Ruffling Some (Peacock) Feathers

With almost 3 million views on YouTube, Ryan James Yezak’s "California Gays" has become one of this summer’s biggest Internet sensations. Now, he’s back with another Katy Perry parody — this time taking on the scandalous song “Peacock” off her new album, Teenage Dream. The video, proclaimed by Perry on Twitter as “Jaw Droppin’,” serves it to us with a healthy dose of scantily clad bellhops and football players. And yes, even a live peacock, straight from Ventura County.

The Advocate: So "Peacock" has over 130,000 views in just two days. Was it the millions of views as well as Katy Perry’s enthusiastic response to "California Gays" that made you decide to do another one of her songs this time around?
Ryan James Yezak: Yeah, it was. And I happened to run into one of her music-video producers on the Fourth of July in Laguna Beach, and he told me about “Peacock.” He said, “This song is going to be hot. It’s going to be a gay anthem.” So right away I was like, “OK, let’s do it!”

Obviously the production value has increased. Between new camera equipment, location shoots, and costumes, is it safe to say the success of “California Gays” helped with this?
Oh, yeah. The problem I have is that depending on the success of my previous videos, I’m one of those people who have to outdo myself, or try to at least. I like to entertain, so I’m like, “Oh, crap. How do I top that?” In order to bring the vision for this video to life I had to have a bigger budget. Before, I had come up with these concepts that didn’t require locations and could just be done on the beach, and here or there. So If I can’t bring it to life correctly, then I can’t do it. So in order for me to do that I have to have more money and better equipment.

And a live peacock.

[Laughs] Yes, a live peacock! Had to have that, you know. It just completed it.