Davey Wavey, the gay YouTube sensation, will embark on the inaugural Davey Wavey World Tour, hitting eight cities worldwide in September, filming videos at every stop.
"I'm super excited, I can't wait," he said. "It's going to be absolute madness in the best way possible."
The Davey Wavey World Tour will hit Montreal, London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney"my way to give back to the fans and thanking them for allowing me to have this amazing career."
Fans voted on the eight cities, including Singapore, where male same-sex sexual activity is illegal. "We're filming a particularly great project in Singapore where homosexual acts are still illegal. I just hope that I don't get arrested. [But that's] all the more reason to visit and do something amazing."
Davey Wavey never envisioned himself as the cute, always-smiling, almost-always-shirtless YouTube video sensation, a job he's done for the past six years and full-time for almost three years.
In fact, years ago, he started an online blog as something of a virtual diary. "I never intended for people to follow along," he admitted.
But then, as YouTube was becoming more and more popular, he thought it would be "fun" to add video content from his daily life. Still, no one watched it, and Davey Wavey said he was "fine with that."
Things changed with his eighth videoabout his neighbor in Toronto, and how Davey Wavey caught him masturbating. "It became hugely popular and then people started following along on my journey," Davey Wavey said. "Truth be told, I was initially put off by the attention, and turned off the comments on my YouTube videos."
Davey Wavey found his calling, quicklywith a strong, wide-reaching worldwide fan base. To date, the 30-year-old Davey Waveyand no, that's not his real namehas filmed close to 700 videos, with more than 150 million video views.
"Over time I've realized that I have truly fallen into a great and amazing opportunity," he said.
Davey Wavey is a Rhode Island native who now splits time between Rhode Island and Los Angeles. He is single, gay and living online through the wonders of the Internet. Five years ago, his job didn't even exist. Now his laid-back life is talking to the world about gay sex, lesbian sex, and more. Humor is commonplace on his commonly five-minute, innuendo-filled videos.
His career is a testament to being driven by your passion and doing what you love, he says. "If you can do all that in a way that helps other people, even in some small way, like bringing a smile to their face, than you can't possibly fail," he said.
"I talk about sex just as much as everyone else thinks about it. I just don't seem to have the same filter."
Davey Wavey is a video-producing machinemore than 100 videos a year. He posts a new video on his main YouTube channel each week and also a new video on his second channel. The main channel videos are usually a bit fancier and require more time to produce. Some take a few hours, some take months, he said. Once a month, he also posts on his fitness channel.
"I guess the biggest challenge is continuing to create content that's new, fresh and interesting. I want to create content that challenges myself and that challenges my audience. That's how you stay relevant," he said.
Davey Wavey's favorite videos aren't usually the ones that the public clamors, perhaps the opposite. "Usually, my favorite videos are the ones that don't get as many views," he said. "I tend to like the videos that are more creative and more inspirational, but people are more interested in hearing about penises. I try to strike a balance."
The all-time most popular Davey Wavey video tells of his guilty pleasures. His most popular video this year is one in which real lesbians react to lesbian porn. "The truth is, lesbian porn is made for men, not lesbians," Davey Wavey said. "It's very entertaining to see real lesbians call out the actors in the film. In the first few weeks, [that video] received several million views.
"The reality is, there's nothing any person could do or say that will appeal to all people in all places. Some people love my videos. Some people hate my videos. Some gay people love my videos, some gay people hate them. I get a full spectrum of responses. It's part of the deal, and people definitely let me know how they feel."
Davey Wavey said the video that has drawn the most responses was titled, "Things NOT to Ask a Gay Guy," which has generated about 25,000 responses.
His first-ever video was "a terrible, pixelated video about my impending move to Toronto. In it, I describe my webcam as a fancy gadget. I had no idea what I was getting myself into," he said.
Through YouTube, Davey Wavey has landed fame and recognition, regardless if he wanted it early on or even today. So airplane flights often end posing for a picture or two with flight attendants.
"It's a great feeling knowing that the content you create is helping people," he said. "I try to infuse most of my videos with a good, uplifting message, even if I have to package it together with some sexuality, humor or fun. At the end of the day, I think there's a real value in people seeing an openly gay man live his life apologetically."
Well, he does regret, or at least he learned the hard way, that he needs to crop out his face when sending nude photos on Grindr, he said, laughing. "Otherwise, it's pretty much all sunshine, rainbows and roses," being Davey Wavey, who grew up in a small Rhode Island town, went to Catholic high school and college, and spent the first 22 years of his life "learning about how gay people were going to hell," he said. "I think a lot of that motivates me to do what I do today. In fact, after college, I went on to work for the Family Equality Council and advocated for LGBT families. Then I did environmental activism with another organization."
Davey Wavey said he was attracted to other guys as early as age 6, but didn't know that it was called being gay until he was in middle school. He came out to his friends at age 16, and his parents at 17. "My parents weren't thrilled to learn that I'm gay, [but], over time they have come to appreciate it."
Davey Wavey is a fitness junky, overcoming his overweight childhood years, which included struggles with eating disorders in middle school. "When I first started working out, it was because I wanted to look like the Abercrombie & Fitch models at the mall," he said. "I didn't start out with the most noble of intentions, but over time I came to realize that the non-physical benefits of exercise and a healthy lifestyle far outweigh the superficial transformations, and was hooked."
He eventually received a personal training certificate, and uses his online platform to share his fitness passion and, in the process, hopefully help others transform their lives, he said.
So why are most of your videos done shirtless?
"I'm almost always naked. Clothes are uncomfortable for me and they feel unnatural," he said. "We're born naked. I think the real question shouldn't be why am I [nearly] naked, but rather, who do so many people feel like they have to put clothes on?"