Scoop 1

Gigi writes a weekly column for Scoop – here’s the first one!

Hi to all and welcome to this first edition of Scoop. Every week I will take you on a journey that will leave you wet and wild and full of vigour for life. My life is not a normal run of the mill nine to five, feed the kids, watch soapies kind of life. I have a little awkward existence.

Firstly I was born in the Paarl hospital with six fingers on every hand. A defect that my dad also carried. You could say very handy since he was a classical composer. Now I have only met one person in my life that came from such back ground as me and that is Dr. Petrus du Preez that was my fellow actor in a Seder Val in Waterkloof. But we are a rare breed. Secondly needless to say my dad was an eccentric person that made us 3 girls look at life with different eyes. To some extend I blame the phallic Afrikaans Taalmonument for how my life turned out. Have you been to the top op Paarlberg and marvelled at the erect construction. I promise you it will remind you of one thing and one thing only. And that was my exciting beginnings in the beautiful dorp Paarl. Swimming the bergriver, roaming the mountain in search for wild mushrooms and stealing grapes from the various wine farms that surrounded our home.

Now I spend most of my life running the Lollipop Lounge in Randburg, a lap dancing venue where I employ 50 South-African dancers and 58 staff, making me the only female lap dance club owner in South-Africa. A far cry from my care free upbringing in the Western Cape. In October 2009 I was approached by M-net to enter into the reality show Celebrity Show Survivor. True to my character I agreed and spend 27 nights with little food, eaten by sand-flies, no basic creature comforts. Not easy for this pap en vleis meisie. But I prevailed and walked away with the title and brought home R 500 000 for Hospice Houghton.

After matric I studied drama at the Stellenbosch university. Worked for Pact for a measly amount of R188 a week after tax and quickly realised to follow my dreams I would have to earn extra cash. One day I saw a small add asking for cabaret dancers. I went for an audition at the old Sardis (do you still remember this lovely little cabaret venue) and so started a career and yes I call it a career of fifteen years as an exotic dancer. And in the following weeks I will share memories of those special years. The people I worked with and the world I moved in.

I also have the privilege to act in the one woman show Nipple caps and G-strings written by acclaimed writer Deon Opperman. It’s a story of fantasy and why so many men and yes married men visit strip clubs.
So join me next week for an episode that will leave you restless with anticipation, you might want to change careers, put on your stilettos and do the funky chicken in the kitchen.

Love

Xxx

GiGi