Showbiz is a fickle business – one minute you’re the toast of the town and appearing on red carpets everywhere, next minute you’re struggling to pay the bills and turning up at auditions with every other failed actor in town.

Thank goodness for new media!  Need work? How about acting in a video game?  There are risks, of course, such as being electrocuted by the motion capture, selling blood for money or getting paid for taking experimental drugs.  But you gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills, right?

That is, unless you have a rich wife…luckily for us, there is also the web series – “exposing the pathetic American obsession with fame and exhibitionism”.

Willie Garson in spandex

WHOLE DAY DOWN is a hilarious new web series created by Tai Fauci and series co-star, Patrick Breen, about the lives of two failed actors (Breen and White Collar regular Willie Garson) trying to reinvent themselves as art gallery operators.  Art is a very subjective thing – I mean, who’s to say that taking photos of James Franco off a television screen can’t be considered art, right?

While high on weed, the two come up with the idea of using Patrick’s father-in-law’s gallery to hold their own art exhibitions with the help of Hunter (Steve Bloem) and Franny (Francesca Fauci).  Persuaded by Patrick’s wife, Nadine (Elisa Donovan),  Mr G (Nadine’s father played by Dan Fauci) agrees to let the pair use the gallery space on Mondays and must pay  25% of everything they sell from their exhibits.

In “What Wood Raven Do”, Patrick and Willie hire a pair of performance artists but one of them disappears.  There are possible fill-ins, of course, but The Finger Painters are tough negotiators and Monday is a school night, so they’re out of the question.  With an art critic in the audience, the show must go on.

For fans of Willie Garson who are wondering how to fill the gaping hole of missing White Collar till January 17, I urge you to watch this series (and for a glimpse of another familiar Garson).  It is laugh-out-loud funny, even if that ventriloquist’s dummy scares me just a little.  The depiction of the art world in this series is exactly the way I view it.

If you haven’t watched this yet, do yourself a favor and start now!  Click here to watch “Genesis” and “What Wood Raven Do” stay tuned for Episode 3 “China Syndrome”  – you will not regret it!

PS Follow series creator, Tai, on Twitter @WholeDayDown and “like” them on Facebook

PPS Good news! WHOLE DAY DOWN is now on YouTube! You can subscribe to their channel for updates.

PPPS You can also shop at the WholeDayDown store for some cool Artpocalypse merchandise.