Look for Jim Dykes in the new Fall TV Season

I've had my SAG and AFTRA union cards which allegedly show that I am a professional actor but after busting my butt for years to obtain union status, I haven't really worked in several years as an actor. Various reasons beginning with 9/11/01 when suddenly two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and when those buildings fell, they also took a lot of opportunity. Agents left the business (my agent Ellen left to teach YOGA for God's sake!), production companies scaled back and/or relocated OUT of New York to what they deemed were safer locations. Non-union productions and even union productions started cutting corners and hiring NON-union talent (because it's cheaper) proliferated and North Carolina, Texas, Canada and other tax havens became more and more popular. New York City has always had this idea (just like L.A.!) that "we are the great New York and the entertainment business will always be here, no matter how much we tax it and regulate it." Actually, the opposite is true...show business is BUSINESS first and producers simply go where it's cheaper to work and where they can make more profit.

Recently I started doing "extra" work or "background" work...I registered with several casting agents that specialize in this and they've been calling me quite a bit. Now mind you...the reason I'm SAG/AFTRA is because I've had prinicipal or LEADING roles in national TV commercials and worked in other shows. But that was THEN and this is NOW. Most actors who have worked in "principal" contract roles do NOT do "extra" work...like many, I was always told that you don't want to do extra work for several reasons:
1. you don't want to get pigeon-holed as just "human furniture"
2. the money is not great and there are no residuals for extras
3. you don't want to get "stuck" on a set all day in case your agent calls with an audition for a really good job. You can't leave sometimes for 15 or 16 hours till they are finished. Extras are also treated shabbily by crew...you are literally treated like you are "less than human" but when you're a "principal" perforner, you have your own dressing room, assistants running around getting you things, RESPECT plus much more money and residual payments.
These are all good reasons to not do "extra" work but recently I threw caution to the wind and did a bunch of extra jobs. I was a "TV reporter" in a horde on Law & Order SVU, I was a security guard in the new Jennifer Aniston-Gerard Butler movie The Bounty (a romantic comedy for release next summer), a comedic Icelandic camera-man in Tina Fey's hit sitcom 30 Rock and I just found out that I'll be playing a camera-wielding tourist Tuesday on the SEX AND THE CITY 2 movie! Not only is it fun, it pays so-so, the on-set food is WONDERFUL (catered by some of the best catering companies), you're rubbing shoulders with some great stars and working on some exciting sets, with a true "insider's" view of things.
Also, when I give the Rich & Famous Tour (and my other tours) it's great fodder for chit-chat and first-hand stories from the set for my tourists who enjoy "insider celebrity" stories.
I have more info on my Adventures in the World of movie/TV extra work on my other website: http://www.JimDykes.com/blog