CHRIS CIOMPI

"I want it to be for the gay community, but I want it to be mixed—I don’t want to exclude anybody, and I think it’s much more interesting to have a big mix of people.”

Whether he’s jogging shirtless in Runyon Canyon or getting his groove on at his new lounge, i candy, Los Angeles’ out and hot Tyler Robuck is working to make his life better and more fulfilling. Oh, and he’s doing it all while TV cameras follow him around 24/7 for a new reality show coming soon on Logo, called Open Bar. He’s thankful for his success, happy in his life and open to finding love with that one special guy—we’ll drink to that!

‘Sup, Tyler?
Hey. You’re not going to do like a reality show and edit me crazy, are you? No. Me? Let’s just talk about you and what you’re doing. So…Tyler Robuck, 34, originally from…? Los Angeles. Northridge.

And you got your MBA at USC, right?
Yes.

Are you a [USC] Trojan fan?
I’m a huge Trojan fan.

Is everything maroon and gold?
Yes, it is. I’m a huge, huge fan. During football season I love going to the games.

Oh, ‘cause you were a football player in high school?
Uh-huh. It’s so much fun.

Did you play in college?
No. I had several scholarship offers but when I went to Santa Barbara for the weekend—to visit my brother who went there before me—I was like, “This is it.” And they had dropped their football program up there.

Okay, so you’re finishing your MBA, you’re 30, you’re in L.A. What do you want to do?
You know, the idea for opening the bar hit me one day so quickly—if it could be pulled off, what a fun thing it would be. Since I was just coming out, I wanted to immerse myself in the West Hollywood community. It’s a big project, a big challenge, which I like doing, and I thought, “if it works out, well what a cool job!”

Is that when you came out, right when you were finishing your MBA?
Yeah, I pretty much came out to everyone at that time. But, to be honest, I was still living in the Valley. Technically, I’d come out, but I wasn’t like living, you know; I wasn’t really dating or going out that much. I’d go out to West Hollywood once in a while, but I’d really stick around my straight friends mostly. You know, I kind of made a decision to immerse myself much more in the city and live as a gay man.

So, when did you come over the hill to live in WeHo?
This past February.

And, how’s it going for you over on this side?
It’s going good—I mean, besides being so busy I don’t have time to tie my shoe. It’s not good for dating when you’re exposed to so many cute boys without any time to date one. It’s like forced and restricted window-shopping. Well, at least it’s nice window-shopping. I mean, there are a lot of cute boys in West Hollywood. Just don’t fall prey to that old saying that it’s a town of tens looking for elevens. I’ve never heard that saying, but it really does apply here.

Okay, so, your bar—i candy—has just opened. How was the opening party?
The grand opening was unbelievable. We had to hire a fire marshal, in fact. We actually hired one to do fire watch. You couldn’t move!

And camera crews were following you around everywhere?
They always follow me around. [Laughs.] So really, this has been a big commitment to do this show for Logo. This has been a huge commitment. It’s been about three months actually.

Do you have any idea how many hours of footage they have?
I think they’re going to do 100 to 1, someone said. 100 hours shot for every one hour of show. Isn’t that crazy?

Well how many hours do they follow you around per day?
When we were really in the middle of all the shooting, they’d follow me from morning to night. They’d follow me from nine in the morning…they’d come over to my house… And wake you up, like, “Hello!”Usually I get up and exercise in the morning, go for a run. Sometimes, I run in the canyons, and they would go with me. They had to get someone who was really in shape.

Yeah, if you’re running in the canyon, you’re working. It’s not like a little walk in the park.
Exactly, the cameraman got a workout. There’s good cruising there too, in the canyon. There are really cute boys walking their dog in the canyon. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been running down the hill and been like, “Ooh, I should stop…”

[Laughs.] All right, so the bar’s open a week, and now…Are they done filming?
This week they’ll be done.

When does the show come out?
Originally, it was going to be late August or September, but I guess they’ve seen the first episode and they really like it. They’re really getting behind it now. I think they want to move it up.

So what is the show really about?
It’s kind of about my emergence, you know—coming out and really living down here and immersing myself in the community. That with the backdrop of creating and opening this brand new restaurant/lounge for the community.

Now that the show is over and the bar is open, do you think you’ll have more time to “tie your shoe”?
[laughs] I think once things get more…once we get an idea of what the flow is going to be like, which nights are good and which are slower, I’ll be able to plan my life more.

And time for maybe a boy?
Possibly a boyfriend, I’d love that. Boyfriends are good. I’d actually really love that. And you wouldn’t have to plan your free time trying to find one. You can just do things. Right? Traveling, being together. You don’t always have to go out and shop.

So, you’re boyfriend-minded?
Yes. Pretty much. But you know what they say: “When you look you never find.” But, I admit, I’m really open to it.

Really? Who is this boy?
Um, I think he just walked by right there [indicating outside the bar] as a matter of fact. [calling] Hello! Boyfriend! [laughs] I don’t know who he is. He’s out there somewhere though.

Do you have a picture of this boy in your mind?
No, I really don’t. The people I’ve dated have been different from one another.

No one type?
You know, I’m really attracted to creativity in people. Passion. I like people who have something different going on all the time. And I like passion.

Passionate about what they do?
I love passion. It doesn’t matter what it’s centered around; I love to see passion in people.

Well, I’m sure that once the show comes out you’ll have some applications for boyfriend. Should they include pictures?
Seriously, I don’t even know what to expect. It’s so new to me, the whole show part of it, even magazines. I’ve been so business-minded and working on this, and all of a sudden you have all this other stuff. It’s new. I’m very pleased to be able to do this stuff.

Why did you decide to go this route? Why not just open a bar? What did this show add?
Obviously, it will probably be good for the business, publicity-wise, but I also really wanted to send a message about what was important to me.

What kind of message?
Well, there were two messages I really wanted to send. And one’s really a message of acceptance, to kind of try to break stereotypes a little bit. I wanted to show people that it’s not all stereotypes. Not all gay people are hairdressers—not that that’s bad—but that’s one part of the story, one end of the spectrum in the gay community and on the other, you have me. And there are plenty of people like me too, and we have all shapes and sizes in between. And the other message I wanted to send was to parents. That so many parents don’t know—it’s not taught in any parenting book or anywhere that your kid might be gay and how to deal with it, and how to be accepting, and how to help them. And it’s not that my parents weren’t accepting. They were more than accepting, but I still think it’s something they knew to say, “It’s going to be okay.”

Did you film with your parents too?
Yeah. My dad flew out, my mom, my brothers. To me it’s so important, and it seems so archaic. If you’re a parent, and there’s, let’s say, a fifteen percent chance your kid is going to be gay, wouldn’t you want to help him if he is? At least put it out there? And whether your kid is gay or not, just teach him to accept all people.

Good goal, I’d say.
Thanks.

Well, you’re over here now, not only in town, but you own this bar that is not exclusively gay, right?
I want it to be for the gay community, but I want it to be mixed—I don’t want to exclude anybody, and I think it’s much more interesting to have a big mix of people. Well, I think that might be our next step as a community—to not separate ourselves so much, you know? Just kind of mesh more. I agree. When I first came out, I didn’t want to leave all of my straight friends. I didn’t want to have to leave and not be able to go places with them too, you know? I didn’t want there to be this line between my gay life and my straight friends.

Right. You wanted one life.
Yeah. That’s kinda what i candy represents. I think in the past, gay bars have been kind of dingy—where people can hide out a little bit. I don’t want to do that.

Impressive. Cheers to you, Tyler.
Thanks.

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