jeffp: Yes, you give a show (and a rattling good one, I'm sure), but you're not in show *business* at the cancer centre because you don't charge and they don't pay.

MMario: What does a charity get out of a performance that doesn't produce any return? Are you sure they don't put out a basket, pass a hat, or even collect names and addresses for future solicitation? Even if you're entertaining the charity's workers, you're still rendering a service that ultimately contributes to the charity's bottom line by giving the worker bees a good time so they maintain the effort.

*****

My grandmother the pianist had problems over precisely this issue in 1947, when the Musicians' Union local in Ottawa wanted her to stop playing for free at veterans' hospitals. The union's position was that the Department of Veterans' Affairs could darned well pay for entertainment for hospitalized veterans just as the Department of National Defence paid for entertainment for the troops. Both sides of this dispute had good arguments, but as veterans were discharged to civilian hospitals (many of which were charitable institutions) the union got tired of looking like the bad guy and gave in and rewrote its rules. Grandma never took back her union card, however, and never forgave the union although she was a charter member.