Life has been good for native Detroiter Will Gilbert. Now based out of Los Angeles and known as DJ Will Gill, the 25-year-old survived MTV's "The Real World XX: Hollywood," which wrapped earlier this year. "I'll say that we set a lot of records this season -- on and off the camera," Gill says.
But despite the show's history of total debauchery -- a rep that more than held up during the 20th season -- Gill appears to have a solid head on his shoulders. He's now gearing up for a career in the entertainment biz.
"Since I been out in L.A., I've been focusing primarily on my DJing, music production and modeling right now," he says. Gill says he's traveled to Mexico, the Bahamas and across the states working the turntables, and on Friday he's set to headline MGM Grand Detroit's one-year anniversary celebration of its nightclub, V.
As for the party, Gill says he'll "inspire you to want to dance....I'm gonna build your confidence up through music and sound -- that's what I was born to do. It's gonna be a show."
Gill says his style and presentation at the ones and twos is all about the crowd, not himself: “People shouldn’t expect somebody that’s egotistical full of themselves, comes in and just presses play… they’re going to get mixing, scratching, top 40, mash ups, electro, hip-hop. It’s going to feel like a performance.”
The former Michigan State University advertising student (“I wasn’t sure that a 9-to-5 job was for me”) is also very interested in exploring stand-up comedy more and acting. “The improv during the show we did – it really got me inspired,” Gill says.
“Being involved with improv; it helps you with life, confidence, leadership skills, quick-wittedness – and it’s a lot of fun.”
Gill says he’s glad he was a part of the notorious “Real World” experience, but doesn’t plan to do any more reality in the future and doesn’t really spend anytime with his former house-mates. “For entertainment purposes the producers obviously do kind of edit and rearrange the audio, video timeline,” Gill says.
“For four months we were there. You only see 1 percent, the juiciest stuff…As time goes on, they put you in the house, this ‘science dome’ with completely different people, total strangers. For four months you do learn to live and adapt to these people and although we still have speaking engagements and appearances together, I don’t really keep in contact with them.”
