It was about a year ago that Larry Canam stepped in front of the camera to film his first TikTok video – a one minute video on how to make a cocktail called a Harvey Wallbanger.
"It has orange juice, and vodka, and you float a little bit of Galliano on the top at the end, it's a vanilla liqueur – it's quite nice," said Canam.
Since then, the 69-year-old retired Fredericton man has amassed an audience of nearly one million followers on the app.
Filmed in his basement bar, Canam makes different drinks with everything from a manhattan to a margarita.
"I think one of the alcohol ones I did the best with was an old fashioned, a whiskey old fashioned, a bourbon old fashioned and we got over 11 million views on that one," he said.
Canam also makes what's called 'Milkshake Monday' with one of his creations, a KitKat milkshake, reached over 8 million views.
"My son and I would look at that and say we couldn't believe it, this is just incredible that we're getting these kind of views on it," said Canam.
His interest in making drinks started about ten to fifteen years ago. He and his son would get together to have a movie night and complete it was a cocktail.
His son was the one who suggested he take his skills to social media.
"He said, you know, you could probably make a cocktail and put it on there even if we did it privately in terms of not showing it to the public, we could just keep it as a library of drinks we make, and it wasn't long before we decided we would post one, so that was the beginning," said Canam.
He credits his social media success to his interactions and engagement with his audience – which includes taking requests.
"People out there want to know that the comments are being listened to, that their suggestions are being taken seriously and it really is interactions more than anything I think," said Canam.
