1001 Ways to Make Money If You Dare (56 page)

343 ACT IN A LOCAL COMMERCIAL.
The grainy camera work. The uneven audio. The over-the-top acting. Be that over-actor! Contact local video production companies and tell them you're interested in being in a commercial. When businesses hire them to make a commercial, they'll recommend you, and if you're really lucky, you can be that guy waving in the aerial shot of a car dealership commercial.

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344 WORK AS A TRIBUTE BAND.
Can you do a good Bono impression? Or do you just really love U2's (or another band's) music? Consider forming a tribute band. With concert tickets to see actual legit bands costing anywhere from $40 to $500, surely you can get a few suckers to pay $10 a head to see you and your friends rock out. Give your band name the same name as the original band's biggest hit or album so that fans of the real thing will be immediately drawn to your act.

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345 GET YOUR CHILD AN ACTING GIG.
Everyone thinks his kid is cute enough to be on television. But some kids actually are. Is yours one of them? Consider hiring an agent for your adorable little one, and your kid may actually start paying you back for all you've given him.

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346 BECOME A CELEBRITY ASSISTANT.
Can you handle being treated like a minion? Do you consider “getting an inside peek at Hollywood life” a job perk? Why not try to get work as a celebrity assistant? Start by contacting management companies (because no one does anything without their manager's permission) and tell them about your career aspirations. Pretty soon you could be fetching double chai lattes for the overpaid and undertalented. Talk about the American dream.

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347 WRITE A SONG.
You don't have to sing or play well to write the next big hit. Rather, pen an original tune with the ultimate goal of having someone else become famous for it. Really, it's not as pathetic as it sounds.

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348 FIND THE NEXT BIG STAR.
Whether it's the next big NBA baller or a talentless but wildly successful pop singer, the next big thing is out there. So why not go find it? Attend middle school sports games and talent shows and you may strike gold. The only drawback is the middle school sports games and talent shows thing.

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349 PITCH A REALITY TV SERIES.
Every new TV season, another half dozen ill-conceived reality shows premiere. Why not think of the next one? Due to the saturation of the market, the trick here is to find a concept that hasn't been used yet. Or just come up with a better name for one that already exists (See:
Big Brother.
) and steal someone else's thunder.