There Are No Small Parts: Unemployed Actors Now Cleaning Bedbug-Infested Apartments

At this point, if you live in New York and don't have bedbugs, you're pretty much unique. Considering the entire city is overrun by these disgusting creatures, it goes to reason that a job market would spring forth from their grotesque existence. And who better to clean up after bedbugs than a group of unemployed stage actors! (Head explodes.)

According to the Wall Street Journal, unemployed actors have become the go-to bed bug busters in Manhattan, in part because "they can improvise, work quickly and are used to the drama of a stressful situation." And bugs. Apparently they're used to bugs.

"I love it," 23-year-old actor Alexander Mace told the Wall Street Journal. "I do my work. We talk. It's almost like hanging out and having a good time, I just happen to be vacuuming books or spraying down knick-knacks with rubbing alcohol." Just another day at the office, right guys?!?

Cleaning bedbugs also has other perks -- especially if you're Method. "As an actor, you naturally study people," said actress Meagan Gilliland. "You naturally take bits and pieces from people and put them into, like, your little lockbox so you can pull them out later for a character for a part."

Well, then. Of course there is another reason why cleaning up after bedbugs might be a go-to choice for unemployed actors: It's a job that pays upward of $30 per hour. Who's laughing now?

· Who You Gonna Call? For Bedbugs, an Out-of-Work Actor [WSJ]