income problem solution: get a job

one of my friends is an actor. he's been acting for more than a decade and, when he had to stop his 'real' job for health reasons, he decided to concentrate on acting, which is very brave considering how insecure this field is in terms of income. 

over a year later, it turns out he's not getting enough money to survive and so he turned to friends to elicit ways in which he could make enough money to enable him to stay put in an expensive city. to me, the logical answer is to get a day job. seriously. i don't understand how this hasn't come up yet. you can't live on thin air and yes, it would be lovely to only do what you love but the reality is that few people get to do that. how this hasn't come up in the last year is beyond me. ok, maybe i'm missing a vital piece of information, but still.