AZIZ SHAVERSIAN, better known as the idolised amateur bodybuilder Zyzz, is searched online as often as Julia Gillard. Millions have viewed him on YouTube. And since his death at 22 in a Bangkok sauna last August, his online presence has become only more stratospheric.
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The Sun-Herald first profiled Zyzz last July. He was already a celebrity within social media and the "pin-up boy" in the online bodybuilding community. Followers admired the thousands of photos and videos he posted of his Adonis-like body. At the time, Zyzz had 52,000 Facebook followers.
His brother, Said Shavershian, known as "Chestbrah", was also popular. A week before he died, Zyzz told The Sun-Herald that social media had helped build his brand. "What I have done … is use the internet to build up my name and brand," he emailed in response to the article. "I have my own protein label and supplement sponsorships, all made possible through social media."
The Sun-Herald understands Zyzz travelled to Thailand to buy cheap steroids on a "roid holiday". He reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest in a sauna.
When Google released its overall search results for last year, Zyzz's death was the sixth-most-rated celebrity death in Australia. Amy Winehouse topped the list. Over the past 12 months, Google Insights shows Zyzz has been searched on Google as many times as Julia Gillard and three times more than Tony Abbott.
On Facebook there are six tribute pages to Zyzz, with more than 350,000 "likes". In April, brother Said released "Zyzz - the Legacy", a 19-minute tribute on YouTube. It has already had more than 1.3 million views. There are also more than 100 videos dedicated to Zyzz on YouTube, viewed by millions.
"Zyzz was in fact a character, almost an actor, within a vibrant Australian subculture and community that exists online," says the social media expert Anthony Mason, from SR7.
The soap-opera drama of the videos and the subversion of "celebrity" made Zyzz so popular, Mason says. Beneath the veneer of a bodybuilder, Zyzz was a tech-savvy operator. With his bodybuilding crew "Aesthetics", he used social media to great effect and commercialised these platforms by selling gym equipment and supplements online.
Other bodybuilders are keen to build similar online empires. "Naso", also known as Nasthetics, wrote to his 36,735 Facebook followers this week: "Sometimes I look at myself when I'm pumped and think 'wow, I actually look like a roider, no one is going to believe I'm natural' lol".
Jailbait Warrior has 27,082 followers and his own YouTube channel with videos on how to "pick up chicks" and featuring his take on "fat people". John "Hardgainer" Tellier posts a picture of himself regularly, along with pictures of Zyzz. When The Sun-Herald contacted him, he declined to comment.
