History Main / PayingTheirDues

Compare MoneyDearBoy, because even big stars have to pay their bills. If this work is exceedingly terrible and the artist does make it big, these often become their OldShame, often with the excuse, "IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney." Fuel for the eventual RetroactiveRecognition reaction. See also WaitingForABreak and FallenOnHardTimesJob. Can also be necessary to achieve CareerResurrection if fame/high profile work was earned and then lost beforehand.

* In the commentary on one of the ''Series/RedDwarf'' [=DVDs=], the actors talk about the original actor for Kryten. He asked if they were "legit", meaning if they had gone to a proper acting school and paid their dues in small parts on stage before being on TV. The answer for all of them was No[[labelnote:±]] Chris Barrie was an actor, but not classically trained, and was better known as an impressionist, so hadn't paid his dues; Craig Charles was a poet; Danny John-Jules was a dancer; Norman Lovett was a stand-up comedian[[/labelnote]], which resulted in the actor treating them with mild disdain.

A term used in show business to describe the minor roles and drudge work one usually needs to do before hitting it big.

* Japanese promotions such as Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling have a Young Boy to Young Lion to "respected wrestler" system where "young boys" are forced to do the [[YouGetMeCoffee laundry and dishes]] of the respected wrestlers while doing thousands of pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups or such for wrestler complaints and are forced to sleep on floor mats. Young Lions get to wrestle on television but can only use a [[PoorPredictableRock small selection of moves]] and are usually only allowed to beat other Young Lions. Once a Young Lion goes on a learning excursion, preferably to a foreign country where Japanese is not spoken(some like Wrestling/KentaKobayashi of Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH luck out and end up in Brazil or something), they will generally be treated like respected wrestlers.