I have made it, I thought to myself, as we approached the setting still devoid of life for the Africa launch of a new Netflix film. My wife Laylaa Abarder and I understood the ‘Island Chic’ brief as we looked the part for our rare cameo as influencers, writes Gasant Abarder.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
It was clear we were rank amateurs at this influencer game. For one, we arrived on time at 3pm. No seasoned influencer does that (insert eye roll emoji here). The staff setting up the event clocked us with a sense of shock.
We weren’t alone. Fellow tweeter and newly-acquainted friend Brett Fish and his plus one Megan Donald were also punctual. Like us, they were a pair comprising a Gen X guy and a millennial girl. The four of us were in the middle of a real-life time-lapse as the venue around us started filling up with some glamorous Gen Zs over the next two hours.
But let me dial back. A week or so earlier, I had been approached by the Netflix PR people to attend the Africa launch of ‘Glass Onion – a Knives Out Mystery’ at The Ostrich venue off the N7 highway. It was the second film that features the private detective Benoit Blanc – a sequel of sorts with an incredibly funny Daniel Craig in the lead role and with an all-new cast that included Edward Norton and Kate Hudson. The first film was hugely entertaining.
Luckily, for the real influencers, the new film is a standalone and you needn’t have watched the first one to keep track. They weren’t exactly the demographic of this fast-paced, comedic whodunit. There was a gulf between us four and the kids. We still used words like woke and lit. We hung out on Twitter. They played on TikTok and Instagram.
That is not to say I or any of them didn’t belong. I and the company I kept at this event were just the older dudes. I am a verified tweeter (earned, not bought) with more than 20 000 followers and I had something to say about this event and the film. Damn it!
Laylaa and I decided to go back to the registration desk so we could reap the full benefits of our welcoming drink and the red carpet and picture opportunity. We were feted with decadent food and drink at the opulent affair. I then behaved like a star-struck teen when I spotted at least six members of the Blood and Water cast – the Netflix series set in Cape Town that I’ve been addicted to.
Imagine my excitement when Leroy Sifaya, who plays Sam in the series, came to join our lounge ahead of the screening. He answered all my plot questions discreetly, spoke highly of his fellow cast members and was such a downright nice fellow. I was honoured to be able to arrange a lamb souvlaki for him (the tastiest I had ever eaten) so that he didn’t have to queue.
I couldn’t help noticing the looks us older folk got from the chill-out station next to ours. It didn’t bother me until someone from that group heckled Laylaa and I as we were leaving much later! Wow, is that what some influencers do too? I mean, do they think we’re here to steal their spot? Maybe we have game, after all?
When we eventually took our seats on the makeshift beach where the outdoor screening was set, it seemed we were of the few for who the chairs were uncomfy in our older frames!
Ahead of the screen, Ben Amadsun, Netflix’s Director of Content for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, spoke passionately about the platform’s intent on investing in local content. Yes, please, if it means more series and films in the vein of Blood and Water.
Glass Onion was a rip-roaring comedy caper. Craig stole the show as the detective with a southern American drawl with Norton putting in a stellar performance as the eccentric and clueless Elon Musk-like billionaire who wants to rule the world.
After a full day out I was exhausted with all the smiling and posing. I have a new respect for influencers. Yes, we’ve heard ‘they’ll-come-to-the-opening-of-an-envelope’ jibes and the complaints that they’re nothing more than ‘try-hards’. But it simply isn’t true.
Do you know how much effort it takes to be fashionably late? It is hard work trying to appear disaffected when you’re secretly fanboying hard when comedians Simon Orgill and Yaaseen Barnes walk past and casually say hi. And it takes big stones to completely ignore the dress code.
If I am to crack this code, it will require much harder work and effort on my part to be a living, breathing, bona fide influencer. I will make it my life’s work.
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Picture: Gasant Abarder