Do you even tease, bro? Locky Brownlie strips down the Brolesque world

This is a story about a boy named Locky.

Lockhart "Locky" Brownlie is an Australian dancer, actor, choreographer, producer, and creative director who's traveled the world with pop stars like Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Kesha, and Erika Jayne. Following his Broadway debut in the smash hit musical Wicked, he's appeared on TV shows like Glee, True Blood, RuPaul's Drag Race, and in both seasons of Palm Royale on Apple TV+. In recent years, Brownlie has also been cultivating a world of his own.

Between Heated Rivalry-themed events with go-go boys, a XXX-MAS show featuring a Santa that makes the gays go naughty, and a new production where "destiny meets desire," Brownlie is adding new layers to the art form of burlesque through a dance revue show titled Brolesque.

In 2026, Balcon Salon — a venue in Hell's Kitchen, New York City — welcomes a new production of Brolesque: Fortunes of Love, an all-male burlesque show that invites audiences to leave their love lives up to the cards. Every Thursday at 10 p.m., this weekly revue includes mysticism, striptease, cabaret, and contemporary choreography produced and created by Locky Brownlie.

Each act of Brolesque: Fortunes of Love includes an archetype drawn from tarot cards, such as "The Lover," "The Warrior," "The Devil," and more. Audience members can participate in flirtatious games — palm readings and truth-or-dare-style interactions — along with a soundtrack that fuses classic hits and original music.

Fresh off his recent run alongside Violet Chachki and Gottmik for The Knockout Tour, Brownlie chats with Out about his upbringing in Tasmania, moving to the U.S. through Wicked, getting accidentally caught up in the middle of that infamous Katy Perry vs. Taylor Swift drama, rehearsing with Britney Spears for the Britney: Domination residency in Las Vegas that never got to premiere, and creating a platform like Brolesque for queer dancers and LGBTQ+ audiences to explore the art of burlesque through a different lens.

Out: Let's start with it the basics. What's your story with dance?

I started dancing at the age of three, four. My sisters danced, so I kind of went along to those lessons and was just moving and grooving in the background. It kind of snowballed from there.

I'm originally from Tasmania, in Australia, so I'm from a very small island. I was obviously obsessed with dancing my whole youth, growing up, but there wasn't a lot of exposure for the big dance opportunities in Tasmania.

I was about to ask about the accent.

Yeah! [Laughs.] Australian or Tasmanian, as I like to tell everyone. I moved to Sydney when I was 18, and I started working pretty quickly. I was an original cast member in Wicked, the musical, in Australia. It came to Australia after it had had its Broadway success.

How were you not Fiyero?!

I wish. I love that confidence! [Laughs.] But no, just a regular dance ensemble member. But that's where I met a lot of the Broadway creatives, who all came down to set up the show. I met Marc Platt, who basically, you know, runs Universal. And I was introduced to these big, big people. When I decided to leave that show in Australia, I wanted to go off and do something more.

I wanted to see what the international market would be like, so I reached out to some of these connections that I'd made through that process in Australia. That's how I was able to get myself an agent, and got myself a visa, and kind of just snowballed into that next part of my career, which was moving to Los Angeles at age 20.

And it's kind of crazy to think back of it, now. I was so young, and not scared; not afraid of anything. I just kind of like went with this dream and this idea.

I also moved to the U.S. alone and around that age, and I think about it all the time, too. That unshakeable confidence. [Laughs.] But we were so young.

Yes, totally! I remember emailing like the USCIS, asking all these things. Like, "No, I need this like done now. No, I need my passport." Like, so confident. And now I second-guess every email I ever send, you know what I mean? It's kind of crazy.

Oh my god, yes. I could have an entire parallel conversation about that. But tell me: How did those early years in the U.S. go?

So I got to the States and, pretty soon — luckily, or I guess right timing — I started working with Katy Perry. I toured with her for five years. I also worked with Taylor Swift and did her Red Tour. And, yes, there was drama with Taylor and Katy, unfortunately. I also worked with JLo, and toured with JLo…

Wait… Wait. Hold up. You know I'll have a question about that, but can you answer it?

I mean, I'm sure my NDA is over by now. We're friends, anyway.

[Editor's note: A years-long feud between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, revealed in 2014, included a few subtle jabs in the media. The pop stars have since buried the hatchet. At the time, however, it was acknowledged that these issues were about the scheduling of certain dancers who had accompanied them on separate tours.]

Were you one of the dancers who hopped over from one tour to another… and accidentally started that media feud?

Well, yeah. [Laughs.] It was me and two other dancers that were originally Katy Perry dancers. And then, you know… Like anyone else, we needed a job, and so we were lucky enough to go and work with Taylor. And then, unfortunately, that job was coming to an end. And Katy reached out like, "Hey, I have another opportunity for you."

So, you know, we decided — as you could — to go back over to another two years' worth of work with someone else. It was just crazy that we were put in the middle of the drama.

Thank you for your service to pop culture. Thank you for being iconic.

It still blows my mind because I was so involved in it, and it was so frightening at the time. You know, we had legals from both sides being like, "You can't answer any emails. You can't answer any phone calls. Let us figure this out. We'll deal with this." It kind of terrified us. I think a lot about it. That was happening in… 2013? I would've been 23, 24.

That's a really young age for when it all happened.

Yeah, this whole thing is happening around us, and we had nothing to do with it, too. I mean, in our contracts, we were able to leave the contract if we put our 30 days in. That was literally put in our contracts. And I actually remember, early on, making sure there was some type of clause in my Taylor Swift contract because I did want to go back to Katy if she was to come back and say, "Hey, I would like to have you back."

I knew that was where my journey was going. I wanted to jump back onto Katy's tour if there was the opportunity, so we did everything right. We went and spoke to their management. Unfortunately, [Swift's] management [at the time] was her mother. So when she relayed the information back to Taylor… Taylor was getting close with us, so she was sad to be losing us.

It was just so messy, and so wild, that we were like caught in the middle of it. We were just trying to survive ourselves; you know what I mean? Like, I'm just trying to figure out what's my next journey so I can pay my rent.

Which other stars did work with over the years?

I did JLo's It's My Party Tour, which was her 50th birthday tour. I was part of the Britney: Domination show, too, which was going to be the new Britney Spears show in Vegas. Her second one, that got canceled midway through, which was another drama and a massive moment.

Huh… It's almost like we've found a common thread in nearly every major pop music drama of the 2010s, Locky.

No, no, it's not me! [Laughs.]

What was your experience dancing with Britney and preparing for that residency that never got to premiere?

We were in rehearsals for eight weeks and had the show basically created. We were coming back from a Christmas break, and would've probably only had a few weeks before we got into production in Vegas. And Britney was in rehearsals with us, we saw her multiple times. She was there setting up the show and learning choreography.

We literally saw the snowball of everything unraveling: From the emotions that she was showing, to what the creative directors were showing, to her father being called in. All of these things just unraveling as we're trying to rehearse "…Baby One More Time." In the corner, there's all this drama going on.

The cast was 15 boys and like two girls; we were all just obsessed with Britney. That was, like, our dream job. To see it all play out in the way that it did, we were all so upset for her. And then it made us go, "We really shouldn't be doing this job because it's not a healthy work environment for her." It was a very sad moment, actually.

But at the same time, I mean, I had wanted to move to America because of Britney. I wanted to be a backup dancer for Britney. To get the chance to work with her, to just at least see her in person, was pretty iconic for me as a young little boy from Tassie, you know?

Where did the idea for Brolesque come from?

In 2023, I wanted to start moving my career into more of the production side of things, like choreography, producing, creative directing. I've spent a long time working in the gay scene, gay clubs, and working for drag queens, so that felt like a way for me to create in that space. I have a lot of friends that own nightclubs and venues in that world, and that's how it started off.

I approached my friend who owns a bar in OC and I was like, "Hey Luke, can I create a drag show like we have in Australia? You know, where we've got like three queens, and costume changes, and backup dancers, and props, and make it this over-the-top creative direction type of show?" So I started working on my little thing and aesthetic. But he was like, "I don't want another drag show." So I went, "Okay, how about I make it an all-boys show? You know, taking influence from a Magic Mike-style show, but from also the burlesque scene?"

Broadway Bares is a big influence in my life; I've been a part of that show for a few years. So I wanted to make something that was a bit more regular for dancers on their off time — if they're not touring with big stars, or in movies, or whatever — that they have an opportunity to become the star, and be the lead role, and have this like side hustle gig, you know? Especially for like the LGBTQ+ dancers, in our industry, I feel like we don't have a lot of good, quality, production stuff. You either are a go-go boy or you're doing some smaller things here and there.

So that's kind of how it started. It's obviously really just snowballed into me creating this whole brand now. Brolesque, for me, is a brand that lets you express yourself, and be comfortable with your sexuality, and show that on stage… But also touching with your femininity, and mixing the masculine with the feminine. It's become this whole expression now. It's something that I want to produce and have people connect to.

What's the format of the show? Are you always in it, or does that change?

I've set the show to actually keep running even if I'm out doing other jobs. So I come in and out of the show when, you know, I'm touring or doing travel-type shows. But I set up every show, choreograph them all, do all the creative, do all the costuming, do all the music edits, do all the marketing.

Wait, you make the costumes?

I commission Amazon to order them to me, and then I get them embellished. [Laughs.] I feel like that's the new age.

Brolesque is mostly based in New York, but is it expanding elsewhere?

So we're based in New York with my weekly residency shows, at Balcon Salon every single Thursday. It's fun, campy, all of those fun things. I wanna make sure we have this kind of staple version of the show that's based in New York. And then we go off and travel to different gay locations. We've done Wilton Manors, Fire Island, P-Town… We've definitely done some great places. We're based a bit more on the East Coast, but if anyone wants to book us, we travel anywhere. [Laughs.]

The Chippendales revue show has been around forever. Now there's also Magic Mike Live, and even the Pit Crew dancers within RuPaul's Drag Race Live. How do you see Brolesque fitting into this wave of live shows with all-male performers?

Yeah, I feel like burlesque — and that style of show — is everywhere right now. It's so influenced in so many different shows in pop artists. Crazy Horse is a huge influence for so many different pop girlies. It was a big reason why I wanted to create Brolesque. I was like, "Why isn't there something like this for our community? Why can't we watch a show that's tasteful, classy, and you're seeing skin, and you're seeing beauty, and you get to sit in the audience and literally just drool over these performers?"

And, obviously, in a good way — not in a super over-sexualized way, but in a form that you would if you were to go to see Crazy Horse. You're like, "Oh my god, that girl is gorgeous, that skin looks so soft." You know what I mean? That was why I wanted to create it. Of all the communities, the queer community should have something like this, that's just top-notch production, good, tasteful, campy. It still plays to our very campy background, and it's just fun.

That's how it all came together, and I do feel like it's evolving. I do see a lot of like straight girlies come see our show. We're wearing a thong and they're like, "Oh my god, yes! I love seeing booty cheeks! That's hot!" They're still so into it because they get to look at the whole physique, and they love to be able to see that. You know, Magic Mike and Chippendales, they take a top off and they've got jeans on, right?

It was actually funny, at one of our shows recently, we pulled up someone from the audience to get a lap dance, right? Well, he ended up being this straight guy who was brought in with this bunch of girls! [Laughs.] And he was such a team player. He just sat there, got a lap dance from one of the dancers, got a T-shirt… It was all smiles, all cheers, you know?

Last question! If you could choose a celebrity to attend a Brolesque show, and you were in charge of giving that person a lap dance, who would that be?

Ooh. Who would that be?! Oh my god, that's really hard. Do I want a male or do I want a female? Obviously, a male, right? Well, I think Ryan Phillippe is absolutely gorgeous. I would love to give him a lap dance. Consider it manifested. Ryan Phillippe, if you're reading this: Balcon Salon, Hell's Kitchen, Thursday evenings. You know what to do.

For more information about the Brolesque shows at Balcon Salon in New York City, follow @bro.lesque and Locky Brownlie (@lockybrownlie) on Instagram.

Starting in the coming months, watch new performances of Brolesque: Fortunes of Love hosted by the legendary Phillip Evans and featuring acrobatic stunts from cast members Felipe Ocampo, Christopher Patterson Rosso, Gabriel Reyes, and Jason Carroll.

Keep scrolling to meet the performers of Brolesque: Fortunes of Love.

Phillip Evans

Instagram: @phillvonawesome

Felipe Ocampo

Instagram: @felipocampob

Chris Patterson-Rosso

Instagram: @cprgivesyoulife

Gabriel Reyes

Instagram: @gabrielreyes_king

Jason Carroll

Instagram: @itsjasoncarroll