Australian-based performer, model, and world-renowned social media influencer Will Parfitt chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about his journey in the contemporary entertainment scene, the digital age, and life during the quarantine in Melbourne.
A London-born performer, Parfitt has been living in Melbourne since 2015. He is known worldwide for being a doppelganger of Channing Tatum thanks to his uncanny good looks, and he performs for the Australian revue Magic Men Australia. “It’s a good company to work for. It is getting bigger and bigger now with social media blowing up,” he said.
“TikTok has made the Channing Tatum comparisons go even further, I think every second comment on my TikTok is Channing Tatum,” he admitted. “It’s a bit of a compliment so I can’t complain,” he said with a sweet laugh.
On being a performer in the digital age, at a time when streaming, technology and social media are prevalent, he said, “I’m trying to adapt to doing virtual shows rather than doing them in-person, so it has been a little weird to adapt to but we are getting there slowly.”
If he were to look back in a rearview mirror over the last five years, he reflected that he would see a lot of growth. “The whole performing thing has come along quite far,” he said. “I used to perform for a small little club and now I am performing for an audience of thousands of people.”
On life during the quarantine/lockdown, he said, “Melbourne has had it the worst out of all of the states here. We are now waiting for Melbourne and Australia to get out of this lockdown, so it feels like things are going backward. Hopefully, next year, we will get out and start doing some international tours as well.”
“I’ve always wanted to travel to the U.S. It would be cool to travel to America next year,” he added.
He acknowledged that he does see a silver lining in the pandemic. “It was good to transition to social media as a way to bring things to our fans during the pandemic,” he said. “It was great to do things online and now I get to do video and birthday messages, which are coming in consistently every week, and now I have calendars as well. That’s a silver lining that has come out of this.”
On staying in top-notch physical shape, he said with a chuckle, “It’s actually hard during the lockdown to not start snacking. I’ve been trying to eat healthy and stick to my diet. I do have a little bit of a home workout going on, so I stay in shape doing that and it’s good motivation.”
Regarding the title of the current chapter of his life, he responded accordingly, “Lockdown.”
On his proudest professional moments, he said, “I’ve done a few TV appearances, I’ve gone viral in quite a few magazines and articles and getting a residency in Australia was a big moment in my life as well, that was a goal I was striving for the last five or six years.”
He is a firm believer that it is the adverse times in his life that have molded him and defined him into the person that he is today.
For young and aspiring performers, he said, “You need to stay consistent, really. It is easy to give up what you start once you come across your first few hurdles but you need to stay consistent with what you do. Keep working hard.”
When asked which track and field event he would do if given the chance, he said, “I would probably do long-distance running because the training for that would be so good. That’s mostly about your mindset, endurance, and pushing yourself to the next level, and I am all about that.”
In swimming, he listed the “freestyle” as his personal favorite stroke. “Front crawl, for sure,” he said.
Parfitt defined the word success as “reaching the goals that you set.” “Just striving for those goals each day, you might reach them,” he said. “As long as you are striving for a goal that is what success is.”
For his fans and supporters, he said, “A massive ‘thank you’ to the fans. Their support means a lot. I remain grateful to everybody since, without them, I wouldn’t be able to get to where I am.”
To learn more about performer, model, and social influencer Will Parfitt, follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
