Matt, the Globetrotter

 

Imagine leaving everything to travel around the world.

Now, imagine being paid to do it.

 

As a 20-something video game developer who left everything to trot the globe, Matt Harding never dreamed his crazy idea would become profitable. Everything started in 2003 when Matt quit his job in Brisbane, Australia, and began a mega journey spanning a dozen countries from New Zealand to Africa. Why? According to him, he felt he was missing out on other stuff. He put up a website to keep his family and friends informed of his wanderings. Halfway into the trip, a buddy gave him the idea of dancing everywhere he went and recording it on his camera. "Hey, you should do that stupid dance you do in every place you go and take videos of it", said Bred. Well, maybe dancing is an exaggeration. "I just flail my limbs in a way that feels natural and good and fun", says Matt. Let's just say he trotted around the globe (here the equine analogy is not casual) and he put it online.

As a result, a new internet celebrity was born. In a blog posting dated January 27 2005, Matt reported how his "thing" was beginning to gain momentum: "Well over a thousand people have downloaded the video in the last 24 hours". Five days later his website was "pumping out 60 Gigs a day". And as he emblazoned his 15 minutes of web-fame, his real dream was beginning to take shape: "I have a pipe dream that some airline, credit card, or travel company might want to help me continue traveling and adding to the video in exchange for the use of it in promotion.". Soon, radio and tv shows began featuring him and his website traffic skyrocketed. Then he got an entry in Wikipedia. And now that he was known as the Internet dancing sensation, iFilm asked him to judge 11 entries for their dancing video contest.

Then something changed. He did not say a word about it, but one could sense it just by reading his blog. His posts were getting longer, thicker, and a lot more eventful than before. Sometimes he wrote even when he had no inspiration. Other times he was going places and doing things most people only dream about. Finally, in a posting, he broke. Up on the page, the first hint: "We arrived with a tight schedule to keep". Then, scrolling down, a big revelatory quote:

“So, someone is paying you to travel around the world and dance wherever you want?”
“…pretty much, yeah.”
“You must be a good dancer.”
“Actually, I’m really really bad at it.”

Followed by another one:

“So someone is paying you to travel around the world, dancing badly everywhere you go?”
“Well…yes.”
“My God. That’s the greatest scam I’ve ever heard of. You must be some kind of genius!”

The story has it that some chewing-gum manufacturers were seeking a "ridiculously long idea" to market Stride, their new "ridiculously long-lasting gum". And they really liked the idea of a "ridiculously long dance round the world". "Someone’s offering to pay for me to travel the world for six months on my own. I can go anywhere I want and all I have to do is dance badly, which is the only way I know how". So he embarked on another worldwide trip, this time all expenses paid, which spanned 39 countries on all 7 continents, making another video out of it, which was released on June 20, 2006. If the reaction to the first video had been "crazy and unexpected", this time it has been overwhelming: to date, over a million and half people have viewed it and thousands have commented it on YouTube, making it one of the most popular non-porn videos ever to cross the Internet, and a fine example of "viral video", one which gets spread across not by marketing but by word of mouth. Hundreds of comments have also been posted on his blog. These range from the lady who wants to marry him to the emotional guy crying. Most people thank him heartfeltly for sharing such a journey with them, and you can see that he has struck a chord in many viewers.

So what's the globetrotter going to do now? "I’m starting a collection of video responses on YouTube". 30 eager guys and girls have already followed his footsteps, releasing dancing videos of their own, trying to be like him. A project is underway to compile a tribute video with worldwide partecipants doing his "thing". The trailer reads: "One man danced for the world, now it's time for the world to dance for one man". Undoubtly his blog has also become one of the best travel guides ever, and the people and experiences have taught him a great deal. But Descartes said that one who spends too much time travelling eventually becomes a stranger in his own country. And maybe that is just what is happening to Matt. While he was in Singapore, during his last trip, he made a strange blog posting, "What the Hell is Wrong With Me?", which also read: "Airports are soulless, antiseptic. Why am I at peace here? Why am I only happy when I’m going somewhere?". Also, four days after the video was released, he wrote these words: "I am not the guy in the video". Meaning that he wanted to be like that happy-go-lucky guy, but in real life, facing life, he could be "rather cranky", from time to time. But his countless fans don't seem to worry: he will always be remembered as the guy who danced his way to stardom.

Anyway, should he go and make another trip round the world, it would not be a bad idea to use some of that sponsor money to take some dancing lessons.

 

 

Giovanni Giampieri