WHEN youre part of an ensemble cast facing imminent unemployment perhaps its easy to keep your feet on the ground – no matter how successful your show is.

This is the situation Glee star Kevin McHale finds himself in – the show may be Fame for the 21st century but ask him and he says he is anything but famous.

“We still feel like the underdogs which I think is the key to the success of the show,” McHale says.

The 23-year-old actor, who plays wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams, said the cast “knew that from the beginning” that creator Ryan Murphy was planning on “graduating” them to make way for a crop of new, younger actors.

“Nobody wants to see a 40-year-old high schooler,” McHale says, “I’d love to do it as long as possible I’m glad they’re keeping it realistic.”

Fans can rest easy for the moment though with McHale appearing in Australia for the annual Gleek On events – first in Sydney at the University of NSW tomorrow and then at Melbourne University on Sunday.

Recordings from the show have notched up 75 entries on the Billboard chart – more than the Beatles’ 71 – and have scored more than 2.8 million album sales and 11.5 million downloads globally.

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