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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