Çılgın Dondurmacı: Ice cream seller turned artiste | Sunday Observer

Çılgın Dondurmacı: Ice cream seller turned artiste

13 February, 2022

These days an ice cream seller has become a social media sensation. It was because of his dance with customers for a song introduced as ‘Kalbimsin’. This particular ice cream seller is a Turkish named Mehmet Dinc, but famously known as ‘Çılgın Dondurmacı’ which is his ice cream shop’s name. The meaning of it is also interesting: Çılgın in Turki means crazy, Dondurmaci means ice cream. So Çılgın Dondurmacı is known as Crazy Ice Cream Seller.

The Turkish song ‘Kalbimsin’ that Mehmet Dinc dances for is also sung by Dinc himself. Its music is composed by İhsan Bolkar Aydos, while the lyrics and tune was created by Shaymaa Abdalla. The choreographer of his dance is also by Dinc.

Location

Mehmet Dinc’s ice cream shop ‘Çılgın Dondurmacı’ is located in the Lara district of Antalya. It is right in the middle of Akkapark Shopping Center in Antalya, Lara district.

Not only young ladies, but people without age limit, dance in front of his ice cream shop. The difference is the seller himself is also showing his talent in keeping pace with the buyer’s dance, while the crowd enjoying it gathering around them.

Overnight sensation

Çılgın Dondurmacı’s immense popularity has helped him to gather 1.2 million followers on Instagram, 17 million followers on TikTok and more than 1.5 million followers on his YouTube channel. The popular video that he dances for the song ‘Kalbimsin’ crossed more than 19 million views, and that number increases in millions daily, while his other videos garnering more than million views.

The number of ice cream buyers has also increased a lot. According to the Turkish media, hundreds of people flock to his shop every day, and the daily sales of the ice cream are now more than 100kgs.

Selling while entertaining

The slogan of his shop is: “We not only sell ice cream but also dance, sing and entertain.” So, while his various dancing videos have gone viral through several social media, Mehmet Dinc has become an overnight celebrity in Turkey.

In a recent video, he was seen feeding ice cream to a person with special needs. After feeding the person, Dinc finished eating the rest of the ice cream himself in the video, which everyone is floating in praise of him.

Now, people not only pursue buying his ice cream, but also taking a look at him, taking pictures with him and dancing with him for his song.

His dancing has attracted a lot of tourists, and thus tourist companies are having a busy time as tourists wish to meet him.

His roots

Mehmet Dinc or Çılgın Dondurmacı was born in 1982 in Hatya Antalya, Turkey, so his hometown is from Hatya Antalya. In religion, he follows Islam and his nationality is Turkish. As he was not from a well off family, at the age of 16, he moved to Cyprus. At 18, he started working in the construction field there. During this time, he used to dance and sing songs, but couldn’t get enough popularity in those days. In 2004, he returned to Antakya from Cyprus, and graduated from Mostafa Kamal University in the Informative Department of Business. Thereafter, he started working in a cake shop. But a few days later, he abandoned that job and opened an ice cream shop in front of the Akkapak Shopping Mall in Anatalya in 2005.

The beginning of his business was not rosy. He had to spend 10 days without any sale. No one came up to him asking for ice cream. Then, Mehmood Din took a different approach to attract customers. He started dancing with a song in the sound box at his shop. As a result, people gradually came towards his shop. But only after his dancing video with the song “Kalbimsin” went viral through social media, people flocked to buy ice cream from him.

Artiste

Though Mehmet Dinc sells ice cream, he is an artiste as well. ‘Kalbimsin’ was his first music album which went viral. The second album of him couldn’t pass the first album. According to the facts, Çilgin Dondurmaci appeared in Top Chart that measures the best Turkish musicians/bands and the highest position noted by Çilgin Dondurmaci is 17. The worst result is 421. Because of this popularity, people in Pakistan have also adapted his business strategy too. They have created their own videos based on his style. Especially, Biryani and Bun Kabab sellers’ video recreations have gone viral on the internet. Now they are also being loved by the viewers.

Turkish media

Turkish mainstream media have also come forward with articles and news features to highlight Mehmet Dinc. The following is how a news web named ‘Illumination’ describes ‘Çılgın Dondurmacı’:

“You might have seen Turkish ice cream sellers deceiving people while selling ice cream to entertain the audience. They pretend to give you the ice cream while making you a fool in the process. To entertain you and the spectators. But Çılgın Dondurmacı is unlike any other ice cream seller in the world. He not only deceives, but he also doesn’t give you the ice cream if you don’t dance with him. And if your dance is good, he joins you and entertains you before handing you the ice cream.”

Life lessons

‘Illuminination’ recently published an article by Yousuf Rafi on life lessons that we can learn from Çılgın Dondurmacı. In that, he mentions that the first lesson that we can learn from him is to love the job you do or do a job that you love. Dondurmacı chose to sell ice cream even though he has a university degree. But he was successful, because he loved it.

Secondly, Rafi states “The process is more important than the goal”. Taking Mehmet Dinc or Çılgın Dondurmacı’s dancing for example, he says that when Dondurmacı dances while selling ice cream he enjoys every bit of the process. “You can see that in his eyes. The way he moves, makes and serves the ice cream; it’s all original and praiseworthy.”

Rafi says the process is of high value than the goal:

“In our childhood, we are taught to create goals and achieve them. What our elders fail to teach us is enjoying the process. Because when pursuing something that we love, it’s not just about the destination, it’s about what we sacrifice, what we achieve, and what kind of person we become while pursuing that dream.”

Thirdly, Rafi highlights the importance of teamwork. He says, if Çılgın Dondurmacı’s video was not shared by others, his video would not have gone viral. Hence, a few sincere people are very much needed for success.

Finally, he stresses the significance of effort and practice. He writes: “Çılgın Dondurmacı serves the ice cream along with his dance moves to make it feel smooth and simple. But the reality is that there is a lot of practice behind it. The daily practice for years took him to a place where he could flip the ice cone even with his eyes closed.”

This can be applied to Sri Lankan singer Yohani De Silva’s success as well. Though she became an overnight sensation, it is because of her thorough dedication over a long period of time that she came to this level. So we cannot belittle the achievement of Çılgın Dondurmacı. Yes, it is true that he has already given good songs and dancing items to people, but when he comes forth with a master work in the future we will be able to see the true artiste behind his apparent celebrity status.

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