Something PBS's ''Great Performances'' showed me about The Biz

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I had recorded their 'Pledge Week'-presentation of WICKED in Concert, and I was watching 'a little bit of it at a time' (in 15/20 minute sessions while I eat). https://www.learning-mind.com/needy-people-signs-manipulation/ I turn to it today, see there's about 20 minutes left, guess I'll get 4 or 5 songs out of it, and let it start ... and How many songs do you think were left to see? NONE. That's because--as I said--it was 'Pledge Week,' and so they spent THE WHOLE TIME telling watchers 'how much they NEED our donations to keep people producing the arts.' Kristen Chenoweth (one of my old classmates ... not really; she went to the same university, but I think she graduated years before I started there), talking about how--when she was growing up in 'Podunk' (i.e. Broken Arrow), Oklahoma--the only way she could ever watch "opera" or "ballet" or "musical theater" was via PBS (Oklahoma's OETA or something). It showed me why I couldn't 'make it' as a musician---tho I'm a good singer and a proficient speaker-etc., I don't have "the need." All the famous singers & musicians & actors & dancers---something that makes them 'good' (even if they aren't consciously thinking about it) is 'The Need'---they are--at base--'singing for their supper.' I always thought of performing-arts as "something extra that people did in their free time." I know there's 'a whole industry' full of people who "earn a full-time income" in performance arts (heck! that's what 66% of THE UNIVERSITY I WAS [I]ATTENDING[/I] was devoted-to!), but my mind is full of stories of people who started out "doing it for fun" who got picked up by audiences & big producers etc.