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The crowd is relatively subdued. But I’m not fooled. The momentary lull is charged with anticipation. The lights are down and the crowd is itching for action. I’m surrounded by 350 amped-up, dolled-up, cocktail-consuming, soon-to-be screaming and salivating…women.
And why would I plop myself in the center of such a situation? My journalistic integrity, of course.
I’m sitting in the audience at Chippendales, gentlemen and gentlemen (and ladies) and I’m about to take in the spectacle of a dozen hunky men in various forms of undress because, well, that’s my job. You see, our cover guy—the troupe’s first openly gay performer, BRANDON PEREYDA—will soon be dangling from a ring suspended high above the show’s floor.
Star aerialist and silks artist Brandon Pereyda, 23, was born and bred in Las Vegas, the city he still calls home. His parents divorced when Brandon was just seven. “My mother is my best friend. She is the closest person to me in my life,” he says, smiling. “She understands me and I understand her. My father and I…we don’t speak.” Brandon was kicked out of his father’s house when he was 16 because he got his tongue pierced (it’s still pierced today). Brandon admits he did it to be rebellious, “to piss him off,” he says. “I was 16. I wanted to express my own individuality.”
A week after no communication, Brandon’s father called him and
invited him back to live at his house part-time (per the custody
agreement) but his dad, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, expected Brandon to
go to church. “I’ve known that I’ve liked guys since I was five,”
Brandon says. “The thing with the church and trying to impress my
father was I was trying to do what was right for him, for them. I
thought it was something in me that was evil. That was wrong. I tried
to suppress and change it. And at the age of 16, it got to the point
where I finally said ‘I am my own person, I am the way I am because God
made me the way I am.’”
COMING OUT
Brandon was a busy college freshman on the cheer squad at UNLV when a
simple phone call changed everything. “I remember one morning I called
my mother right after practice—it was really early—and I was waiting
for my first class of the day to start…” remembers Brandon. “And she
said ‘Something is wrong with you. Something’s been wrong with you. I
know something’s bothering you.’ And I’m thinking about everything
that’s going on with school and family stuff and, out of nowhere, she
comes out with, ‘does it have any thing to do with your sexuality?’”
{mosimage}He laughs now, but he was floored. “I was like, ‘What?!’”
Brandon’s
mom urged him to talk to her, to tell her everything. “So at 7:30 in
the morning my mother’s pretty much pulling it out of me because I had
never said anything to her before. And, trust me, I let it all out,” he
laughs.
“I’m very lucky to have the mother that I do…” he says,
“…for all sorts of reasons.” Brandon’s mom is a lieutenant for Metro in
Vegas and she started on the police force over 20 years ago when there
were very few women in the department. “She was pegged as a lesbian,”
Brandon says matter-of-factly. “She has very short hair, and she was a
bodybuilder so she was muscular and strong enough to overpower a lot of
the men on the force. She knew what it was like to feel pressured and
to be different and to be judged.”
When I move on to speak about
his dad, Brandon doesn’t hesitate, but he’s quieter. “There is
absolutely no relationship there. We’ve tried conversing and going to
lunch and talking, but everything with him is always scripture-based,”
explains Brandon. “There is nothing wrong with the religion of
Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they pull out the Bible a lot and choose a
scripture to relate every situation to. It’s tough.”
Brandon’s father didn’t find out Brandon was gay until just a couple of years ago when he saw Brandon on the cover of a local gay magazine. But they never spoke of it. They each knew the other knew and that was that. “I believe God created me just like he did everybody else,” says Brandon. “And he created me just the way I am. And it wasn’t a choice for me. And if my father—I know my father loves me—but I think with the boundaries that his religion has created in his head, that he can’t go past that and just accept me for who I am instead of trying to change me.”
FROM CHEERLEADING TO CHIPPENDALES
Gymnastics began for Brandon in middle school and soon thereafter he began to teach it as well. He was also the first male cheerleader at his high school—a strict Mormon high school, no less. The girls approached him to join the squad because they knew he was a gymnast—not because he was gay. “But, it’s funny how I ended up going into cheerleading,” he laughs, “like, you know, duh?
“It was a very interesting experience because you get a lot of flack for it. But at the same time, the whole football team and the basketball team backed me up,” says Brandon. He remembers one particular assembly when the cheer squad was performing and he was heckled by someone in the stands. The comments were hurtful, homophobic and derogatory, “but one of the varsity football players got up in the guy’s face in front of the whole assembly and called him out and made him feel bad,” remembers Brandon. “It was great!”
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After high school Brandon joined UNLV’s cheer squad and a competitive non-collegiate all-star squad simultaneously. The gym where his all-star team practiced would be the portal to his future. “Cirque [du Soleil] had a rigging set up for their rehearsals,” he recalls with a smile, “and one day I just thought, That’s what I want to do.”
For those unfamiliar, the art of silks requires its participants to suspend themselves from the ceiling with long sheaths of fabric and perform aerial acrobatics. He was 18 when he bought himself his first set of silks to practice with in that gymnasium. (He had a key to the gym since he was coaching there.) After practice, he would spend two to four hours practicing, teaching himself from things he had seen in Vegas shows, and Cirque DVDs. He never had a coach.
Chippendales had never had aerialists in the show, but through friends (many of whom worked in Vegas Cirque-themed shows) he met another Chippendales performer and they created an act together. That number has been a part of the Vegas Chippendales show ever since.
{mosimage}“I love the act. I love doing it,” enthuses Brandon. “Over the years it’s evolved into a really amazing number. We have complete creative control over our aerial stuff, so I love what I do so much.”
“But what about all those screaming women?” I ask.
“They are a very grabby group!” he laughs. “I don’t think this is a job any gay guy could do—or any guy really—’cause [these women] can get crazy! There have been many times when I’ve thought, Oh my goodness, if there were all guys out there screaming and grabbing, this might be the best job in the world!”
And as the first openly gay Chippendales ever, Brandon admits with a chuckle, “I guess it is monumental for this company. Chippendales guys are often pegged as being gay. And they’re not. And I think this will clear the slate.”
For a show that’s been tailored to women’s tastes for 30 years, I wonder how the male mix in the audience works and how his fellow performers respond to gay patrons hooting and hollering with the ladies. “We’ve had audiences where literally a third can be guys. And they’re used to having guys in the front row. It doesn’t matter to them…they’re proud of their job and they are confident in their sexuality,” explains Brandon. “Here at Chippendales, we’re like a family. We’re all brothers. They’re all straight, but we would do anything for each other, and that’s what I really love about working here. They don’t view my being gay as a negative thing at all.”
LOVE AND LOSS
Many may find it hard to believe, but talented, handsome Brandon is single. “Very single,” he says with a laugh.
But the laughter will stop here. Next Brandon recounts the tragic events the led up to the death of his last serious boyfriend. He and Drew had met through a mutual friend, and after talking for four months, Brandon was convinced that Drew was the man he was going to spend his life with.
Drew had seen Brandon perform one night and the sparks went off, but it would be months later when Drew found Brandon on MySpace and messaged him that the romance really began. Brandon says the two got really close emotionally through endless emails and phone conversations that could last for hours. “We would write three or four-page e-mails back and forth twice a day, and some friends were cynical because we hadn’t known each other very long, but things were better than great.” Soon thereafter, a modeling assignment shuttled Drew off to South Africa for a month-long gig. “We were always joking around that when he got back, That’s it! We’re going to have to get married. It was just a joke, really, but we would go back and forth with that.”
But when Drew’s flight back was delayed and later canceled, he would have to stay another day. That’s when tragedy struck. Drew and two other models were beaten and robbed while they slept in their hotel room. One of his fellow models was killed on scene. “It wasn’t a hate crime or a gay-bashing because the other models were straight, but it was brutal…” explains Brandon, trailing off to tears.
Drew and the other survivor of the attack were hospitalized and Drew was eventually flown back to Canada, where his family was. Drew lay in the ICU in a coma for a month. He never woke up from his coma and died on January 28, 2007.
A month after he passed away, Drew’s father called the mutual friend who had introduced the boys and asked if she knew anyone named Brandon in Las Vegas. The father had something for him…from Drew. Apparently it was one of the only things that hadn’t been stolen during the attack.
“It was a ring,” Brandon says tearing up again. “And it came with a handwritten note that said that he would be with me forever.
“It’s an experience I wish I never would have gone through,” Brandon says through welled eyes. “But now I know what I want. I know that I don’t need to settle.” He pauses, and smiles, “Not for anything.”
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For a copy of Brandon's issue—or any other back issue—order online here!
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Wearing 
Hope the Chippendales get to Miami or Fort Lauderdale soon so we get to see what Brandon Pereyda is like up close and personal!
You rocked my world and I'm sure just about everyone that's seen you on the cover!