Eat, dance, repeat: TikTok videos propel man from The Pas to nearly 6 million followers
John McGinnis started his TikTok account to cope with uncertainty due to the pandemic
A small town Manitoba man has gained millions of followers for his TikTok videos that celebrate three things — smiling, food and dancing.
John McGinnis has nearly six million followers on the app and more than 100 million views of his videos where he douses food in cheese or gravy, takes a big bite and does a dance.
It may sound like a bit of a strange trend, but the 52-year-old from The Pas, Man., believes he's popular because the videos make people laugh.
"I'm always happy. Anything I do, I'm always happy. Smiling, laughing. That's the connection, I think," he told CBC News in an interview on Saturday.
McGinnis downloaded the TikTok app at the beginning of the pandemic as a way to cope with the unknowns of life.
"It just took my mind off everything, doing the TikToks," he said.
Within a few weeks of posting the videos online, he started to gain a following, but McGinnis wasn't TikTok famous until this August when he clocked in at one million followers. Three months later, he has nearly six million.
Although he spends his down time cooking and talking to his followers from around the world, McGinnis also works full-time with the Kelsey School Division in The Pas.
Last December a teacher asked him about his TikTok account because he was up to 157,000 followers, but now, several months and millions more followers later, he's being approached on the street.
"Maybe about three people a day now, they want to take my picture and all that.... Some people approach me, and some people just look at me and look at their phone and then look at me again and point and say, 'That's the guy,'" McGinnis said.
"I still don't think I'm famous. I'm just a regular guy from The Pas, Manitoba, Canada ... People say that all the time, 'You're famous, you're a legend,' but I'm just a regular guy."
He may be a regular guy, but he's gaining the attention of celebrities all over the world.
On Friday, Icelandic strongman and Game of Thrones actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson tagged McGinnis in a food dance video featuring a large plate of fries and asked him, "How did I do?"
"That made my year," McGinnis said.
On Nov. 1, world-famous R&B artist Lizzo did the food dance with a bottle of Pepsi and a stadium of fans behind her.
McGinnis doesn't take credit for the dance itself — he saw another TikTok user do it last year — however, he does think he helped it gain popularity.
"I saw [the food dance] before, but it wasn't popular ... In under a week, I posted one, then I posted another one, they just blew up like, and then all these people started doing it," he said.
Overall, McGinnis says he just enjoys connecting with people all over the world and making them smile.
He likes to see comments like, "'This guy's vibing,' 'This guy's always happy,' 'Who can hate on this guy?' And then I get kind of funny comments, too. 'Would you adopt me' and 'would you marry my mom' and stuff like that," he said.
"It just brightens my day."
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