About the Show
The Day Job Artist is a weekly, Saturday podcast celebrating those who work by day and create by night to inspire audiences to pursue their own creative passions.
Each episode features live studio performances of original music, comedy, literature, spoken word, and theater recorded in host Jess Duda’s Brooklyn living room-turned-podcast studio with 30 sound panels and sound proof (ish) windows.
The interview portion covers the guests’ artistic vision, background, and aspirations. As the final “reveal,” Jess Duda will ask, “What’s your day job?” Could they be a gemologist, nude art model, or an event organizer for conferences on grains? In later episodes, she also asks, “And what does that pay” to discuss the economics of being a day job artist and to contribute towards achieving equal pay for equal work.
Why Day Job Artists?
New York City is the artist capital of the world with over 56,268 musicians, poets, comedians, writers, actors, filmmakers, dancers. Another 295,755 work across the creative industries, many of whom also spend their free time on original art projects. Other American ‘creative cities,’ such as Nashville, Los Angeles, Austin as well as world capitols, including 66 designated by UNESCO, are home to long-time artist communities.
As Jess Duda has seen over 500 day job artists perform in New York City as a volunteer at the historic Judson Arts Program, many of these beautiful creative creatures are outside of your view. They have little time and resources to breakthrough the vast sea of social media or to reach the still-powerful arts industry gatekeepers. . . they’re too busy making a living and/or raising kids. Those who consider themselves hobbyists only show or perform their original art to family and friends. As a result, audiences outside of these social circles or creative hubs have little to no access to this art of substance . . . until now.
Pilot Episode: Aba Kiser
Join host Jess Duda in meeting day job musician Aba Kiser, a key inspiration for the podcast who also wrote and performed the show’s theme song titled, “Day Job [Test]” (listen here.)
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Who knows, maybe you’ll end up on the show?
