I think the combination of both views sums it up. I fall (just!) into the latter group: over the years I must have done hundreds of floor-spots, and normally got in for free in return, but I've also done the odd paid gig and back in the 80s I was an occasional MC at the Bell & Pump in Birmingham (UK), on the nights when the Mad Jocks weren't there, and Derek Grinnell used to bung me a fiver.

Loved every minute of it.