Quote: maybe starting from scratch at this point in his life, it would be...but it isn't in a general sense. I know a couple of guys that I went to music school with that moved to LA right after graduation, and have been working in the movie industry ever since. Me? I was a performance major. now THAT is impractical!!
Actually, I think that this is a great time in history to be a creative type. All the new technologies are making it much cheaper and easier to self-publish, produce independent films, create professional quality audio files etc.. Also, based on the limited research that I've done, creating original scores or soundtracks is a growing field due to the difficulties found in obtaining the rights to use previously recorded music. One way a performance artist could make money these days would be to set up a website featuring performance shorts. Use some guerilla marketing tactics to create a buzz about your site. Include a virtual money bucket on the site and collect money like a street artist. You could also allow Google to place relevant ads on the side of your site and collect advertising revenues every time someone clicked on the links. Then you could team up with a small independent publisher like I hope to shortly become to produce a book entitled "How to Make Money as an Internet Performance Artist" and collect royalties. Good Luck!
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver
