then my real estate license expired the end of July. I haven't had the energy to renew it, especially with the market at record lows. So, suddenly, I had more free time and thought I should do something to bring me joy...singing!
So I started going to cabaret shows to see what they were like. I saw everything. Cabaret has its own little niche here in New York. The shows usually last an hour and tell a story through song. Sometimes they have themes, sometimes they pay tribute to certain artists or composers. They are a great way to hear new composers as well and are a great creative outlet. Not all cabaret shows are good, since anyone can do one, but most are really amazing...the artist pays for the show themselves, buys the music, pays their music director/pianist, their show director, their musicians, their backup singers, books the venue, does the publicity and advertisement...there is a long list of things to do and the artist never really makes any money from it - it is a labor of love. So, I wrote a show called The Book Of Love, in which I talk about my tragic love life. In the show I discuss past boyfriends, what I learned from those relationships, how hard it is to date in New York since there are over 210,820 more single women than men here, online dating sagas, etc. I sang songs by Queen, Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow, Dolly Parton, and others from the Great American Songbook. I had a full band and back up singers who made me feel like a rockstar! And along the way, something happened. I found something else that made me happy. And I met an entire new group of friends that are incredibly nice and super talented! What a thing to be thankful for. I have told people, out of all of that heartache - getting dumped by guys, losing my job, all of that yuckiness - something great came out of it - new friends and the joy of finding my voice again after all these years.
