Why is fame so hard to earn?

I'm still learning my way through this new career and how the fame system works, but I really enjoy that my sim has to work hard to gain and maintain fame. My two concerns are finding other ways to make money and also finding other things for him to do in between gigs. He is an actor/musician and he is high enough in level to earn about six thousand simoleons per gig, but that's maybe only twice a week. I also use one of the lounges where he performs, but that's mostly to help boost his fame as the tips don't really add much. Right now I keep him busy in between gigs to level him up in relevant skills, but once he has done that I'm not quite sure what to do with his time. I'm really trying to keep him true to his career (acting and music only) and don't want to resort to streaming, vlogging and other sidelines. I thought making his own music would make sense, but are there other things he can do as an actor, aside from doing gigs?