None of us have any idea of what is going to happen over the next few weeks as Corona Virus rampages around the world. This enemy takes no hostages and it has an incurable ace up its sleeve for the foreseeable future. The COVID-19 infection is knocking out film stars, royalty, politicians and medical experts – everybody is fair game for this robust predator. A great leveler.
The net effect is communal fear and we can either get to grips with it, find solutions and explore new ways of working and collaborating together or it becomes weaponised as the vulnerable try to protect themselves.
By vulnerable I don’t mean individuals – the cracks are appearing in large organisations and service providers who are precariously poised on the brink of financial disaster, in need an army of staff to change policy, write the new ‘rules’ and find ways to keep their businesses afloat. Large retail groups, hotel and restaurant chains left it until the eleventh hour to shut down as they dithered in the face of woolly government guidelines. Those of us with small businesses are necessarily more agile, quick to respond but ultimately at the mercy of our larger pay masters.
At what point do we push all that away and get back to basics? Surely dealing with people on a human level is the most important thing at this time?
Banks, insurance companies and other major service providers – please can you pick up the phone to your customers? We’ve got time to hold in the queue if it means a friendly human being will eventually answer and help us out. An anonymous statement on a website is not enough. Every case is different and we need information about how we can suspend payments and apply for government backed funding so that we can keep paying our staff. Don’t tell me that you’re busy with ‘other customers’. I know you are.
Anything to do with money is particularly fraught for those of us surviving in a gig economy – we’ve all seen our income vaporise in a matter of days and there’s no certainty against which to re-plan our futures. Nobody yet knows what the ‘new normal’ looks like.
The biggest thing of all is that this really does bring us all down to one basic human level – nobody is better or worse at surviving this. We all have to take our chances about how we get through the next few months – physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. If you are lucky enough to still have some work coming your way, be kind to the people offering it to you and maybe involve somebody else less fortunate than you.
Several funds have been set up in the entertainment industry to support performers who’ve lost all their work which is good. But the Robin Hood strategy isn’t a proper long term solution and there are too many mouths to feed along the way.
Before all this happened, some acts were being paid extraordinarily high fees for single projects, the kind of amounts that would keep a business like ours afloat for a year. This is because we have created an economy where talent is bought and sold as a commodity and a whole industry has developed around ‘celebrity’.
Maybe paying these super-sized inflationary amounts to just one famous person will stop after all this – surely if anything, this world crisis will make us review what’s important to us and evaluate our real worth. Let’s share the work and the money around a bit. There’s enough to go around, just as there is food in the supermarkets.
Funny Women is a not for profit company and profits made after costs are put back into supporting our community interests which includes our Funny Women Awards and regional networks. If you help us, you are helping the whole community.
I am prepared to fight our corner to get funding, bring in new projects and pay acts and production crew to deliver events and projects, even in this hyper online space. My responsibility is to the hardworking Funny Women Team and if you’ve benefited from taking part in any of our initiatives, Awards or workshops and you’re still being paid, please consider becoming one of our Funny Friends to support our outreach programmes – albeit virtually at the moment.
Let’s enjoy the level playing field for a while – we all have the same to win or lose. If you’ve got access to technology and skills to help us, get in touch, join our groups and share your expertise. Isolation can be a truly creative opportunity so don’t keep your ideas and talent all to yourself. Share them.
You can keep your germs though! Stay home. Keep safe. And above all – be kind.
