Reichen has written a book (Here’s What We’ll Say) and dabbled in acting (Dante’s Cove on Here! TV and the off-Broadway play My Big Gay Italian Wedding) and has now circled back to reality television as one of the stars of the new Logo series The A List which premieres tonight at 10 p.m. (EST).
He talked to Socialite Life about the new show and how it came about. Here is an excerpt:
SL: How did you end up getting involved with The A List?
Reichen: Actually, it was a year ago in October, I was asked if I was willing to move to New York to do this show and at the time I couldn’t just take off from Los Angeles, so I said “no”. And then, this year I put on my Facebook that I was moving to New York to do an off-Broadway play and the same casting director saw it and asked me if I would come in and do an interview for the same show, because they still hadn’t cast it yet and they still wanted to do it. So I came in and they put me on tape for Logo and then, three days later, they called me and said they’re going forward with this show and they wanted me. It’s pretty cool.
SL: What is it about New York that is so appealing?
Reichen: Well, you know I always said up until this past April, when I moved here to do the play, that I loved New York City to visit, but I could never live there. And then, it’s crazy, once you get an apartment here and you have a job here, and you feel a little settled and safe, it’s amazing (laughs). You walk out your door and everything’s at your fingertips. You can have anything you want, meet anyone you want at any hour of the day. There’s so much energy here and people are so eager here to talk and get to know you and exchange ideas and I think people are very open here, compared to LA. People in LA are very nice but I think there’s a lot of pressure in LA – and I kind of fell under this too – to always say everything in your life is just wonderful because having everything in your life being wonderful is what you depend on putting out there to make sure you keep getting work (laughs). Where here, I find more people are open about the everyday s**t that goes on in their lives.
SL: A lot of the first episode revolves around your work on the play (My Big Gay Italian Wedding). Was that a fun experience for you?
Reichen: It was a lot of pressure, but it was amazing. I know the show is probably going to show my weakest moments, because that’s good TV, but I had to learn how to dance and learn to sing some of these songs and I ended up pulling through to the point where people told me, “Wow, you’re good at this and you can really do this.” It’s cool to have that feeling of accomplishment.
