Vancouver's Don't Quit Your Gay Job

Last week I met up with Sean Horlor of the new OUTtv series, Don’t Quit Your Gay Job. Sean wears many hats (and sometimes a boa or two) in the new show which pits him against Rob Easton as they try their hand at various jobs in the Vancouver area.

Think of it as Dirty Jobs meets Kenny and Spenny but in Vancouver and featuring careers carried out by those in the GLBT community or just jobs that look super fun to try out – if even for an afternoon.

Don’t Quit You Gay Job premiered at the end of August and airs every second Monday on OUTtv. In the premiere episode our hosts stripped and droves buses — but not in that order. “I can’t believe Coast Mountain Bus Company actually let us do that,” said Horlor who praised the bus company for their enthusiastic cooperation.

“They put us through super-condensed bus driver school. It’s usually 30 days and we did it in 3 hours.” Driving around the yard Horlor admits he was “terrified and white-knuckled the whole time.” They were then judged on their performance by the professionals themselves (both in stripping and bus driving) and a winner of the two was named.

Sean Horlor moved from Victoria, BC to Vancouver in 2005 to pursue a career in the film and television industries. The published poet has a background in writing and always thought he’d move into the realm of script-writing. However last spring he and best friend Rob Easton came up with the idea for DQYGJ. Easton is no stranger to the production business and had some ties with OUTtv, who worked with the pair to develop the show. Horlor said it evolved from a travel show concept to, “Hey wouldn’t it be fun to try all those crazy jobs that we’ve always wanted to try?”. He added, “How often do you get to go out and act on things like I wonder what it would be like to be a stripper?.”

With the first season complete and airing this fall and winter on OUTtv I asked Sean what job he’d like to try his hand at in a future episode. He told me that he’s dying to do backup dancing — so to all those dance centres and theatre groups out there, this would be some great promo.

You can watch Don’t Quit Your Gay Job tonight on OUTtv (Shaw Vancouver channel 100) where the duo saddle up and go horseback riding. You can follow @SeanHorlor on Twitter his their latest updates or join their Facebook fan page.