{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/entertainers-and-performers-sports-and-related-workers-all-other/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Entertainers and Performers, Sports and Related Workers, All Other",
    "soc_code": "27-2099",
    "category": "Media",
    "us_employment": 16550,
    "median_annual_wage": null
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 58,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 16,
    "embodiment": 17,
    "liability_shield": 2,
    "trust_premium": 15,
    "judgment_accountability": 8
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "A mascot working a stadium crowd, a magician doing close-up table work, an escape act or a stunt fall on a wire — the deliverable is a live body improvising against a real audience in real time, and nothing in a generative model performs a rope trick at a wedding reception, which is why this sits at 16 rather than lower; the trim comes from the pre-recorded and voiced-character corner of the code, where synthetic audio and video already substitute.",
    "embodiment": "Fifty pounds of costume in July heat, harness rigging, fire and blade props, aerial apparatus, hotel ballrooms and parade routes and school gymnasiums you've never seen until load-in — uncontrolled venues with unknown floors and sightlines put this near the top of the band, short of 20 only because a share of the code works seated stages and controlled studio sets.",
    "liability_shield": "No state licence gates calling yourself a magician, mascot performer, or puppeteer; the only paperwork between you and a booking is a venue insurance certificate and sometimes a pyro or animal permit held by the producer, not you, so there is no credential a client is legally obliged to hire.",
    "trust_premium": "Repeat bookings come from the event planner who saw you hold a room and the parent who wants the same performer back next birthday — the referral chain and your reputation with a handful of agencies is the asset, which is why this is 15; it stops short of higher because much of the work is one-off gigs booked off a demo reel by someone who never learns your name.",
    "judgment_accountability": "You read a room and adjust pacing, handle a heckler, cut a bit that isn't landing — real discretion inside a rehearsed act, but the running order, script, and safety choreography are usually fixed by a producer or stunt coordinator before you arrive, so the ambiguous high-stakes calls are not yours to own."
  },
  "rationale": "This catch-all covers mascots, magicians, circus and variety acts, stunt performers, puppeteers, impersonators, live hosts and similar gig performers — work that happens in a body, in a room, in front of people, which current robotics cannot touch. The real exposure is not the act itself but the market around it: promo copy, poster design, backing tracks, social clips and character voices are already being generated cheaply, and corporate or event budgets that once bought a live performer increasingly buy synthetic content or licensed digital likenesses instead. Modal worker here is a freelancer with no license, no union protection, and income that depends on bookings rather than task output.",
  "outlook": "Live in-person bookings hold up over ten years, but pre-recorded, filmed and voice-only work in this category shrinks sharply as synthetic media gets cheaper, pushing performers toward fewer, more relationship-driven event gigs.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Venue and event-contract norms that explicitly price 'live human performer' as a distinct line item — e.g. buyer-side rules like the ones state fairs and school districts already use requiring a named performer on site, plus 'no AI likeness or synthetic performance' riders spreading from SAG-AFTRA's 2023 TV/Theatrical and 2024 Interactive Media agreements into non-union event and corporate booking templates via agencies and insurers",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State-level digital replica statutes (Tennessee ELVIS Act 2024, California AB 1836/2602, NY S7676B) extended to require documented, individually negotiated consent and named-agent representation before an event producer may use a performer's likeness or voice — making a signed human authorization a procedural prerequisite for the synthetic substitute rather than a free option",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Insurer and venue requirements that stunt, aerial, fire, and animal acts be performed by a credentialed person carrying personal liability — e.g. state fire-marshal permits for pyro/fire performance, and event-cancellation underwriters demanding named certified riggers or stunt coordinators on the certificate of insurance",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Child-safety and crowd-control duties formalized into the role: mandated-reporter designation or background-check-plus-training regimes for mascots and character performers at venues and schools, making the performer the accountable adult in the room rather than decoration",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift as the promo tier collapses: if generated posters, backing tracks, social clips and voice work leave only the unrepeatable live-in-body tier, the residual job is more resistant even though total bookings fall — this dimension can rise while the occupation shrinks",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is already near ceiling and task_resistance has little headroom; the score is high and the occupation is still exposed because the risk is demand-side, not capability-side. No lever here addresses bookings disappearing. Modal worker is a non-union freelancer, so union-derived AI riders and state replica statutes only help those with agents or named-talent contracts; mascots, hobbyist magicians and puppeteers are largely outside every mechanism listed."
  },
  "adjudication": {
    "method": "two independent runs agreed on the verdict",
    "outcome": "corroborated",
    "run_totals": [
      58,
      60
    ],
    "run_verdicts": [
      "EXPOSED",
      "EXPOSED"
    ]
  },
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 11440,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 13740,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 8300,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 11640,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 14720,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 15040,
        "wage": null
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 16550,
        "wage": null
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 44.7,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}