“I’m so khaki, you already know. I’m in the fast lane from Destin to Okaloosa. I’m so khaki, it’s my gator show, remember my name, about to blow.”
Shelby Harkins belted out her own lyrics to the beat of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” in a new parody video put out last week by the marketing team at Fudpucker’s. Harkins, or “Iggy Alligator” in the parody, is one of the alligator handlers at the famous Destin restaurant and told The Log that she came up with the idea for the song while driving to work one day.
“I came up with it going down the road,” said Harkins. “I’m a big fan of Iggy Azalea, and I’ve written lyrics and sung my whole life; it’s the career choice I hope to follow.”
Harkins said that two of her favorite things in life are animals and performing; both of which she gets to incorporate into her work at Fudpucker’s gator show.
“I grew up doing pageants and being on stage, so the stage is where I feel most at home,” she said. “At work I get to be on stage and entertain people so it’s perfect.”
After writing an entire parody song highlighting Fudpucker’s alligator show features, Harkins said she had hoped to turn the song into a new number for the daily alligator shows at Gator Beach.
“I told the team my idea, and everybody loved it,” she said. “Then my co-worker said, ‘Let’s make it into a video and play it on Fud TV, so we decided to make the music video.”
Last week, Harkins got together with the local photo and video production team at Silver Shade Studios to record the music video onsite at the Destin Fudpucker’s. Several co-workers and their children appeared for the shoot, and even Fudpucker’s owner Chester Krueger got in on the fun.
“My sisters are in it and a bunch of employees came in and brought their kids; the kids were amazing,” said Harkins.
The music video has already become such a hit online that Harkins said she will occasionally perform the song during the afternoon shows.
“I’ve done it down there before, but it’s a lot of singing so it will be a surprise when it happens,” she said.
“The main thing we focus on here is educating the public on alligators,” explained Fudpucker’s Manager Daniel Williams, who doubled as a backup dancer in the video. “We give out information on the alligators in an entertaining way and we get to play jokes on each other.”
The Destin Fudpucker’s location is home to 102 alligators; 100 baby alligators live in an enclosure known as Gator Beach, and two rare alligators live in their own separate exhibits. Free alligator tours and shows are held throughout the day at the restaurant, and feeding demonstrations and photos with a baby gator are available for purchase. All of these amenities are mentioned in the fun music video that fades out with the line; Who dat, who dat? We Gator Beach!”
Check out the music video, which had more than 1,200 views on YouTube as of Tuesday morning, online at www.fudpucker.com/iggy-azalea-comes-to-destin/.