It was not your typical night at the gym when a bunch of “bruthahs” and “bints” pitched, all biceps a-bulging and their sweat bands colour-cordinated to match the decor, at Evo Fitness in Claremont last week. Neither was it your conventional book launch, where literati gather to sip their wine and compare notes on the latest outpourings poetic and metaphoric. Original, hilarious, weird and wonderful – that was the launch of first time author, Anton Taylor’s humorous tome, The Wisdom of Jozi Shore.

The lights dimmed as the striking chords of Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” sounded in preparation for the victory march. A suitably attired minion took each dramatic step slowly forward, bearing aloft the sacred box. He stepped through the weight stations and around the kettle-bells, past the bell bars and the hard foam rollers to the sounds of cymbals and orchestral magnificence.

In that hallowed hall where the body beautiful is made manifest, the author, looking anything but priestly, received and opened the beautifully crafted box containing the first copy off the press. With the revelation of the blessed book to an adoring (and, it must be said, snickering) crowd, Taylor said, “This is obviously a very somber moment.” More giggles ensued when he said, “We’ll be having a reading from the modern-day wisdom, Jozi Shore, and we ask that you maintain absolute silence. Or we’ll f*ck you up…”

Suffice to say that the silence didn’t last long and the mirth ensued as extracts from the text were read aloud by a team of beefcakes who “reflected” on the mysteries of the bench press, light beer, steroids and whey protein.

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Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) tweeted from the launch using #livebooks and #JoziShore:

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Book details

• The Wisdom of Jozi Shore by Anton Taylor
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  EAN: 9781770103610
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