A Stage in Their Careers : Performers: Theme parks offer a steady paycheck until something better comes along. Some entertainers are simply relieved to have a job.

Five shows a day, six days a week. Each performance is wall-to-wall dancing and costume changes. It’s grueling work for the eight young dancers in “VHS: A Living Dance Video.”

“The VHS diet plan,” said Jill Matson, 24, one of the performers. More seriously, she added, “There have been some injuries.”

Matson and her cohorts don’t belong to an elite dance company, and their show isn’t on Broadway. It’s at Magic Mountain, one of the daily attractions sprinkled in among noisy roller coasters and fast-food stands.

Twenty-five minutes down the freeway, at Universal Studios, an aspiring actor pays the bills by dressing up in a dark suit and pretending to be a Blues Brother. Nearby, a quartet sings doo-wop tunes, five shows a day.

Playing an amusement park isn’t the height of fame or artistic expression, but it does give performers a chance to do what they love in front of an audience. It also provides a steady paycheck for actors, dancers and singers waiting for something better down the road.

“We may not be making $70,000 a year,” said Donna Brown, one of Universal’s Doo-Wop Singers, “but there are a lot of talented people out there who aren’t making $30,000 a year.”

Said co-wopper Michael B. Moynahan: “Plus, it keeps the vocal chops up for jobs that come up. With our schedule, we can do a set and go to an audition and make it back in time for the next set.”

Theme parks like Magic Mountain, Disneyland and the Queen Mary have long offered song-and-dance acts to add variety to their established attractions. At Universal Studios, several of the shows are done in the street, where performers are face-to-face with visitors.

“It seems to appeal to a lot of people on a more personal basis,” said Jim Yeager, a park spokesman.

Universal also has impersonators and mimes who entertain people waiting in line for rides. “Banks could learn from us,” Yeager said. “If you were waiting in a bank, wouldn’t you want to watch a sword swallower?”

Because most people know Magic Mountain for its roller coasters, the park hands each arriving guest a show schedule and places advertisements for performances such as “VHS” and the “Riptide Revue” throughout the grounds.

The 25-minute “VHS” complements the dancers with rock ‘n’ roll videos playing on dozens of monitors around the stage. The dance styles represent a history of rock music, from the twist all the way to Janet Jackson. Laser lights shoot across the 1,200-seat auditorium.

Most of the dancers are in their early 20s and have trained at Southern California studios. There aren’t many career opportunities for them. They sometimes find work in films or videos, where the money is good but the job is short. They sometimes perform on cruise lines.

For a few, the Magic Mountain job is an early stage in careers they hope will encompass theater and more sophisticated work. Amy Hum wants to choreograph. Dorene Herod, 21, who spent two seasons as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Clippers, wants to open her own studio.

Others were simply relieved to find a job. Warren Ho, 29, had been working as a Polynesian dancer. Christopher Smith, 23, recently moved here from Buffalo, N.Y., where his mother runs a dance studio, and wasn’t having much luck at auditions.

“I’m glad they gave me a break, because Debbie Allen and Paula Abdul and Cher wouldn’t,” he said.

Hum has been working amusement parks for a number of years. At 29, she’s a veteran of Disneyland, the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose.

“If there’s such a thing as steady work in entertainment, then it’s at theme parks.” She said the crowds make the work enjoyable. “The audiences are out for a good time. Usually they’re really loud and really awake.”

A few hundred yards away, an audience of about 70 clapped along as the four young singers of the “Riptide Revue” harmonized their way through such 1960s memories as “Surf City U.S.A.” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” They wore bright Hawaiian shirts and smiles the likes of which haven’t been seen since the traveling revue “Up With People.”

Lisa Rodgers, 22, who came from Utah for this job, hopes to parlay the experience into a Broadway career.

“But I guess everyone does,” she said.

While the quartet insisted they are having fun this summer, the singers said there are undeniable drawbacks to working at an amusement park.

“You know the people haven’t come to see you ,” Kenny Herring, 27, said. “They’re here for the rides, and sometimes they come into the theater just because it’s air-conditioned.”

“Sometimes you’re not really into it,” Travis Tanner, 23, said. “You just put on a fake grin and go.”

The situation is significantly different for the Doo-Wop Singers. There are 16 of them who take turns working in the quartet, some performing only one day a week. Most have known each other for years.

“Because we’re all friends, it’s a good time,” Moynahan said.

Also, their act is different every outing because the group selects freely from a catalogue of 40 oldies songs.

On the downside, the show is outdoors--rather than in an air-conditioned theater like “VHS” or “Riptide Revue”--so when the San Fernando Valley suffers through a scorcher, the audience can be lethargic.

But on a recent cool afternoon, the crowd was lively. Afterward, as the Doo-Wop Singers sat at a table, people approached to ask when they were going on again. A small girl came up to say goodby.

“The people are so nice,” Brown said.

Most of the doo-woppers are professional singers and actors who perform at Universal Studios to earn extra cash. Mary Lou Metzger works with an Equity-waiver group called the Actors Conservatory Ensemble. Moynahan, who also substitutes as Elwood in the park’s Blues Brothers show, auditions for television and film parts.

He previously worked at Disneyland, where, he said, the supervisors “watched you like a hawk.” Universal Studios gives the singers such gifts as restaurant dinners and show tickets whenever guests stop by the information booth to compliment the act.

It’s another perk in a sideline that most performers say they are thankful for.

“This is a staple for us,” Brown said. “But I don’t think we’ll do this forever. I don’t think we’ll be in walkers doing doo-wop.”