Red and Ready in Night Life featuring Seth Fornea

If there are two things about Seth Fornea that separate him from the rest of the men on the nightlife scene, the second is his hair color. It's red, really red. Not just some streaks of ginger-brown strands in his beard, not a deliberate, dyed affectation that makes a fashion statement. None of that.

The former chemist from Louisiana, the kid with the ever-present freckles and sunburns, the current COLT model and 2015 nude calendar boy -�and probably the most recognizable redhead gay-man's fantasy this side of Ginger Grant, Fornea's got a head so purely red it practically introduces itself before he does.

The second thing about Fornea that separates him from the rest of the men making their mark on the club floor, is his wisdom in a business that doesn't often promote brains over brawn.

"When I scan a room, I don't automatically gravitate to the guy with the best abs," says Fornea, on the art of go-go dancing and attracting an audience. "I usually find a face or a smile that's sexy. The dancers who make the most money aren't necessarily the most ripped. They smile. They have some kind of personality. There's only so long you're going to stare at a ripped guy with a bad personality. You have to be ready to interact with people when you work."

Red Light Special

Anyone who's witnessed Fornea in action has experienced the affect of his magnetism. Yes, he's the go-go boy, the fitness boy, the pin-up boy, the muscle boy in a jockstrap. But he's also the guy with a smile so engaging and non-threatening you can't help but be pulled in. If anything, he's the anti-body, rebelling against the club-culture attitude of the 80's and 90's. Fornea's pure charisma easily eclipses many of the dancers who do assume you'll find their features irresistible, a talent, or a gift that has kept him above his admitted limitations.

"People either like redheads or they do not like redheads," says Fornea, in a tone of one who's fully aware that nothing in the business of beauty is personal. "It's a unique look that doesn't have a broad appeal. I might have two guys in the bar who really like redheads, and they're going to tip me well. It's not going to be 90 percent at the bar. It's harder for me to make tips than someone who has an across the broad appeal."

And yet he works, and works all the time. And he's not complaining.

Fornea moved to New York last May, from North Carolina, with his partner, Jared Bradford, also a dancer, in what sounds like a plot out of a slightly-more-gay version of "That Girl" or a happy ending re-telling of "A Star Is Born."

"It's a dream come true. I've never lived anywhere I liked more," says Fornea, before joking that he should probably make it through a New York winter before elaborating. He also didn't come here just for the sights.

"I wanted regular work," says Fornea, who dances about four nights a week. "I wanted a more convenient airport to fly out of. I wanted more modeling opportunities. I wanted an agency. I wanted to take acting class. I wanted to be in the epicenter of that lifestyle."

Seth Fornea Opes Up... Life on the Box

Fornea still travels for work, usually to White Parties, Pride events, and wherever the parties are happening, and whenever the season is right, but if you're expecting a tale of fabulous orgies and drug till dawn affairs, you're probably reading the wrong piece. In the New Nightlife world, it's not cool, or smart, to brag about being bad.

"It really depends on the night," say Fornea on combining the business of pleasure with his own enjoyment. "You have to pick and choose when you want to have work and fun. Some nights I totally cut lose, some nights I treat it as a job. If it's a party that I would go to on my own, most likely I will cut lose."

Fornea has, and will continue to, elaborate on his open relationship with Bradford, which, in an odd twist of the times, now causes controversy in our divided gay community.

"People that are monogamous definitely do judge people who are in open relationships," say Fornea. "They say that it's not a real relationship. That we are just friends with benefits. We would much rather have an honest relationship. If he [Bradford] says 'Oh My God, I just met someone and I want him to sit on my face,' I would much rather have him say that than have someone who'd lie. I'd rather have a soul mate."

And then there are the guys who, no matter the decade, think doing what you love is a waste of time, an often hypocritical criticism as they are most often the biggest fans of men and sex and dancers and sex and gay life equals hot men and sex.

"The assumption from the masses is that someone is go-go dancing because they couldn't cut it in real life," says Fornea, still in a matter-of-fact, upbeat tone. "He's wasting his life on a box. He used to be a chemist ... people think dancers are dumb, uneducated, don't have a plan for the future, can't do anything else."

Seth Fornea, the guy who could have been a chemist, who could have dyed his hair to look more like those other guys, and who could have made up a story about his fairy-tale perfect monogamous relationship, seems much more concerned with letting it all hang out.

"People think a career is so important that they forget about making a life. They spend thirty, forty years, the best of their years, doing something they don't like, the plan being they'll have fun after they retire. I had to do something that made me happy."

Now there's an ending that makes us all get off.