The Booth Babe: Life After the Auto Show

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There was a terrific article in Spin magazine about what rock stars do for a living after the fame runs out. I've often wondered about this ... not every band you hear on the radio becomes Bon Jovi or Coldplay, and most won't get airplay on their second or third albums. Plain economics dictates there can only be so many studio musicians and producers, so how are these peeps who had a tantalizing taste of fame absorbed back into the mainstream?

It was interesting to read the wide variety of post-fame careers. I won't give it away by naming names and careers, but it is definitely worth a read -- and it got me thinking ...

What happens to booth babes when the bright lights of the auto show dim?

The first thing to understand is that the lights may dim much later than one would think, as long as you still look good. The ages of some of the men and women on the auto show circuit would astonish you. While they don't look like they are 20, they also don't look like they are close to 50, and more than a few of them are. Granted, it is easier for men to get away with this than women, but I know some amazing looking women on the circuit. I pray to the auto show gods I will look like when I am their age.

But there will come a day, of course, that the siren song of the auto show turns into a death knell, and you'd better bet we all are developing our own little empires for when that day comes. I personally garner about half my income from auto show and other modeling and the other half from two other much-loved endeavors. I have a marketing degree and a plan. There are some women who want to do this for years and years. I don't, and I have a plan for when I'm done.

And pretty much everyone does. Some leave the circuit because their acting careers are staring to take off, and auto show season takes them away from too many great auditions. Some have started their own modeling agencies or event management companies. Pharmaceutical sales (the legal kind). Yoga teachers. Clothing and shoe designers. Both the co-founder and the executive vice president of one of the two largest talent agencies handling auto shows used to be booth babes. There are a few pro drivers thrown in the mix. Television and film producers. Visual and performance artists.

Here are some jobs for which I am qualified after I leave the auto show circuit:

• Circus ringmaster

• Airplane emergency evacuation coordinator (since I've seen the demos so many times)

• Substitute Mommy (since you certainly aren't parenting your kids at the show)

• Convention center dietitian (try to maintain a model's figure on convention food, I dare you)

• Suspicious smell/stain/scratch inspector

• Torturous-but-beautiful shoe tester

• Fire scientist

• Traveling wardrobe coordinator (must make sure nothing happens to my own 15-piece wardrobe set through seven months of coast-to-coast traveling on multiple airlines with spotty baggage records)

• Traveling mercenary (at the very least I know how to protect and defend myself in dangerous situations and am not afraid to do so)

• Hostage negotiator/suicide prevention (have talked a lot of angry-and-taking-it-out-on-the-world types off the ledge at almost every show) (See "I am not the president of GM")

I do actually have my own little plan. You'll see one of these days.

The Booth Babe writes about life on the road and the quirks of the American auto show-going public on her blog Do you come with the car?