I got Showtime shortly after it came out. I created a singer and kept her totally busy playing for tips, then had her playing five nights a week at all the smaller venues til she reached level-10 in the Singer profession, at which time she began performing at the large venues. Once these became regular gigs she quit performing at the small venues. In short order she'd aquired enough wealth to purchase the large venues. I should mention that commensurately I had her learning guitar and piano (she is a professional musician after all
). Once I had enough income from real estate arriving weekly she retired from singing and picked up the musician track and is currently a conductor. At this point she's achieved everything I set out for and it's unlikely I'll go back and play that Showtime profession again.
Bringing a singer along rapidly requires a lot of hands on attention -- and it can get rather tedious (I've come to appreciate to some extent how professional performers can get burnt out in their professions). I cannot stress this enough -- you've really got to work at making your performer successful. Because I leveled mine up through A LOT of singing for tips and doing shows at small venues 5-6 nights weekly she never gave a bad show -- all were epic or legendary. If your sim is super career oriented (as mine was) s/he will not have time remaining for a social life or parties, which invariably occur when gigs are scheduled.
Retrospectively, I probably could have done without the Showtime EP: (1) it was definitely not as much fun as the Pets EP, to which I keep returning to raise horses; and (2) the lag created by Showtime had me at the brink of deleting TS3 off my computer until I discovered the "resetsim* " workaround -- which I'm compelled to do a couple of times every real life hour. Unlike gardening, nectar making, and raising horses (which I often do simultaneously with one or more sims) the Showtime professions simply do not beckon to me so loudly. I know I speak only for myself, but I think opinion is what this thread was requesting.
(EDIT) Pertaining to sing-o-grams: my singer received only two before she had regular gigs at the large venues. Thereafter, she began receiving a couple each day. I don't believe they receive sing-o-gram opportunities on days they're performing (though both of mine came following early shows). So, the fact that I kept my singer busy doing gigs nearly every night of week doubtless contributed to receiving so few opportunities. Still, in the early going had I not kept her busy singing for tips the paucity of sing-o-gram opportunities would have spelt starvation.
