How does a rebellious camera whore come out? On national TV, of course! While some of us worried many a sleepless night about how we’d tell our loved ones we were gay, Marco da Silva took a, shall we say, less conventional route. Fresh-faced and only recently out to himself, a then-18-year-old Marco decided that rather than let people gossip, he would come out to everyone in one fell swoop by going on one of the most popular talk shows of the ’90s in his home country of Germany.
Takes balls, huh? But just like our own trashy talk shows of that time, Marco needed a good story in order to get booked. So he and a male friend concocted this tale that they were boyfriends and had recently had a threesome with a woman. Little did Marco know that the producers also spoke to his friend separately and convinced him to propose live on the air. “It was just a disaster! Looking at it now, I can laugh, but I do regret it. And needless to say, my parents were not very happy,” says Marco, now 33, whose parents have since come around. “We got $500, so all I saw was money and the fame of being on TV.”
The fame of it all. That would be something that would continue to come in and out of Marco’s life in various forms—usually as a world-renowned backup dancer. The gays surely recognize him as “Kylie’s dancer,” a title he has certainly earned after doing four world tours with the superstar. Others probably know him as “the hot (often naked) model with all the tattoos.” But it’s this backup man’s backup plan that seems to be bringing a new level of notoriety, this time as a DJ and producer. Whatever the reason, be it being a part of the Minogue family, baring all for the camera or spinning for some pretty respected parties around the world, Marco’s certainly come a long way from his small village outside Hamburg and the naysayers who used to put him down.
Read more about Marco and find out what life is like on the road with Kylie in our June issue, out now!
