from PRX.

I'm Kurt Anderson, and this is the Studio 360 podcast.

Hi, this is Tommy Bezarian from Studio 360.

Every week, we talk to artists who spend their lives trying to make great art.

But artists who get to spend all of their time making art are among the lucky few.

The vast majority of artists have to lead a sort of double life, holding down a job during

the day so that they can do what they love in their free time.

That's why a few years ago we started a series called day jobs,

where we hear from artists about the things that they do to pay the bills.

The first day job we ever did was with an acquaintance of mine named Alex Kramer.

Alex is an actor who lives in New York, and at the time, he had a very unusual side gig.

This one time I was waiting for the doctor to call Jesse Stone.

And I get up and I recognize the doctor.

And he says, I feel like I know you from somewhere.

And it's like that moment in the movies

when everything stops

and the person sort of like cocks their head

and furrows their brow.

And I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,

oh my god, is he going to recognize me?

I'm Alex Kramer and I am an actor, but my day job is I work as an unannounced standardized patient.

An unannounced standardized patient also called a USP is someone who goes into hospitals undercover to evaluate residents on their performance.

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