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Meet a digital artist whose silence is louder than ever!

Sun 03 Oct 2021    
EcoBalance
| 3 min read

When Italy first went into a coronavirus lockdown last year, Khabane Lame lost his job and in the last 18 months things have really taken off for him digitally.  

He spent his days indoors at his home in Chivasso with his three siblings, looking for other jobs. One day, he downloaded TikTok and started tinkering with it in his bedroom, posting videos of himself under the name Khaby Lame. And gradually, a surprising career was born.

It started with just a few clips of him doing simple things like dancing or watching video games slowly turned into roasting of the life-hack videos with his wordless shrugs or a look of exasperation going viral. 

Now Lame (pronounced Lah-MAY) is the most popular man on TikTok, with over 114 million followers. The only other person ahead of him is a dancer Charli D’Amelio, a California teen who posts playful videos, with her older sister.

@khaby.lame

Don’t make a mystery of simple things.🤲🏿🤦🏿Non fare mistero delle cose semplici.🤲🏿🤦🏿#learnfromkhaby #learnwithtiktok #imparacontiktok

♬ suono originale – Khabane lame

At 21, Lame, 21, does it all without saying a word, his silence on Tik Tok speaks volumes.

“I came up with the idea because I was seeing these videos circulating, and I liked the idea of bringing some simplicity to it,” Lame said. 

“The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence didn’t. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak,” he added. 

Lame is a slender Senegalese man with long limbs and an expressive face. In most of his clips, he lampoons videos of people doing overly complicated hacks by responding with a simplified, more logical way of doing the same task.

In one video, Lame peels a banana with his hands in response to a video of someone gingerly slicing open a banana with a cleaver. In another, he reacts to a video of a woman noisily peeling a cucumber with her teeth by using a vegetable peeler to accomplish the same task.

His reactions personify the term “shaking my head,” or SMH in internet shorthand. After his common-sense approach to a task, Lame extends his arms with his palms facing upward, as if to say duh. Sometimes he throws in an eye roll or a shake of the head.

These silent but expressive reactions have made him one of the most recognizable digital creators on social media.

@khaby.lame

What happened to simplicity?We all seem to put on a stage,and we all feel compelled to put on a show.Thx to my bro CHARLES LE CLERC 🏎#learnfromkhaby

♬ suono originale – Khabane lame

“Maybe because my facial expressions are funny and they make people laugh, this simplicity makes people laugh and I love it,” Lame said.

His stoic facial expressions have also turned him into a meme star, with his face reposted in reaction videos on social media.

Unlike some other social media stars, Lame’s videos are not overproduced. They appear organic and use simple actions and imagery to convey humor, which boosts his authenticity and reinforces his point about making life less complicated, 

His inability to travel hasn’t affected his fame. His popularity, he also has 47 million followers on Instagram, has opened doors to partnerships with international companies, including Netflix, Italian food company Barilla and Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11. Lame has several other deals in the works that he can’t disclose yet, he said.

But his life is a far cry from his days, only 18 months ago, as a jobless young man living with his parents. He says his mother and father are proud of his success.

“It was unexpected (for them) just like for the rest of the world. So they got into the perspective (of me being famous) quite late. And me too. You don’t realize what’s happening to you,” he said. “They didn’t have any set idea of what they wanted me to become when I was a child — the important thing is that I was happy, and had a good job,” he added. 

Lame now lives with his agent in Milan. His posts get thumbs-ups from celebrities, including his idol, actor Will Smith.

And as more TikTok stars sign deals with movie companies, Lame hopes to work with Smith on a project which is a childhood dream.

Meanwhile, he’ll continue crushing ridiculous life hacks, with his deadpan silence.

Source: Agencies


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