By Peter Lawrence Kane
A few weeks ago, writer-artist Molly Crabapple published 14 Rules for Creative Success in the Internet Age. If you’ve ever earned even a fraction of your living from any kind of freelancing, you should read them all and repeat number 13 as a mantra: “Don’t work for free for rich people.” Because for all the benefactors and patronesses out there, there are still lots of wealthy people screwing over young creative types and stealing their labor. And one of those people wanting free labor, a local performer alleges, is Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah may have shut down the Castro while eating brunch on Sunday, but she was really in the Bay Area for her “The Life You Want Weekend” tour, which a huge production involving motivational speakers Elizabeth Gilbert and Deepak Chopra and lots of local talent wherever it alights (including a special shout out to Kimberly Bryant, founder of Black Girls Code). For the San Jose show, Harpo Productions allegedly asked SF hula-hoop performer (and fire artist, stand-up comic, and freelance writer) Revolva to take the stage, adding that, although tickets at the 18,000-seat arena ranged from $99–999, it would be an unpaid gig.
As Jezebel reported, Revolva turned it down. She also wrote a long, witty open letter on her blog explaining herself with the hope that it might penetrate Oprah’s inner circle — just Lena Dunham’s recent book tour only paid her performers after Gawker protested. “I want a life in which people are not asked to work for free — by people who can totally afford to pay,” Revolva wrote.
As it turned out, she could really use the money from such a high-profile job. “I’ve been scrambling for work the past few months … I was on the phone with the producer, talking about my act, and she was excited about it,” Revolva said when I reached her this morning. “We spent like five minutes talking about what I could do, and then she said, ‘Let me tell you the details of the gig. It’s at this outdoor stage, Oprah won’t be there, and P.S., it’s not paid.’” As of noon Tuesday, Revolva didn’t know if her open letter had trickled up, but Oprah “could decide to retroactively pay people. It’s not going to benefit me, but it might be nice.” A follow-up inquiry to the tour’s PR team went unreturned.
That Revolva had the courage to criticize Oprah, who is probably only one documented miracle away from canonization, says a lot. Ariel Pink got some serious pushback for lightly criticizing Madonna, so one can only imagine what a torrent of hatred you invite by calling Oprah stingy. But “95 percent of the comments I’ve seen have been really supportive,” Revolva said.
And she was absolutely right to do it. Molly Crabapple’s rule number 13 elaborates: “Haggling hard for money is actually a beneficial act for other freelancers, because it is a fight against the race to the bottom.” You can’t live on just exposure. In fact, you can actually die of exposure.
[Via Jezebel, Photo Courtesy of Harpo, Inc. / George Burns]
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