The ‘Heated Rivalry’ boys dropped in at this LA gay bar to surprise quiz night patrons
Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie surprised quiz night attendees at Hi Tops in WeHo.
Mark
If you’re GayCities reader, chances are you’re currently a fan of one of our obsessions: HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry.
The raunchy show follows two rival professional hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Their on-ice animosity conceals a passionate, secret romance.
The show premiered simultaneously on Crave in Canada and HBO in the US on November 28. A second season has already been commissioned.
Besides the actual show, it’s been a joy to watch Williams and Storrie promote the project. They seem to get along in real life and are enthusiastic about spreading the word to as many people as possible.
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This included a recent surprise appearance at a well-known, West Hollywood gay bar: Hi Tops.
The choice of Hi Tops was surely not a coincidence. When the first Hi Tops opened in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood in 2012, its owner proudly described it as your “go-to neighborhood Gay Sports Bar”. It featured plenty of video screens to show games and became the hangout for many queer sports teams. The formula proved a success, leading to branches of Hi Tops in WeHo and Los Feliz.
Where better to promote a gay, sports-centered romance, right?
“Nervous”
HBO shared a video of Williams and Storrie entering Hi Tops on its trivia quiz night. The actors reveal they’re nervous as they are unsure of what type of reception they’ll receive.
Storrie later told Vanity Fair, “I get very nervous. We’ve done a few surprise guest appearances. This [Hi Tops] was the first time after the show being released, so it felt a little bit…I don’t know, and maybe this was me projecting, but a little bit less about the story interacting with people and more about us and the show.”
“The Canadian in me was like, I can’t take up space,” added Williams. “It was one of the less structured things too, which is always daunting when they just give you a microphone. I don’t have a routine.
“Me and Connor had an irrational fear that they would be, like, ‘It’s Connor and Hudson!’ and [the crowd] would go… ‘What show?’”
Unsurprisingly, they need not have worried: the guys were warmly welcomed with cheers and applause. They happily posed for selfies and gave a speech thanking everyone for watching the show.
Watch below.
Hi Tops also shared photos from the night. Swipe through them below.
@disnerdeddie the heated rivalry boys at hi tops in LA tonight! Literally so shook! #heatedrivalry #connorstorrie #hudsonwilliams ♬ original sound – Eddie Olivares
New episodes of Heated Rivalry drop every Friday evening in December. Hi Tops WeHo will be thrilling fans with weekly watch parties on Thursdays, in addition to its regular schedule of events.
Check out more of our favorite gay sports bars in the US.
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