Behind the curtain: What it’s like to be a professional performer
Behind the curtain: What it’s like to be a professional performer
These days, it’s not all that common to land a job and stay there for most of your career. For performer Jonathan Betchtel, that’s been the name of the game.
In high school, Betchtel aspired to be a performer after watching the film “Moulin Rouge.”
“It blew my mind. Specifically the Roxanne moment. If I ever got a chance to, you know, wear a tank top, suspenders and do a tango on stage — like, yes please. Sign me up.”
A few years down the road, he landed a job as a busser and server at Can Can Culinary Cabaret in Seattle, Washington. “Early years of Can Can, it was very, very much a small crew making everything happen. So everyone that was on stage was also pulling double-duty as a server. I cleaned, I think for the first seven, eight years. I would need to be the janitor. So it was all hands on deck to make it succeed,” he said.
Nearly a decade in, Betchtel now wears many hats as performer, producer, MC and co-owner of Can Can, along with Chris and Fae Pink.
To learn more about the life of a performer and how Can Can survived the pandemic, click the audio player above.
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