Last night, April 18, many folks were probably grappling with the strange quaran-dreams that continue to occur during these precarious times. Others might have watched a good movie to sway themselves away from pondering whether life will ever get to normal after the novel coronavirus. But for me? I used my nocturnal hours to watch flamboyant socialite and trendsetter Genius Ginimbi Kadungure’s Twerk or Treat Dance-off competition on Instagram Live.
Twerk parties and strip club entertainments are rare these days, yet over the past two weeks Mr “My Life Your TV” created a phenomenon that would come to define most of our lockdown experiences. Since most of our Enthuse-iasts were not about to watch the entire hours-long live competition owing to exorbitant internet data charges and time constraints, and since I clearly have no respect for my own wellbeing, I decided to watch the second episode of the X-rated phenomenon, wildly-popular Ginimbi TV Twerk contest so no one else had to.
As anyone who’s tuned into GTV can attest, Ginimbi lives a wild life and he has no qualms whatsoever about it. To even-up the ground of context for everybody, let me attempt to explain what the Instagram live series show is about.
Ginimbi TV is a piece of driftwood in a tornado. It is a breeze in the hapless doldrums, a light April shower in an infinite desert. It is a place where your favourite people goes to but would never want to be recognised in the mix. It is the space where your graduated cousin sisters, strippers and retired porn stars twerks to Pop Smoke “Dior” while a friend pours strawberry milk or some creamy white substance on them.
The concept is simple: Ginimbi sits on his chair in front of his camera as the world watches and hams and hypes it up for several hours while bump-and-grinders from anywhere in the world send requests to wild out for cash prizes. Modelled up in a standard competition format, the GTV Twerk or Treat show has a panel of judges to help Ginimbi decides who gets to win, and DJ Rimo happens to be the spox of such a Hague of explicit entertainment.
Now, don’t hold your breath, Ginimbi is a great showman, despite his somewhat inarticulateness. Since couch clubs and concerts have become a thing in recent weeks, the GTV presents itself as a much better medium for him and his fellas to express horniness on main as well as their affinity for wild entertainment as beautiful women commit crimes against humanity with gummy bears and bottles of milk, robbing their families the only essential ingredient to preparing their Frosted Flakes.
But as explicit adult-only TV as it might read, the team at Ginimbi insists that the show is not about nudity but creativity and being oneself.
“It’s not about nudity, its(sic) about having fun,” the poster reads.
Recently, detractors have openly criticised Ginimbi for his pimp-like propensities and demeaning women by offering them to dance for money prizes but the outspoken socialite recently took to social media to respond.
“I don’t see anything wrong with twerking and in my own view, we do twerk for fun…twerking is not for thirsty girls, broke girls, hungry girls. In my own view, we do twerking for fun, purely for fun,” he said.
The first competition, which was held last week (Saturday, 11 April) saw American-based sultry dancer only identified by her social media moniker, Juujitsu, walking away with US$1 000 after she put up a stellar performance. Ginimbi published confirmation of the payment for the prize money once it was done on his platform.
Last night’s edition, whose prize was R40 000, saw sixteen contestants battling it out before an audience of over 16 000 viewers. Somehow disorganised and overstepping Instagram’s community bounds of nudity and sexual activity one time too many, the live show suffered huge blows of network delays and temporary shutdown. But because the show had to go on and someone needed the money so bad to reimburse the cartons of milk wasted in the quest, Ginimbi moved the show from @therealginimbi to his personal account @ginimbi. Still, the morally-upright and stoic friends at Instagram were still monitoring the show and abruptly shutting the livestream down, probably whenever they got bored with reading crass Zimbabwean comments and watching uneclectic dance moves.
And because we owe it to you, dear reader, we endured until the show’s end, in between steadfastly refreshing pages and fighting boredom and sleepiness. As luck and the stars would have it, the R40k was ultimately swept away by South Africa’s striptease artist @discovering_medusa who outshined @t_shawdy in the last round of determining the winner of the night. Her video was clean, and she danced to Meghan Thee Stallion’s “Savage”, periodically beating her butt so hard it ended up looking reddish.
The highlight of her performance was not only limited to her twerking but also included a Happy Independence Day message for Zimbabwe, which observed four decades of liberation from British rule.
Whelp, with Zimbabwe’s 21 days lockdown seemingly ending, all the fun may soon come to an end. But question lingers, will this online engagement go beyond the virtual experience? Only the wealthy Ginimbi and his team have the answers.
But even if it continues, would I watch it again? That depends because I’d like to consider myself a recovering Ginimbi fan. I’ve adored his hustle and stunts since he surfaced on the scene of the wealthy taking over the Chiyangwas and Wicknells, but much like many, his conduct, comments, behaviour and demeanour over the years have changed my favourable views. However, there’s still that place in my heart (way, way down deep) that holds onto that admiration I felt up until about the fraud charges began. So, yeah, I may or may not.
Either way, happy twenty-one days of lockdown to all the clandestine #GTV watchers out there. It’s been quite a journey with you.
