I spoke with Aussie Hunks about their Las Vegas show, charity work, Magic Mike parody video, what sets them apart, and so much more. They have one of the hottest shows in Vegas that you really need to check out. It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Simon, Adam, Chad, and Ben. For the record, I never turn down an invitation to speak with Australians. They generally have some of the best animal stories and those accents. Some of the best bands (Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus, Birds of Tokyo, Twelve Foot Ninja) and actors (Chris Hemsworth, Hugh Jackman, Damon Herriman, Thomas M. Wright) are from Australia, and now they have sent us their hunks. I would like to personally thank Australia for making the world a better place. Don’t miss Aussie Hunks live in Las Vegas.
LL: How long is the show going to be in Vegas for?
Aussie Hunks: We are here to stay. We are here indefinitely.
LL: Are you enjoying your time in the U.S.?
Aussie Hunks: Yes, we are loving it. It’s a very fun team of guys that we’ve got here. We all love doing our jobs. We love what we do and that’s reflected on stage, as well.
LL: Are you enjoying the squirrels because you don’t have them in Australia?
Aussie Hunks: Yeah. When we went to New York that was the first time that I have ever seen a squirrel. That was pretty fun. We definitely don’t have squirrels. They are interesting. We sat in the park and watched them for about an hour.
LL: You guys have some amazing wildlife in Australia. Do you have any fun animal stories?
Aussie Hunks: We tried to bring a couple of (inaudible) through customs but they wouldn’t let us. We had them involved in the show. We got the next best thing—one of the guys comes out dancing in a kangaroo outfit.
I grew up with lots of snakes in my house. I’d be sleeping and my snakes would crawl all over me sometimes. They weren’t venomous, so that was fine.
LL: I loved the Magic Mike parody video.
Aussie Hunks: [Adam] We created that as just a fun way to show basically how we are already in town doing a great, awesome, fun show that is based on Magic Mike. He was the inspiration for our show because our show is an interactive fun professional dance show, kind of, like Magic Mike was. We did that spoof just to be a bit cheeky and show that we are having a little bit of fun with it. The fact that we are already here and the whole thing about build it and they will come—we already built it and they are already coming.
LL: Have you gotten a response from Channing Tatum?
Aussie Hunks: [Adam] No, we haven’t got one, yet. In the meantime, we are building our brand, just having fun, and performing. When he gets here in March, we look forward to it.
LL: If he gives you any crap, make sure he apologizes for that sequel. [Magic Mike XXL was dreadful.]
Aussie Hunks: [Adam] He won’t give us any crap. The thing is, we are actually friends with the Chippendales. I think people think that it’s all like a rivalry between the groups but it’s not. There are plenty of customers to go around for everybody. It’s actually more exciting when there are new shows in town. It brings new energy and new people. We are just happy that we live in a day and age where women are empowered enough to be able to go to a show like our show and not feel bad about it. Men, for years, have been able to go to strip clubs and now women are able to come to our show and enjoy themselves.
LL: Everyone in your show has a professional dance background.
Aussie Hunks: [Chad] Yeah, everyone in the show has some type of special dance background like pop and locking, breakdancing, and things like that. To add to what Adam was saying, we came here with a vision of how to revolutionize the male revues. The old school male revues would just have these big dudes that could dance a little bit, but it was mostly just hip thrusts. We came here as professional dancers, that are also good looking ripped guys, so our biggest goal was to revolutionize it and keep in the forefront of the scene.
LL: What exactly does it take to be a pioneer of erotic hip-hop?
Aussie Hunks: [Simon] It’s a combination of things. I think the big thing that sets us apart is that we do have professional dancers doing the show, rather than just big steroid-looking strippers who can’t dance. It’s not just guys with good bodies—it’s guys with good bodies that can dance. [Laughs] It’s a very tasteful show. All of the guys are very respectful. They are all gentlemen. If we get anyone onstage, we always help them up, hold their hand, and walk them up the stage. It’s a very respectful show. It’s raunchy but also very respectful. It’s a lot of fun. As I said before, we all love what we do. Everyone loves being onstage and that really shows. We often get audience members after the show telling us that they could see how much fun we were having onstage and that really made a difference and helped them enjoy their experience. There is a lot of interaction in the show. During the show not only do we get girls on the stage like other male revues do but there is also an opportunity for audience members to get lap dances from the performers, or the performers will move into the crowd and give the crowd lap dances and they can tip the performers with hunk bucks. It’s a very interactive show. It’s funny and it’s flirtatious. That whole combination is what sets us aside.
We also try new things everyday. We are using technology. We just filmed the whole show in virtual reality. You have 2D, 3D, and now you have virtual reality. We did lap dances as well. You can go on the Aussie Hunks YouTube and you can watch lap dances live that we filmed in virtual reality. It feels like you are actually there getting a lap dance from Simon, Benny, or John. That was really cool. I’ve never done anything like that either. You can get that anytime of the day. You can go online and get a lap dance from Chad 24/7.
Just to summarize, the show is very tasteful, it’s funny, it’s interactive, and we have a lot of amazingly skilled handsome performers. I think the combination of all that is why we are the number one rated Yelp show in Vegas—male revue show. 93% of our reviewers have given us 5 stars. We have a 5-star rating on Yelp. We are a gay-friendly show. We are all straight, but we support the LGBT community. We welcome everyone at our shows.
LL: You guys also mingle with the audience after the show.
Aussie Hunks: Yes, we do. We all love to sit down and have a chat with our audience after the show and see what they enjoyed.
LL: Is there a difference in the dance scene in America compared to Australia?
Aussie Hunks: I was dancing in Australia for about four years and there is a bit of a difference. It’s Las Vegas, so people come here to party. It’s definitely more of an upbeat kind of crowd—louder and more outgoing. As far as performing wise, it’s not really too much different other than a bigger stage compared to Australia. It’s Las Vegas, so you have to put in everything that you have. At the end of the day, our performance is always 100% and all that we care about is that everybody just has a good time and a lot of fun. We put in everything because that’s what we like to do. We like people to enjoy themselves and have a good time. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about—it’s entertainment. They come here to see the Aussie Hunks and back home it’s just hunks.
LL: When you go home you are demoted to just hunks.
Aussie Hunks: Yeah, exactly. Americans love Aussies, so when they come here they are, sort of, fascinated about us. They have all sorts of questions. Vegas is very much like a full-time mating season. After the show, they can go online and download a certificate that says that they had a successful mate.
LL: You guys also do a lot of charity work.
Aussie Hunks: Yeah, we do. We work with a charity called Opportunity Village. I know myself and Simon, and a few of the other guys back home as well, we used to teach for a lot of charities for special needs children back home. When we got here, we wanted to keep that up. We really liked doing that and giving back to the community. We didn’t really want to lose that aspect of ourselves and we thought why not do it with the show. We often go to Opportunity Village and teach some dance classes. We have a lot of fun with it and watch their performances. We also donate our photo money that we get at the end of the night. We donate some of the proceeds to Opportunity Village, as well.
LL: What are some of your favorite Australian bands?
Aussie Hunks: What So Not. My favorite Australian group is my brother’s group called Side Project. They are an awesome hip-hop group and it’s not just because he’s my brother. They are pretty cool.
Aussie Hunks website: http://www.aussiehunks.com/
Aussie Hunks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AussieHunksLV
Aussie Hunks on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aussiehunksvegas/
Opportunity Village website: http://www.opportunityvillage.org/
Photos Courtesy of Anderson Group Public Relations