James Igani stands in the center of a semicircle of quizzical senior adults, armed with a chef’s knife and half a watermelon. After a dozen or so well-placed strokes of the knife, he tilts the unwieldy fruit and its juicy red pulp simply slides out into a bowl, precut into cubes and ready to eat.
The seniors at a Collegedale assisted-living facility gasp and grin appreciatively at each other and applaud the trick. That astonishment is what has spurred an amateur video of Igani’s melon-cutting method into an Internet viral sensation.
“The Easiest, Fastest Way to Cut a Watermelon” has gotten more than 1.7 million hits on YouTube since it was posted July 23. It was picked up by HuffingtonPost.com on July 31 and has been “shared” more than 10,000 times on Facebook. And its numbers grow daily.
James Igani cuts a watermelon in half for starters.
James Igani cuts two or three slits horizontally on each side of the half, then inserts the knife from the top, circling the circumference to separate flesh from rind.
James Igani cuts three to four stripes horizontally into the
surface of the melon, followed by vertical cuts to
create a checkerboard pattern. When finished, the cubes are poured out of the watermelon rind into a bowl.
James Igani cuts his watermelons with the flesh still in the rind.Igani, 51, says he was unaware of his growing fame until his nephew in Australia called a week after the video was posted to tell his uncle he’d seen it; then he heard from a friend in Brazil.
“My neighbor said her mother in Connecticut sent her a video link, and when she watched it, she recognized me,” Igani laughs.