Amid recent concerns about the existential crisis in Hollywood and perennial hand-wringing about nepo babies, I was curious about how a normal person makes a living in the arts. To investigate, I spoke with comedian and actor Katie Novotny.
Katie works full-time as a copywriter. She has written for multiple web series, including an Emmy winner, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency. She recently released a 30-minute stand-up special, which includes bits about her Fox News-loving dad, dating, the Midwest versus Los Angeles, and, my personal favorite, Roman Catholic guilt.
A day in the life for her goes something like this: remote work from 9 to 5, and then a notice for a commercial audition might show up in her inbox.
"A lot of times those auditions come in at like 4 to 5 pm the night before and they're due by like 10 or 11 am the next day. So it's a pretty tight turn, especially for non-union commercials," she said. "I had this self-tape studio that I would go to because I hated having to build my [own] self-tape studio, like get the pop-up background and have your ring-light and there's all these stupid things that just make it not fun."
2024 was a particularly good year for Katie. She booked two non-union national commercials and a women's sports show on the DraftKings Network. "They wanted someone to do comic relief and also be able to talk a little bit about softball and volleyball."
She made about $2,300 net for one commercial, including both session fee and buyout. For the other, she made a net total of $5,712.
"When you get buyouts like that, it's worth it," Katie said. "But when your buyout is under $1,000, you're like, 'Oh my god, what are we doing here?'"
The reality is that money in national campaigns has collapsed for actors outside the union system, as advertisers have shifted from residuals to flat buyouts.
It was not uncommon 15-odd years ago to be able to live off one or two big commercials for an entire year. By the industry's own folklore, a frequently run commercial with national rotation in the late 2000s could net a union actor $25,000 to $50,000.
The main thing I learned is that Katie does not sleep. Between commercial auditions, she spends her nights performing in clubs, after which she winds up lying awake into the wee hours.
"Let's say it's on the Westside, so for an 8 o'clock show, you probably have to leave at 6:30... You're there until 9:30. You get home around 10:30 and then your brain is alive for 3 hours and then you fall asleep around like 1 in the morning."
I asked about her opinion regarding membership in SAG-AFTRA.
"In an ideal state, everyone would be SAG because you get all these protections and you get more than a 12-hour turnaround time for tapes," Katie said. "But it's just really hard."
The initiation fee for joining SAG-AFTRA is around $3,000, and once a member, you are barred from all non-union jobs. Joining too early can be a mistake because it bars you from getting reps. There is a third option, financial core or fi-core, which lets you pay reduced dues and take non-union work, but you lose your union vote and much of the industry treats it as crossing a picket line.
Taxes are also a recurring headache for entertainers living off freelance work.
"I was a freelancer in California for four years and my taxes were 30% to be self-employed," she said. "Most of the production people are essentially freelancers because they're not on shows for a year or two at a time anymore... I was lucky in one sense [because] I have corporate money... I'm on the higher end of that."
Katie admires comedians like Beth Stelling and Mike Birbiglia, Stelling for her sharp, dry writing style and Birbiglia for his storytelling.
"A lot of the comics I look up to have figured out a way to talk about themselves and in regard to their family, without putting their family down in a super negative way," she said.
After not performing for months while recovering from surgery, Katie returned to the stage at the Funny Is Female Comedy Festival on October 22nd. She is considering a move to Chicago to build her 30-minute set to a full hour.
When I asked Katie if she had any advice for aspiring entertainers, she recommended corporate work, especially for the health insurance. The key thing, though, is adaptability. Last year she moved into an LA sublet in order to put money toward comedy. She went from paying about $3,000 in rent to $1,000.
"I was like, 'I cannot believe I'm fucking living with roommates again,' but when I wrote it all on paper... it doesn't make sense to have an apartment I'm barely at," she said. "It went to funding trips. I go run my half hour in Joshua Tree, run it in Chicago, run it in New York."
Katie chose to film her special at the Flyover Festival in St. Louis because most of her college friends live there.
She had a venue already booked when she received an offer to shoot the special as part of the festival. "A lot of people... on social, were like, 'How the fuck did she get that?'... I was like, 'Well, because I already had it in motion.'"
Katie Novotny's comedy special, Son of Your Dreams, is available now via Burn This Records on iTunes and Bandcamp. It debuted at #2 on iTunes, beating The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic, and losing to an album by some guy who knows Daniel Radcliffe (the guy who played Harry Potter).
TL;DR: Check out Katie's special! Screw that guy who knows Harry Potter.