Usually budding actors and actresses wait tables while they are trying to get their big break.
Not Jon Gosselin, who after making it big on "Jon & Kate Plus Eight," suffered through a messy divorce in 2009 and now is serving restaurant patrons in Pennsylvania in search of the simpler life, according to ABC News.
After the show, Gosselin, 36, told "Entertainment Tonight" it has been "next to nearly impossible to find work," so he began working at Black Dog, a restaurant in Beckerville in Eastern Pennsylvania.
"At first I was nervous because I was like, 'How are people going to react?'" Gosselin, 36, said of taking the job, as quoted by Yahoo News. "But then I'm thinking, 'Well it's fun and I get to talk to people.' And they technically already know me...They're like, 'Are you the guy?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm the guy.'"
He now lives in a cabin in the woods, with no TV or Internet. But Gosselin was adamant to point out that even though his lifestyle has changed, he's not just scraping by -- he chose this life, according to ABC News.
"I don't know why people said that [I'm making ends meet]," he said, reports ABC News. "They said it because I'm waiting tables, which is really disgusting to think that because you wait tables ... that you're making ends meet."
Gosselin also noted that he does not pay any type of child support to his ex.
"[Kate and I] both support [the children] financially because she takes care of school and all that stuff, but I take care of the exact same things she takes care of," he said, according to Yahoo News. "I buy their own groceries. They have their own groceries at my house, their own bedrooms, their own stuff. It's doubled."
Gosselin said he's "hit rock bottom like 20 times, and then I just bounce back and go somewhere else."
The former reality TV star was something of a party boy after his messy divorce, hitting Vegas, New York and elsewhere, but those contracted, money-making appearances faded away, he said, once "Jon & Kate" was off the air and he stopped making tabloid headlines.
At that point, he said, it became "next to nearly impossible" to find work. After a couple of failed efforts to work "normal" jobs - at various points he was the director of sales and promotions for Gameface International, an IT contract guy and a seller of energy-efficient products - came the waiting of the tables, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Gosselin, who lived in a sprawling $1.3-million home when the show was running, says he sees his children once a week for dinner and every other weekend for an overnight, according to Yahoo's omg. For the past four years, Jon has "no relationship" with Kate at all, other than text messages and email, he revealed.
Still, no matter his changed lifestyle, the 36-year-old said, "I don't regret anything. You learn from your mistakes. That's what builds you to who you are today," according to The Los Angeles Times.
