Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Herschel, who makes his
reality-TV debut on Survivor: Gabon Thursday
night, was a confidant of Clay Aiken’s before
Aiken decided to come out of the closet this week.
Here, Charlie talks to The Advocate about their
friendship, impending television fame, and how he managed to
take seven weeks leave from his New York law firm to film in
Africa.
It’s a big
week for Charlie Herschel. Forty-eight hours before his big
debut on the 17th season of Survivor, the
29-year-old New York–based corporate lawyer is
finding out with the rest of the world that his online
chat buddy of two years, American Idol runner-up Clay
Aiken, has announced on the cover of People
that he’s gay. The two started chatting on
social networking site Connexion.org during the
whole Kelly Ripa hand-over-the-mouth hubbub, and those
early chat fests developed into a casual friendship
while Aiken was in New York starring in
Broadway’s Spamalot.
“There was
a point when I was in law school that I was on IM
almost every day, so we used to IM almost every
day,” says Herschel, who has maintained a
friendship with Aiken ever since.
Then
Herschel got the call to partake in the experience of a
lifetime, packed up his life, and flew halfway across the
world to Africa, putting those IM chat sessions
momentarily on hold. He left his swank New York law
firm behind to rough it in Gabon with 17 other
reality-star wannabes. And as with past seasons of
Survivor, the production pretty much
guaranteed that Herschel was separated from the outside
world for almost two months, so he missed all of the
media attention paid to Aiken's baby, born August
8 through a surrogate, and the gossipy banter that
followed.
Now that
Herschel’s back in New York and awaiting the media
firestorm that is sure to greet his big reality show
debut, the strong but unassuming marathon runner is
about to get a taste of what it feels like to be
openly gay and in the public eye -- something he can now
share in common with his fellow
reality-star friend. But Herschel says he
didn’t pursue Survivor for fortune or the gay
media fame that is so often bestowed on attractive reality
show grads. His reason for doing the show was
simple -- it’s something he’s dreamed of
since season 1…and if it helps him find the man of
his dreams, all the better.
The Advocate:Was auditioning for Survivor something
you’d actively pursued for a long time, or
was it a spur-of-the-moment decision?
Charlie Herschel: I’d been a huge fan ever
since the first season, but you just read about the tens of
thousands of applicants, so I never threw in an
application because I thought it would be a complete
waste of time. Then I was twiddling around one weekend at
my desk, procrastinating, and I was like, I’m
never going to get this experience unless I at least try
once to apply. One thing led to another and I
finally got cast.
So basically, you’re telling me your boss has your
procrastinating to thank for him losing you to Survivor?
Exactly.
How does one tell his boss, "Um, I need to take
several weeks off to go live in the middle of nowhere
and film a reality show"?
I went to my boss… I was very nervous. I
work at a big corporate law firm, it’s one of
the three biggest law firms here in New York. I was
just completely honest with him. I said, "This has been a
dream of mine forever. I love my job and my job will
come first, but I’m hoping we can work this out
that I can take off seven weeks for the summer." And
he was like, "Charlie, if I can help you realize your dream,
this is the best day of my year so far." They were
really supportive of me, and it didn’t hurt
that the economy is tanking, so taking me off payroll
for seven weeks didn’t hurt them.
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