ORLANDO, Fla. — During 3 years of working as a parade entertainer at the Disneyland Resort in Southern California, Zach Elefante constantly has had a 2nd or 3rd task to aid him make a living.
Unlike the experiences of his peers at Disney’s parks in Orlando, Florida, where there is a much smallersized skill swimmingpool, the entertainers who play Mickey Mouse, Goofy and other precious Disney characters at the California parks aren’t constantly offered a constant work schedule by the business.
It’s amongst the factors the California entertainers are arranging to be represented by a union now, more than 4 years after their Florida equivalents did so.
While Disney asks character entertainers to be readilyavailable to work at any time, that need isn’t constantly rewarded with setup work hours, the California entertainers stated.
“A lot of entertainers get the sense that if they puton’t offer their complete accessibility, we won’t be in reveals … and that will effect other tasks we requirement to sustain a living in this location,” stated Elefante, who lives in Santa Ana, California.
Earlier this month, the California character entertainers and the union arranging them, Actors’ Equity Association, stated they had submitted a petition for union acknowledgment.
It’s a various age and a various union doing the arranging this time around, so the California character and parade entertainers mostlikely will prevent some of the bad blood that the Disney entertainers in Florida have knowledgeable with their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
It hasactually been a rocky four-decade maritalrelationship in Florida inbetween the entertainers who put the “magic” in the Magic Kingdom and the Teamsters, a union traditionally formed for transport and storagefacility employees which had deep ties to arranged criminaloffense till the late 1980s.
Why now for the California character entertainers, so lotsof years after their Florida equivalents arranged? Unlike in Florida where carryingout as a character frequently is a full-time task, lotsof of the character entertainers in Southern California have several other gigs, frequently in Hollywood films and TELEVISION.
Elefante carriesout at competitor Universal Studios Hollywood and works as a trip guide for the motionpicture studios. In addition to carryingout in the “Fantasmic!” program at Disneyland, Chase Thomas works as the director