Like the year before, my sibling celebrated her 33rd birthday during the lockdown. Lockdown really messed with your head. When the pandemic started, things got real very fast. No income or less income. Job uncertainty. Retrenchments. Alcohol then no alcohol. Going shopping was a weekly outing you looked forward to. You couldn’t see friends or family and talking to them via HouseParty was all part of the ‘new normal’.
While we tried to keep busy and stay positive, the one thing to look forward to, that really made me happy, was Schalk Bezuidenhoudt’s Lockdown Laughs Live. His mostly daily Lockdown Instagram updates made me chuckle and to experience an hour on a weekend (what was a Friday night then anyway) was a real treat.
We bought tickets (I mean a ticket – Lockdown meant only having to buy one ticket for two people) and when the time came, put the laptop on our coffee table (our newly renovated table coz you know Lockdown life), clicked on the link that was mailed to us earlier and tuned in. His homemade sign was everything – a true sign of the times.
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So when it came to my favourite sibling’s birthday I knew what the perfect “card” would be. There is an awesome site called MyFanPark where you can get local celebs to send shoutout videos. This idea came to me on the 16th of June, a month before her birthday.
I eagerly went to the site, saw it was only like 400 Randelas to get Schalk Bezuidenhout to shout out and wondered what to type.
My favourite (and only) sibling’s name is Hillary so naturally, I call her Hilldog and then howl by going Arhooooo. So I typed that. Obviously.
I had no idea what the limits were or what Schalk would be willing to do but thought why not. My money is just as good as anybody else’s.
About an hour or so later, I saw an email and it was done. I opened the video and watched it about three times. I couldn’t stop laughing and really had to wrestle with some personal demons to not send it to Hilldog right there and then.
Schalk had Covid at the time but still sent through a flippen funny video.
How to get a personalised video message from a local celeb in South Africa
STEP 1: Go to MyFanPark.com and search for your favourite local celeb or browse categories.
STEP 2: Type your message.
STEP 3: Pay. I got a code (they were running a special so got $$$ off). Price varies depending on the level of celeb.
STEP 4: Wait while the magic happens.
STEP 5: Receive the video that you can share on social media, via email or on Whatsapp.
STEP 6: Earn brownie points with the person you send it to. High five yourself.
Disclosure: I used my own cash money to buy this gift. And even though I had a code, I’d def pay full price for this.
