It was all just a joke.
A set up that made Levi Hawken and his mates laugh, riotously.
Its maybe too far to say the joke backfired, but it changed Levi’s life forever and he didn’t love all of it.
He’s the “Nek Minnit” guy, going viral back in 2011 in a big way – at the time, the saying was everywhere.
Hawken said of the time: “I didn’t really know that it was going to get that big. I think by the time I realized it was sort of like how do you control this?”
The saying is no longer yelled at him on the daily – but he’s lucky to go a week without someone recognising him.
“When people sort of yell at me … I sort of freak out. Like I get it, it like freaks me out a little bit.”
He rarely uses the phrase now. The fame drove him away from his much-loved skate parks and into the hills, where he likes to go fast, really fast, straight down, blocking out the noise and people who’re curious about the nek minnit meme.
But the artist knows the viral clip gave him opportunity too.
“I feel like, you know, because to me like skateboarding in the streets and living a life of art is, that’s what art is. And so, to me it was just kind of like another spontaneous piece of art that I accidentally created.”
Fifteen years later, Hawken still doesn’t know who put the clip up on YouTube and says he’s never had a cent from it. The video has been viewed more than 8 million times.
“It’s a very strange phenomenon and I definitely was not prepared for it.”
