CZM Rewind: left shark, ten years later

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Also media, Hey everybody, did you know it's the super
Bowl this weekend?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, in honor of the Super Bowl, the game.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I will be watching and enjoy so much, I wanted
to re release this episode about the Super Bowl halftime
show in the form of a profile of the amazing Brian.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Gaw aka Left Shark.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
There has been a lot about Brian that has been
coming out in the last couple of days because it
is the ten year anniversary of a left Shark moment
during the Katy Perry Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Please enjoy this special re release.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
And a very merry Elvis Presto to us all. Welcome
the sixteenth minute. I need to talk to you about
a man named Elvis Presto.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
NL a Magic Com Entertainment present of Super Bowl Halftime Extravaganza.
Sorry you had the brave suppressed.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
It's a digitation, Elvis.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Presto, It's a free bamn.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Maybe you're confused.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
What you just heard was a sixties style girl group
think the Supremes impersonators, I guess talking over a very
eighties looking bright colors and shapes digital screen, and then
that fades to that same girl group addressing the camera
in the middle of a gigantic, hacked football stadium. It's

(01:33):
nineteen eighty nine, We're at the fucking Super Bowl, and
the headlining act for the halftime show is a man
called Elvis Presto. Let's have a theoretical conversation. Wait a second,
you say, I've never heard of Elvis Presto. I roll
my eyes and reply, I'm sorry. Try waking up for
the first time in your life. Elvis Presto is, of

(01:55):
course an Elvis impersonator who is also a magician, and
so he's gonna arrive in the middle of the football
field by way of.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Some kind of magic.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I didn't say great magic in that clip. Elvis Presto
just kicked his way out of an old jukebox. He's
not necessarily giving Elvis, but it's the beginning of the show.
Let's give him a chance. You think, was Elvis Presto
a popular act in the eighties that I just never
heard about? Oh no, I reply, this was a character

(02:46):
made up for the Super Bowl. Okay, you think, well,
at least he's late by a professional Elvis impersonator.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Right, No, he's not.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Hello baby, this this fan is not an Elvis impersonator.
I checked. Okay, you say, then surely he's a magician.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
The Robert You're going, no fun this card trick's doing
the first you have to pick the card, come on
and comeson train.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
For a card. He isn't a magician. The guy that
plays Elvis Presto is not a magician. There is technically
a feat of magic performed within this show, but it's
all production. It's never Elvis Presto. There are so many
things that happened in this twelve minute show, and none
of them makes sense.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
There's hundreds of dancers and poodle skirts. There's guys on trampolines.
There's flaming batons, one of which almost sets Elvis Presto
on fire. There's one hundred motorcycles, and the central act
is a character who was just made up a couple
of weeks ago, performing quote unquote the world's largest card trick.
And you won't believe this, but the world's Largest card
trick didn't really translate.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
To TV at all. But the idea was.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
That there were four gigantic playing cards laid out on
the field. Elvis Presto read the name of each card,
and the crowd picked a card via applause, and then
Presto the card everyone chose, the King of Hearts, which
was the only character and the only heart, so pretty
easy to stack the deck there, But Elvis Presto knew

(04:21):
all along it was going to be the King of Hearts.
This is how it plays out.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Which card it's gone the feet depends on just how
allowed you clap my friend card one, two, three, four,
Now clap for the card that you don't.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
The cards you chose, only mister Presto knows.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
Prepare for my most mystifying feet, the cards you chose.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
There's only your seat.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And at this point all of the dancers turn a
card over to reveal a gigantic King of Hearts, and
the audience is asked to flip their seat cushions over
where there's also a picture of the King of a Hearts.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Wow, I love this.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
This trick belongs at a kid named Evan's birthday party.
But we're at the Super Bowl, so no, the man
on the field isn't Elvis, and he isn't Presto. But
you asked me, well, this guy is an actor, right,
He's at least been cast for the part of Elvis Presto.
He didn't just, for example, have to fill in for

(05:25):
someone else and learn all of the choreography in three days,
explaining why he doesn't sing live vocals, doesn't perform any magic,
and doesn't look anything like Elvis. Well, here's an interview
with a guy who played Elvis Presto from an NFL
short talk back in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
After Solid Gold, I moved into choreography. I got a
gig to choreograph the super Bowl. Reagan Patna was our lead,
and he was perfect. He was like a blonde Elvis.
He got a Lee Jeans commercial three days before the
super Bowl and decided to quit the super Bowl and
go do the Lee Jean's commercial. So it was like, okay,

(06:02):
now what So.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, he wasn't Elvis, he wasn't Presto, he wasn't an actor,
and he wasn't a singer. And at this point in
our theoretical conversation, your head is dangling off your fucking neck,
and you're like Jamie at very least the bare minimum.
Surely the musical selection that Elvis Presto plays are Elvis songs,

(06:26):
doesn't He doesn't.

Speaker 6 (06:28):
He's crazy.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
No, No, he doesn't play a single Elvis song outside
of saying hunka honk of burning Love in a transition
one time. Not a single the song was licensed for
this performance. Nor has this man done an Elvis impression before,
Nor can he do magic or sing. This man had
never appeared on television and never would again. He now

(07:11):
owns a yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. It's my favorite
thing I've ever learned. I've been healed by this information. Also,
this super Bowl show was allegedly filmed and broadcasted in
three D. Why did they call it Bebop bambozolsh Boy?
And because great artistry is never recognized in its day,

(07:31):
and I guess not for thirty five full years.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
After its day.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
People don't talk much about the Elvis Presto super Bowl
halftime show today, something I hope to be a small
part of rectifying here. But in spite of that, this
is still a historically consequential super Bowl halftime show because
when I thought of halftime shows prior to the sacred
knowledge of Elvis Presto, I.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Thought of basically a Vegas show.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
For the entire world, where a generational artist plays their hits,
does a million costume changes, invites their past collaborators to
play one of their songs. There's pirate technics, there's acrobats.
In Usher's case, last year, I remember there being roller skates.
It's a huge victory lap for a musician's career that
isn't just for their fans. It's a world stage event.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
But upon further.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Investigation, the Super Bowl has been going on for fifty
eight years and this big concert aspect has only been
true of the halftime show for about the last thirty years.
Before that, you got mostly colorful, marching band slash baton twirling,
kind of standard fare. Here's the former NFL Director of
Special Events, Jim Steeg, talking about what the approach to

(08:38):
the halftime show was free Elvis Presto. You really found
very few name stars involved. It was more about filling
the field with color and music, dancing stoke flakes. The
super Bowl has been going on since nineteen sixty seven
and was originally called the AFL NFL World Championship Game,

(08:59):
and they would generally do what football halftime shows had
been doing since the late eighteen hundreds in the US
and still at American high schools today. There were marching bands,
there were dancers, there were cheerleaders, there were demented levels
of needless patriotism, and in the case of the Super Bowl,
usually a celebrity guest or two who would sing an
American standard. In the early days of the Super Bowl,

(09:21):
this meant guests like Carol Channing, Ella Fitzgerald, and Andy
Williams who performed a song or two in the halftime
show in the seventies. In the eighties, shows were majority
by nonprofit and military performance organizations, with themes like Salute
to Motown, Hollywood's one hundredth Anniversary, and honestly a bunch
of Boughton paid for Disney ads that stretched well into

(09:43):
the nineties that kind of wound up just being a
Disneyland parade on a football field. Quick side note, these
weird Disney shows would go into the nineties as well.
My favorite was a really bizarre nineteen ninety five halftime
show that was meant to advertise the Indiana Jones show
at Disney World, but they also put Patti Labella in

(10:04):
it as a character.

Speaker 7 (10:07):
Wow, Indiana Jones, you're back at Jolty back, So now
tell me shore Nick.

Speaker 8 (10:13):
I've given it.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Joe Old, winner of Super Bowl twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Well that's the right attitude, baby, interesting full halftime show
if you want to watch it.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I was entertained.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
But in the late eighties the Super Bowl team was
interested in creating more spectacle around the halftime show. The
year before, Elvis Presto a contracted Radio City Music Hall
to put a show together that featured Chubby Checker and
the Roquettes and started to pull back from the standard
marching band. Fair but it's still not quite there. Chubby
Checker is still very much the featured act. It's not

(10:46):
his halftime show. And then along came Elvis Presto, and
sure people fucking hated it, but there's no other act
in the show but him, And that was a first.
Here's a particularly scathing review.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
The reigning principle was excess too many dancers, too many
pastel colors, and the whole thing went on too long.
Mister Presto's last trick was his best. He and the
cast of thousands disappeared.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
You know what else, people hate it when it came out,
Citizen Kane, probably.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
So Alvis Presco, Hey, baby.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Okay, Elvis Presto happens in nineteen eighty nine, and then
everyone quietly agrees that will never happen again. Nineteen ninety
doesn't improve very much. There are iconic performers like Irma Thomas,
but the theme is Charlie Brown's Birthday, complete with these
terrifying Peanuts mascot costumes. Nineteen ninety one has New Kids
on the Block headlining, but even they have to follow
Roger Rabbit and Goofy breakdancing and an entire chorus of

(11:50):
It's a Small World. In ninety two, Gloria Estefan kind
of had to split the bill with US Olympic figure
skaters and an entire hockey team. But in nineteen ninety
three the formula is locked in. This is the year
that Michael Jackson headlines, and we start to see the
halftime show as what we think of it today. You
weren't just getting a ticket to the biggest football game

(12:11):
on the planet. You were also getting a ticket to
one of the hottest concerts possible. After Michael Jackson, it's
after the races for pop and rock megastars headlining the
halftime show, with the exception of the Indiana Jones thing.
Let's hear it again, Wow, Indiana Jones, You're back.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Get help with that, So now tell me sure, what's nick?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Sure, Patty. The nineties brought big shows from headliners like
Diana Ross, a huge Motown salute, Gloria a stepan with
Stevie Wonder instead of a hockey team. That's an improvement.
And in the two thousands the show really hit its
stride because that's when I started forming memories and so
that's when history began. Just kidding, history began here. Who ah, sorry, Okay,

(12:58):
the two thousands post nine to eleven. We had a
U two headlined halftime show in two thousand and two
with Bono's little American flag jacket. He's Irish and I
thought anti war, but sure. We had a very chaotic
two thousand and four that led to the infamous Janet
Jackson quote unquote wardrobe malfunction, sending Justin Timberlake to the
gutters of history. We had the best halftime show of

(13:20):
all time from Prince in two thousand and seven, and
when I remember really enjoying from Bruce Springsteen in two
thousand and nine.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
I want you to step back from the clack of
all in den how.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
About your chicken things down. I'm turning your.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Television, but by the early twenty tens was starting to
run out of establishment rock acts to headline, starting the
decade with The Who and then leaning heavily into pop acts.
The Black Eyed Peas a really fun Madonna show, Beyonce
in a close second to Prince for the all time
best halftime show. Then came Bruno Mars and on February first,

(13:57):
twenty fifteen, hopstar Katie Perry Headlin at what ended up
being one of the most memorable halftime shows ever in Glendale, Arizona.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
And whether you were a fan or not, this was
Peek Katy Perry.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
If you haven't watched it in almost ten years, let
me remind you of.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
What the show was like.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
It starts big and silly, what Perry was known for
at the time, and she enters on this gigantic gilded
lion puppet with glowing red eyes.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
It's pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
She's saddled onto the lion in a dress covered in
guy Fietti flames, and she's singing her hit Roar and
singing live shout out to that. She gets to the stage,
dismounts the gigantic lion puppet, and then launches into the
next song dark Horse and the second she hits the stage,
there's dancers, and the way Katy Perry had dancers at

(14:45):
this time was very specific. It's really campy, really over
the top. The led stage becomes this huge chessboard, and
her dancers, complete with their faces painted in silver, are
sexy chess pieces like flipping and dancing their asses off.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Awesome. She moves her.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Way across the stage and launches into the next hit.
And by the way, this is the only Super Bowl
show ever that featured all number one hits. Her first
guest artist, Lenny Kravitz, comes out, who's looking full Lenny Kravitz,
leather jacket, jeans, the whole bit, and he does a
cover of her early hit problematic bisexual anthem I kissed
a girl back before out queer pop stars were.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Legal, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
The two sing a chillingly heterosexual duet, and then the
set changes into a California beach and we head into
the next song, all timer pop anthem teenage Dream. We're
approaching the halfway mark of the show now and Katie
Perry does her first abrupt costume change, and the dancers
have changed too, no longer dresses chess pieces. Many of

(15:49):
them are now dressed as anthropomorphic Disneyland style grinning palm trees, surfboards,
beach balls, and.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Sharks.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Katie comes out in a primary colored beach ball inspired dress,
and the character dancers kind of bob around her. Something
that always stuck out to me is that the beach
balls had these little teeth. I hate when things have teeth,
and they don't have teeth. The cars from cars, regardless.
The costumes are elaborate, and the anthropomorphic characters have these
mouths that move in time with the music while the

(16:24):
dancers are inside them. And as we head into the
chorus of Teenage Dream, Katie is flanked by two bright
blue costumed sharks. The costume's mouth along to the words
of the chorus, and the dancers do their thing. But
as the chorus is ending, viewers across the world begin
to notice that the shark on the left side of
the screen seems to have maybe lost the thread a little.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
He's dancing a little out of sink. He slaps himself
in the face, and then he kind of just like
wings it. This happens very quickly.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
The whole thing takes less than five seconds, and then
the sharks are both locked into the choreography for the
rest of the show, but the moment has already Ben's
screen grab. This was a Super Bowl that was not
just watched on TV, but experienced in real time on
social media, and so within seconds, an online phenomenon still

(17:12):
remembered to this day.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Was born Left Shark.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Ryan gaw Your sixteenth Minute starts now.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
The sixteen sixty sixteen.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Welcome back to sixteenth Minute, the podcast where we interview
the Internet characters of the day from time gone by
to see how their big moment affected them and what
it says about.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
The Internet and US.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
And today I'm speaking with the infamous Left Shark from
the Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime show back in twenty fifteen.
This is a true sixteenth Minute exclusive. It's only the
second interview that Left Shark has done ever in almost ten.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Years, and spoiler alert. I like him so much.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
He's awesome, But to fully appreciate his story, I think
we need to take a closer look at what and
why this moment happened, because, like millions of other people,
I very much remember seeing this in real time. I
was babysitting my boss's kids because I wasn't being paid
enough by my boss, and so their solution was take
care of my kids while I go to my friend's

(19:00):
Super Bowl party. Anyway, the kids and I were watching
this and I probably tweeted about Left Shark.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
In the moment.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
So buckle in, part your hair to the side and
come with me if you dare to. February twenty fifteen,
Harper Lee is announced to be releasing a second book
called Go Set a Watchman, prompting allegations that she was
forced into publishing.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Via elder abuse.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Brian Williams goes on hiatus after being caught lying about
being in a helicopter that was shot down in the
Iraq War.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Remember that?

Speaker 1 (19:31):
And pop star Katy Perry headlined the Super Bowl halftime
show with surprise guests Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott. And
by the way, yeah, Missy fucking Elliot, Left Shark became
the main thing that this halftime show was remembered for.
But let's not forget Missy Elliott was the surprise guest
on this show, and right after the Sharks clear the stage,

(19:51):
she comes out of nowhere and performs get your freak
on and Work It, before the show concludes with Katy
Perry singing firework while flying through the audience on a
gigantic shooting star prop that kind of looked like the
More You Know logo. It was a really good show,
making the fact that left Shark was the main takeaway
for a lot of.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
People all the more remarkable.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Before we get into how the show came together, a
quick disclaimer. Because I'm talking about the super Bowl and
therefore the NFL this week, I want to be clear
about a few things. I do feel the need to
say that the NFL is a demonstrably dogshit organization from
just about any angle you look at it from. This
was true in twenty fifteen and would only become more
true in the years to come. The year after this

(20:34):
halftime show, Colin Kaepernick famously took a knee during the
US national anthem at a game to protest racial inequality
and police brutality, which brought his professional career tweet screeching
halt soon after, leading to lawsuits between Kaepernick and the league.
That's not to mention how the NFL has historically ignored
the rampant CTE traumatic brain injuries brought on by players

(20:56):
repeated concussions that have destroyed players' lives and led to
the death of many. The NFL has never confronted this,
and even went as far to intimidate scientists who were
studying CTE in twenty seventeen. There's the matter of massive
NFL stadiums uprooting entire communities, most often poor communities, and
these rotten to the core issues with the NFL is

(21:18):
what's caused some musicians to turn down playing the super
Bowl in the past, most notably Rihanna, Pink and Cardi
B in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick back in twenty nineteen,
although Rihanna did later do the Super Bowl in twenty
twenty three, so I guess she got over it.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Don't yell at me.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm a Rihanna fan, but like, come on anyways, I
did want to acknowledge that reality before digging into this
Super Bowl halftime show story, because admittedly there is my ooh, shiny, awesome,
pretty show with fireworks brain. That means I generally still
tune into the halftime show almost every year, and in general,

(21:57):
Americans are just weirdly into the super Bowl. The amount
of bizarre, campy media that exists around the Super Bowl
is hard to quantify it.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
If you don't believe me.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Here's a clip of the Chicago Bears singing nineteen eighty
five's novelty single, the Super Bowl shuffle.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
Shot.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
The song is very famous. I can't account for it.
The song has ten verses and was nominated for a Grammy.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
But don't worry.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
The New England Patriots also made a novelty song about
wanting to win the Super Bowl that year. Huge l
for New England. It's just embarrassing. Sorry, just one more.
In nineteen eighty six, the Los Angeles Rams recorded a

(22:55):
novelty rap song that is basically porn even what of
my movies?

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Like James, they call me to don all special teams.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
I know how to run from the toes to the
head when I pulled the t knock you did.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
I'm a mountain man from West Va. They called me
hers and I came to play. I learned long ago
with the ramatist rights. You can ram it all kN
and ram it all night. The super Bowl is deeply American.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
It's big, it's annoying, it's bad for the world, and
people have a lot of fun watching it. Anyways, the
year that Katy Perry performed the teams playing were the
New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, And that will
be the last time I will be talking about the
teams because, for my money, the Left Shark moment defined

(23:42):
this entire broadcast. Think about moments that have stuck with
you from halftime shows of YR the Rihanna pregnancy reveal
from twenty twenty three, Lady Gaga jumping off a building
at the beginning of her show in twenty seventeen, m
i a flipping off the camera before the broadcast had
time to cut it during Madonna's show in twenty twelve,

(24:03):
and most infamously ever, the Janet Jackson Justin Timberlake wardrobe
malfunction from two thousand and four that slowed Janet Jackson's
career to a crawl in spite of the fact that
she had done nothing except have a nipple, and Justin
Timberlake went on to headline a Super Bowl show, only
seeing his complicity in this incident catch up with him

(24:24):
in the last couple of years.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
What tour the World Tour.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Now you'll notice that all these stories have to do
with these celebrities at the center of the show. Leaving
Left Shark in a class of his own. Because sure,
left Shark was a part of the Katie Perry Show,
but it wasn't planned. The moment was not defined by her.
It wasn't a tabloid moment, it wasn't a scandal, it
wasn't a carefully engineered reveal. Left Shark's going rogue was

(24:52):
something weird and organic that brought social media together. But
this was a single moment inside of a gigantic show
that had been worked on for months. So to give
you an idea of how unbelievably complicated it was to
bring this and all contemporary Super Bowl halftime shows together,
here's an approximate timeline of how long the Katy Perry
Show took to come together, because of course there's a

(25:14):
documentary about it, and of course I watched it twice.
So the actual Super Bowl show happens on February first,
twenty fifteen, but the first rumblings of a Katie halftime
show start in August twenty fourteen, when the shortlist is
revealed to be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Coldplay, and The
Wall Street Journal reported that there were pay to play rumors,

(25:35):
which means their record labels would pay the NFL a
premium in order to get them booked. The NFL denied this,
and they famously love to tell the truth, so I say,
let's believe them. But whatever happened or didn't happen, Katy
Perry was in and Coldplay and Rihanna would play the
super Bowl in the next ten years, so whatever proper

(25:55):
planning started in fall twenty fourteen, and Katy Perry said
from the beginning that she wants a guest artist to
surprise the audience and the same big, colorful aesthetic of
her touring show. Billboard announced she would be the lead
act in October twenty fourteen, and the NFL confirmed in
November and through the end of that year, while she
and her dancers were on the Prismatic World Tour in

(26:17):
the US, Katie's team was communicating and planning their vision
to the go to group of Super Bowl halftime organizers.
Logistics while She's gone include designing and constructing a stage
unique to this specific stadium in more than eight hundred
original costumes. Katie and the dancers finished the tour on
December twentieth, and after the holiday break, it was all

(26:38):
hands on deck to learn an entirely different show than
they were doing on tour. So about a month to
rehearse a show for one hundred twenty million people. This
is from the documentary.

Speaker 7 (26:48):
We got to physically rehearse for one month straight. First,
we were in a dance studio, because you don't get
to always rehearse in a stadium.

Speaker 9 (26:57):
They're boiling down six months of work every day, all
hours of the day, seven days a week, boils down
to twelve and a half minutes, and it was twelve
and a half minutes. Everything's got to go.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Right, and in this rehearsal footage you can see the
man who would soon be left shark. They start rehearsing
in the stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on January eleventh, and
the infrastructure is massive. There is eighteen thousand square feet
of led stage. There's flame cannons, there's a ten million
dollar budget. Five hundred stage hands are there to rehearse

(27:30):
assembling and disassembling the stage in the space of a
single commercial break. And the whole crew is run by
a Vietnam vette. They literally run this shit like the military.

Speaker 9 (27:42):
So we have two surfboards, a palm trees, four bechwolves,
two sharks.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Yeah, yeah, we're so.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
By mid January, Katy Perry is rehearsing on the gigantic
prismatic lion puppet. Missy Elliott and her dancers come in
to start rehearsing. There's this amazing moment when Ryan gaw
is in his shark costume and he and Katie goof
around in their mouths all moved.

Speaker 8 (28:05):
What do you think it's that?

Speaker 7 (28:11):
Do you feel like you have a handle on that costume?
Like you're not gonna go timber at any point?

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Honestly, No, this is pretty easy iconic.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
And you see her talking with her dancers wearing the
huge costumes and making sure they're comfortable. They perfect rapid
costume changes. There's a flying rehearsal camera rehearsal they filmed promos.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Hi, I'm Katy Perry, popstar.

Speaker 7 (28:35):
Welcome to my halftime show testing facilities.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
We're test and finally, after six months of planning, it's
Super Bowl Eve. Katy Perry appears to have micro managed
this event down to the micro detail, and the night
before she has this premonition that the Sharks will be
the star of the show.

Speaker 7 (28:53):
You don't understand that like the Sharks are gonna get
so much love on life.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
You just heard the voice of Scott Merrick aka Wright Shark.
He's actually still a working dancer and was one of
the dancing Kens at the Oscars last year. And then
it's the day of the Super Bowl. Katy Perry was
a pastor's daughter, I guess, so in this room full
of her dancers dressed as chess pieces and Lenny Kravitz
and Missy Elliott, she gives a pep talk with prayer

(29:21):
where I pray God that you will look after us.

Speaker 7 (29:26):
Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
And we know it's because.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
Of you, because you have chosen us as Sam and
we believe that we are exactly where we are supposed
to be today at this moment, and we will be
present and conscious and we will smile and we will
live in this twelve and a half note.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
And then the huge show happens and one of the
Sharks did this thing at some point, but after they
get off stage, it seems like the cruise takeaway is Wow.
That went really well, instantly, well reviewed and declared one
of the best halftime shows ever. It causes this huge
spike in Katy Perry, music, sales, everything you would hope
from a performance of that scale, And if you'll permit

(30:11):
me to make a quick aside, it's just interesting that
Katy Perry needed months to put this show together because
my favorite Super Bowl act learned his entire part.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
In three days.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Who But by the time the stage had been disassembled
for New England to win the game, there had been
three million tweets about the halftime show in the thirteen
minutes it was airing, and the Lion, the Shooting Star,
and the costumes made a lot of conversation, but there
was a clear favorite moment. But everyone's favorite moment had

(30:47):
nothing to do with this six months of planning.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
Guess who, Katie, did you forget your routine again? Left shark,
Left Shark? No, Katie, light to me, left shark, left shark.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yes, I guess it's up to me to decide.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Am I going to be a right shark or a
left shark today?

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Hashtag deep Every time I get sad about the Seahawks,
I will turn to left shark.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
If you were wondering, that was me and the shark costume.
That last tweet was Snoop Dogg. And while it takes
people a little time to catch on. Brian gaw reveals
himself as Left Shark the night of the Super Bowl
by posting a screenshot of Katy Perry with the Sharks
on Instagram and Twitter with this caption.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yep, the rumors are true, yours truly.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
And the next day he shares a picture of himself
dressed as a rook in the chest sequence. Throughout the
rest of the night, the left Shark meme Edits came
in fast and heavy. There was Left Shark being beamed
into the sky like the bat signal. There was left
Shark on the poster of Jaws. There was Left Shark
looming behind llll coolj in.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Deep Blue Sea.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
And sure, there were a few people who were being
mean to Left Shark, saying that he messed up the choreography,
but by and large, it was a stunningly positive moment,
the kind you don't get very often on the Internet.
Left Shark became the rare main character with all but
no negative backlash. It was a mystery of identity, and
because it was the Super Bowl, mainstream media was all

(32:23):
over Left Shark. The next morning, Katie Perry, from the
bottom of my heart, thank you for Left Shark. How
did you like the dancing sharks and the one who
went rogue and started doing the macarena.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
That looked like it was from Saturday Night Live.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
I hear this.

Speaker 8 (32:41):
The shark screen left was a killer, noted one sports blog.
Left Shark failed out of choreography school. On Twitter, they
were compared to the hologram shark from Back to the Future.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Left Shark became the human interest finterest, No, the human
interest story of the day, But most of the reporting
about him in the first wave is either about the
perceived miss choreography or about how much the Internet loved him.
He was everywhere, and the suggestion that the dancer messed
up the choreography was so outsized in the first day

(33:18):
that a series of things happens. First halftime show choreographer
r J. Durrell came out on Monday to say that
left Shark did nothing wrong. In the Hollywood Reporter, this
was the headline.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Katy Perry's choreographer, Left Shark nailed it.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Here's the story.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
The sharks were given two main objectives. Perry's choreographer r J.
Derell tells thhr one perform Katie's trademark moves to the
Teenage Dream chorus, which they both did perfectly, and two
to have loads of fun and bring to life these
characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a tweedled tweedled
dum type persona clearly that was portrayed with the over

(33:55):
zealous shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while
the left Shark, Drell says, was playing up a more goofy,
fun spirited sports fan mascot type that was just happy
to be at the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
And interestingly, at the end of this article, Durell leans
into the already developing narrative around Left Shark.

Speaker 4 (34:14):
Don't forget we all have a little hashtag left Shark
in US hashtag.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Indeed, Katy Perry herself tweets out her support of the
meme the night after the Super Bowl with an illustrated
graphic of an embarrassed left Shark with text reading you
the real MVP. And while the reveal of Brian Gaul
was very satisfying, as well as the reassurance that Left
Shark's notoriety wasn't going to affect his livelihood, that doesn't
really stay the focus.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
Of the story here.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
It becomes this pretty wholesome be yourself message that catches on,
do your thing with passion and the world will appreciate you.
And so for the next few days there are some
pretty funny standard fifteen minutes of fame things that happen.
A guy gets a left shark tattoo. People dressed as
the left and right sharks appeared in a SportsCenter ad
and on the Late Late Show with John Mayer. Didn't

(35:05):
look into it further, but drama. It would appear that
Katy Perry's team wanted to make sure that the left
Shark phenomenon wasn't making money for random people. By February sixth,
her team had issued a cease and assist to Orlando
artist Fernando Sosa for selling three D printed left shark toys.
By February tenth, Sosa's lawyer had fired back, saying.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
We also wonder what Katy Perry could possibly stand to
gain from declaring war on an internet meme.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Well, what she stood to gain was revealed in March
twenty fifteen, when the Katy Perry stores started selling officially
licensed shark onesies advertised with this tweet attention, Internet no
longer do you have to diy left Shark costume. You
can now be a proper hashtag left Shark with this
official glorious hashtag left Shark Onesie. This was launched alongside

(35:59):
and officially life since Left Shark t shirt. And I
will say that merch is a pretty common refrain with
main characters, with people like Hawktua Girl and previously thirty
to fifty Faral Hogs Guy. People will sometimes create their
own merch in order to combat opportunistic people capitalizing on
their image or catchphrase or idea. I do think that

(36:20):
it made sense that Katy Perry did this, but it
looks a little different when a millionaire pop star is
doing it. Because Brian didn't seem to profit from the
meme himself and didn't really seem interested in it, turning
down most interview requests. After Brian's identity was revealed, it
doesn't seem like he has much else to do with
the story in the short term, but Katy Perry and
her team stay at it. By April twenty fifteen, Katie

(36:44):
posted a photo with a Coachella trash can styled to
look like Left Shark. That same month, it's revealed that
her team had been rejected for various attempts to trademark
the character with the US Trademark Office. The requests included
trademarking the costume design, as well as raises left Shark,
Right Shark, drunk Shark, and basking Shark, trips off the

(37:05):
tongue March Wars aside, Left Shark had a weird amount
of staying power throughout twenty fifteen. Most notably, he came
up in a commencement speech at Boston University given by
Meredith Fierira.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Here it is.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Stay away from ax, better yet be the left Shark.
Remember last Super Bowl when the Patriots won. Yeah, Well,
and at this point in the speech, someone in a

(37:40):
left Shark costume comes out and it becomes a lesson
about doing your own thing. The NFL has also repeatedly
made reference to this moment to this day. Left Shark
is mentioned in the official YouTube upload of the Katy
Perry halftime show crediting the three musical artists and Left
Shark not even the director of the broadcast. This Shark's power,

(38:04):
his raw power. And it's just interesting because confident imperfection
was not always tolerated on that stage.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Was it who.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Oh hm, and so Left Shark had become the rare
feel good character, and as always, eventually the internet moved on.
Katy Perry and her dancers flew out to Spain to
resume the Prismatic World tour on February sixteenth, twenty fifteen.
Brian Gaw went with them. He was publicly known to
be Left Shark. He'd been defended and celebrated by his peers,

(38:39):
and he returned to dancing. Something I found interesting researching
this story is that it's consistently the Katy Perry team
that continues to make this big deal out of Left Shark.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Never Brian Gaw.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
It's the team that owns the costume, the team that tries.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
To do the trademark.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
I mean, Brian certainly enjoys the moment itself, but he
never tries to seek eternal association with this. He wanted
to get back to work, and that's what he did.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Years later.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Katie Perry and company would towed out the Left Shark
a few times in twenty eighteen, including at a Super
Bowl pre show. This is her talking to someone in
the Left Shark suit, not Brian.

Speaker 7 (39:17):
But you would be made fun of it all over
the world.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Do you think you're a good dancer?

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Left Shark also made an appearance on her tour promoting
the album Witness throughout twenty eighteen. Then, weirdly, Left Shark
went viral again on TikTok in twenty twenty two, when
California Girls had a brief resurgence and TikTokers were buying
the costume and having all of their friends wear them
and dance in them.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
The only interview Brian Gaw would ever give on the
subject would be in twenty eighteen to NPR, but by
that time he'd very much moved on from this moment,
although he still embraced the meme in general. He also
defended his choreography choice, echoing what had been said years earlier.
It was a freestyle. It was fair play, Brian innocent.

(40:09):
He also said he had retired from dancing at the
end of twenty fifteen, shortly after the Prismatic tour ended,
and was now working at an upscale West Hollywood hair salon.
But that was all we knew until now. Because listener,
here's the thing about an upscale West Hollywood hair salon.
I can make my boyfriend drive me there on a

(40:32):
Tuesday morning, and so when we come back, I speak
to Left Shark Brian Gaw himself in the lobby of
a very fancy hair salon. Yeah, welcome back to sixteenth minute.

(41:00):
It was so nice of everyone at Left Shark's hair
salon to not comment on my new haircut because my
new haircut is a triangle shape and that's not the
stylis fault. I asked for the triangle shape and she
talked me out of bangs.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
So it actually is a good haircut.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
And today I have an exclusive, in depth interview with
a certain left Shark. Brian Gaw currently works at the
Serrano Salon in West Hollywood, inside of a store called
Just One Eye. The store is huge and gorgeous and
scary in a way that stores in West Hollywood can be.
The ceilings are high, there's a sexy anime statue, but

(41:38):
it's class C. I have no idea what they were
selling there, And in the very back is this small,
gorgeous salon. Brian is both a successful hairstylist for private
clients and for high fashion. His instagram includes a lot
of this work. I'm talking doing hair for red carpets, billboard,
ad campaigns Vogue Hong Kong. He has built this ritible

(42:00):
career for himself and his friends. Did this day with
Katie Perry, and I am very intimidated by these kinds
of spaces, but.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Everyone at the salon was so so kind.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
It's owned by longtime celebrity stylist George Serrano, who Brian
has worked with for years. So when I arrived, we
were in this beautiful cavernoust space, and Brian said that
the only place to do the interview would be right there.
So this interview has been edited for time and clarity,
and it sort of sounds like we're sitting in the
lobby of a very fancy hair salon, because we are.

(42:34):
Here's my interview with Left Shark Brian gaw.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
My name is Brian. I'm a hairstylist and I am
also a professional dancer. The dancing part has kind of
taken a back seat. So yeah, I'm just happy to
be here to chat with you.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Could you tell me where we are?

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Yeah, So we're in the Sycamore district called a multi
brand kind of art installation called Just there's lots of
high end retail art and where a boutique salon located
in the back called Serrano Salon. We are a small
team of stylists and yeah, we're like a little family
back here.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
I was intimidated by the doors. I was like, I
don't am I allowed to go an Tell me about
where you grew up, how you grew up, what were
you like as a kid.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
So I grew up in Houston, Texas a product of
doing how I got into dances. I grew up doing
martial arts. I was always very physically active during my
high school years. So yeah, I did my first audition
that year. I had to wait till I turned eighteen
because they didn't have a men's team on the NBA

(43:42):
that year, So I ended up auditioning again, got the job,
danced for the NBA, and then at that time, like okay, fine,
here's the age thing. At that time, like Britney Spears
was really big and like her dancers were all over MTV.
This was a different time pop culture, like you would
see your media on TRL, which is an MTV show,

(44:05):
or you would hear it on the radio.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Yeah, still the like Carson Daily era of curation.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, so I was like wow, like in my eyes,
my young eyes and like these dancers could be amazing,
they could be quote unquote famous. I want to be
a dancer. So I would go back and forth between
LA and New York to take class and it just
really opened my eyes. Like at that time, also one
of my former teammates, Gilbert, he had already moved to LA.

(44:31):
So I danced right after him, and he had already
moved to LA. He was on the he was on
the Houston Comments dance team also, and everybody's like, he's
dancing for Christina Aguilera. You know, like you could totally
move to LA and do this. And I was like,
oh gosh, like I really want to try that. And yeah,
that's sort of how I moved from Houston to LA.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Such a big move so young too. I mean I
moved here when I was twenty two, and I still
was like, ugh could have waited long.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Yeah, like what was that experience?

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Like it was crazy because like, you know, I went
to college for a little bit for a few years
back in Houston. I still lived with my parents, and
my time in LA like or moving here. Yeah, I
had friends that you know, I'd made here also, but
it was like that was my college experience, if you will,
you know, I moved out to an apartment by myself.

(45:23):
I was auditioning all the time. Luckily I got an
agent kind of right away when I first moved here.
And then yeah, it just was really it was a
very interesting time because it's like all I cared about
was dance. The only thing that important to me was dance,
and that was like my one dream as a person.
I kind of like was always super into my hair anyways,

(45:43):
and you can ask my family growing up. I would
always like playing people's hair and just kind of like
I was just some always into that, and I kind
of thought, oh, well, eventually I'll end up going down
this path. But you know, for right now, it's just
like just into dance. I wanted to be a professional
dancer and that's what I did.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
So when you get here and you're doing early auditions,
what were those early audition experiences like, were they like
big cattle calls?

Speaker 3 (46:08):
What were Yeah, it's amazing. You get an agent and
you don't realize, like you think you're new here. You
get an agent and you know you're the whatever, the quintessential,
you're the best from your town or you've made it
because you've got to la well, honey, you don't realize
like all these other people have been doing this, Like right,
so you're going to the big cattle call auditions, five

(46:29):
hundred people auditions, thinking oh, they called you for an audition,
but you know this is like, Yeah, you stood outside,
you waited your turn, you learned the combo, waited your turn,
and then you had that couple minutes to go and
you were either cut or you kept making cuts or
they kept making cuts down the line. It was like
an all day process. I think the experience of it

(46:52):
you just enjoyed. You didn't think it sucked because you
just cared about dance. You wanted to book these jobs
and this is an opportunity to you know, dance for
Janet or dance for Britney and you're like, these are
the biggest stars at the time, and yeah, you wanted
to be a part of that, you know, and you
were very close in terms of tangibility.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
I mean, it certainly happened for you. It seems like
several times over I'm curious about those early gigs. I
looked at your IODB and I was like, Wow, you're
on every Disney Channel show I love just so much.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Yeah, so what I think? What you don't you think?
You have this career steered in one way, and life
just takes you either down that path or either down
a more unique path. I think what was also interesting
for me is like it did end up happening. I
did work with all the you know, hot female pop stars,
but early on in the career, in my career, it
was very I looked young, you know what I mean.

(47:43):
I looked like a kid. So I was booking like
commercials and TV and movie spots on kid type TV shows,
which is great because it allowed me my first like
footing in the door. It's like how you work with
these big choreographers, It's how you like you booked that
for shob You get to know the working answers. You
get to know the working choreographers and directors, and that's

(48:03):
kind of how you segue into bigger jobs. You know
those other choreographers and directors they work on other big projects.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
You do these gigs.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
You take these gigs, you get the experience, and then
it you build on it. It's like a stepping stone.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
It is a stepping stone.

Speaker 7 (48:16):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
Hey, some people move out here their first audition now
is you know their dream job. For me, it wasn't.
There was a there was a learning curve. I had
to like bust my ass in class because you're good
in your hometown, but you're only so good compared to
where people have the experience here in LA, Like in
LA and New York, you're dealing with the best dancers
in the world. And that's just the truth. And honestly,

(48:38):
I was behind. I had to catch up. The truth
is I wasn't as good and.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
When you started, I mean like kind of later too, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
The truth is I was very lucky and I worked hard.
I was good enough, but I was never the best
dancer in the room. Like I just had the drive
to aspire to be the best dancer in the room.
And I really feel like the heart of that is
what got me to where I ended up getting to
with dance.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Which is like the st here. I mean, it's like,
that's awesome. Supportive family, supportive friends.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
Supportive family. Yes, I had a group of friends here
that were from Texas and ended up meeting people here
also as you do in dance class. It's really interesting
because yes, supportive family, but also a family that I'm
the first one to do something non traditional I see, okay,
which is polarizing because you know how it is. You know,

(49:34):
there's an expectation and you're not on that path and
you kind of have to prove it to yourself and
to everyone else. And then you start booking jobs, and
then you get on TV, and then you do this
and that, and it's like that's I think. Another thing
I like would love to just impart is, like so
many of these moments for all performers, it's the pinnacle
of their years of work, and I like attribute it

(49:56):
to like the Olympics or anything else, Like what you're
seeing is a final product of hours, years, like a
lifetime of work. And it's really easy for spectators or
you know, onlookers to just be a critic and the
way in which media is so consumed these days or
just very easy to be critical of something or another

(50:18):
without understanding where the art or performance comes from. And
it is it's a little disheartening, but you got to
also understand that, like you put your time in and
hopefully it's well received.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
I mean, I have to imagine as a professional dancer,
it's a testament to your craft.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
If you're not making it look hard. Yeah, but then
people treat you like, well, how hard can it be?

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Because look how easy it looks like, Oh no, I
spent ten years making it look that easy.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
I'm glad for where we're at these days, and like
this day and age, we've grown so much, right, But
also back in the day, it was rough, like people
in power could talk to you a certain way, you know,
like you had to look a certain way. You had
to I mean, just very bluntly. There is a body
standard for both men and women, unspoken but not unspoken, right, Right,

(51:06):
the dance world is tough, you know, and it's you're
supposed to look a certain way. The shapes are supposed
to look a certain way, you know what I mean.
And that's how it was back then.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
You know, when do you start touring regularly, when do
you start working with these sort of bigger pop stars,
Because I know I saw Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and
then Katie Perry.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
Yeah, so, like I would say, probably around two thousand
and eight, I was working with a few big choreographers.
I was working with Tony Braxton at the time, Lady Gaga,
Miley Cyrus, and I was kind of transitioning off that.
Like I had done a little run with Miley when
she was doing her kind of hand in Montana but
kind of trying to like break from so and I
think she was. That was also the tail end of

(51:44):
her time at Disney. I was also working with Lady Gaga.
At the time, Lady Gaga was just getting famous. We're
doing live shows videos for her. I had done a
couple gigs with Katie. I think the first one I
had done was like the Teen Choice Awards or something
like that, and then the tour was going to come around,
and it's like, Okay, like you got a foot in
because she's familiar with you, but also like, you know,

(52:06):
you got an audition. I think at that time, like
I was, I guess, if you want to say, like
at the height of like my dance ability, like all
the just sort of all the pieces were there, right,
I knew the right people. I had worked my butt
off talent wise to get to a certain level where
I could perform at that level, and then yeah, I
had an audition just like everybody else.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
So, yeah, what tour was your first tour with her?

Speaker 3 (52:29):
It was the California Dreams Tour.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
You're getting at it before, and I want to hear
more about just giving people an idea of what an
incredible grind it is being on these tours.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
What do your days look like? It seems exhausting.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
When you're touring. This is kind of like, I don't
know for me or I don't want to speak out
a turn, but for me, like that was like a
pinnacle of booking a dance job. You're on a big
dance job with a huge pop star, you know, arguably
that the hottest pop star of the time at those years.
Your job is to rehearse. You rehearse for a couple
months before tour, skeleton work. It's a lot of figuring

(53:07):
it out, and then it's you know, it turns into
the refining process. Even when you're on the road, you're rehearsing,
you're doing tech. You know, every day before the show,
you might have time to like sight see or something
like that. And then you're doing a show and then
it's like you're either in that same city or you're
off to the next city on a bus on a
plane either that night or the next day.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
For weeks months, years, Yeah, for weeks months years.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
As I said, like the tour. That initial tour got
extended and then went into like sort of a break,
which is great. You know, it kept us as dancers working.
It sounds like a little when you're like, oh, I'm
working once a month or twice a month, but you
don't understand, like there's weeks and weeks of rehearsal that
goes into one show. It's not just like you show

(53:50):
up and do this show. So working once or twice
a month doing a different or new show tailored to
like different or specific audiences is still like you're working.
Here's a little tidbit. There was an exciting moment when
like there were rumblings right that like, hey, you guys
are going to get tapped to do the super Bowl.
The super Bowl is the biggest show in America. Okay.

(54:11):
And then as a dancer, you know, only certain dancers
get to do Super Bowl because A it has to
be a pop artist or an artist that's going to
utilize dancers right right, And B you have to be
sort of like in with that set choreographers or whatever
or that artist. You know that, so it doesn't get
to happen. I know, amazing dancers that should have done

(54:34):
a Super Bowl again, it's like an anomaly. It's a timeline.
But then there are other dances that have done multiple
Super Bowls, which is also amazing. So back to what
I was saying is there are rumblings like, hey, you
guys are going to do a Super Bowl and there
I remember a specific show we were doing and they
were saying management was saying, okay, no joking around, this
is very very important show, wink wink, whatever. And I

(54:57):
remember feeling like they flew out the choreographers, like we
had to rehearse our asses off before this. Like yeah,
I feel like that show was like an audition. Yeah,
it's a lot. So we go from like having a
break from tour to going to rehearse for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
We'll be right back with more. Brian Gaw Welcome back
to sixteen minute. Brian Gaw is one of the nicest

(55:32):
people I've ever interviewed. After we talked, I walked to
a restaurant that I liked to go to when I
lived in West Hollywood and had no money. It's called
Crazy Rock and Sushi, Don't judge me. And while I
was there, Brian texted me to say if I had
time to come back to the salon. He and the
manager had a bunch of free haircare products to give me.

(55:53):
It was so nice. My hair is still a triangle.
Here's the rest of our interview.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
So I think we started rehearsing like in November or
December of twenty fourteen, and mind you, you're rehearsing the
same thing for that long, Yeah, and just making tweaks
and adjustments to that.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I read elsewhere that you obviously infamously left shark but
also a horse for dark horse.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Is that I was a horse? Yes, the left shark
gets a lot of attention. Great, But I was dancing
in the first half of the show. I was a
chess piece. This was a full on production, utilizing all
the dance, Like I had a costume change that my
lovely dresser, Avalon helped me get into off the side

(56:40):
of stage. And then yeah, and then we did the
California Girls in teenage Stream Medley.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Let's talk about the day.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
I mean, it's interesting because, like I think, I don't
want to say you become numb to it. I use
this analogy not in an ungrateful way, but in a
way where you were so trained by that time, like
you almost turn into a robot. We've like rehearsed in
the arena so many times. You've rehearsed on that stage.

(57:09):
We rehearsed at the actual Arizona Arena. I mean, you
have done this routine so many times. You're so excited
for the day, right, because it's exciting, But if this
makes sense, it's also well, okay, here it is. You
know what I mean, because you're like, finally.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Yes, were you rooting for anyone in that particular Super Bowl?

Speaker 3 (57:28):
Sorry, audience, no, same, But it was really cool. I
guess Tom Brady was in that one, right, I think so.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
I think so. I'm from Massachusetts, I should know.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
No, so that was supposed to be a really big thing.
I don't follow football. Don't kill me, audience.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
I cannot think of an audience that probably knows less
about football than my audience.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
It was cool to like be in the locker rooms
and like see the players run past. Like the energy
of the stadium, the energy of what's going on. It's
really super exciting. The game is too super exciting.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
So the performance happens, The left Shark moment happens kind
of unbeknownst to you.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yeah, take me through what that like? You get off stage.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
So what was really cool is if you watch the
entire performance, you see that Katie ends the show on
her own, right right. So by the time I get
off stage, they're holding us on this like everything had
gone according to plan. You know, we're cheering for Missy
Elliott's dancers. We're like just enjoying. We're on the sideline
and enjoining the moment like this is such a cool thing.

(58:33):
We see Katie fly in the air and then then
you know, look, but the NFL does not play any games.
When you're done, you're done, get out. So like you're
like escort, like get off the field. We're literally like running.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Are you still in full shark at this point, full.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Full shark outfit? Just okay? Then run get off stage,
go change and then yeah there's no like you get
to hang around, no go you're we were back at
our hotel before the game ended. Yeah, no, you leave
you That's what I mean. You're like, I'm furious when
I tell you that the NFL there is no no game, Like,

(59:12):
the NFL plays no games with or with any of
these people.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
During the performance. It I mean, you're just like it's
just enough.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Just it's gone according to plan, right, I guess you know, like, yes,
Twitter was around like in popular, but this is like
this happened like a slow burn where like people were
texting me like hey, did I just see you? Which
shark were you? And it didn't really like come out
like meme until I feel like either later that evening
or the next day, and then literally the next day,

(59:40):
I was getting fielded phone calls from reporters from people
from this that how.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Did they find you?

Speaker 3 (59:46):
I don't know, like primate agent.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
I remember this like wave of internet like left Shark
memes and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
People found you pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
They found me pretty quickly. Number one I was I
did post that, yes that was me. But then it
sort of carried on because like I was also under NDA.
I was working with Katie and the next day, you know,
we flew out to go back to La change our
bags out, and then go back on tour. So I
it wasn't like we were in the middle of being
on tour.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Like the dancers thinking like, oh this is weird, this
is funny, Like what was your family's reaction, like people
in your life.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
No, everybody was super supportive. My friends and family were
like wow, you know, like this is great, proud and
excited that it was me. It was awesome. I got
a great response. Katie pulled us sharks in the like
dressing room. She made us like shark onesies outfits. You know,
she was happy about it. You know. So it was great,
and like I said, we were back on tour. It's
crazy to think that it's such a pop culture moment

(01:00:41):
because it was made a meme was made out of it,
which is I think is how it sort of like
came about. It was just a really fun moment to
be part of it. Did my life change? There wasn't
like a chaine of pivotal moment and you know, or
any of these things. Like I said, I kind of
like went back on the road with Katie. I had
done a couple like game shows. I did a game
show that they said okay too, because you know, she

(01:01:04):
owns the costume and licensing and all that. I'm just
grateful to be part of that, you know, yeah, part
of that movement. I'm grateful to have that experience. And
I think it is that like metaphor for life, Like
you have these dreams and aspirations and they like just
pan out. Like at the time, my biggest dream was
like to dance for Brittany and like who knew Katie
was going to become a huge pop star and turn
into this and I was going to get to do

(01:01:25):
all these similar opportunities, but like in a different way.
I think a lot of times like we see or
look at our path in such a linear way, whereas
like if we're just open to how it's going or
the universe is taking you, like, you'll get these big opportunities. Also,
I've had time, obviously to reflect on this, and I
didn't realize it. I didn't realize like how big it
was until after the fact.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
The beginning of twenty fifteenth, the year where you decide
you want to take a step back from dancing take
me through the rest of the life.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
Yeah, So you know what, Like I think people have
these moments in life and you really like reflect and
you go on them. Not to sound overly rhetorical, but
like where's my life heading or anything. Sure, I sort
of actually got handed that to me in the best,
most grateful way from the universe. What actually happened is
I was like, Okay, I'm going to go back on tour.

(01:02:15):
This is around, like I want to say, like summertime,
and I'm like, I'm going to downsize my life. I'm
going to get a Vespa, sell my car, do all
these things. Well, I had gotten into a Vespa accident
where I had a kidney contusion, and I'm like sort
of like you grew up as a dancer, And I'm
saying this because like you're like, oh your leg hurts,

(01:02:35):
It's fine. That's just sort of like the generation I
grew up in, Like something's hurting, you just make it
look good or keep it moving right. Well, unbeknownst to
me it was I was like, really is this serious.
Unbeknownst to me, it was very serious. I ended up
being in the hospital for six days. I say all
this because I thought to myself like, wow, dance was

(01:02:59):
not taken from me, which totally could devastate somebody, right,
but it's sort of my outlook on it was like, wow,
this is a gift from God, from the universe saying
like you have dance, it is still there. It is
time to move on. Because I thought in those six days,
like why am I here? You know, you have all
the thoughts like, am I gonna be able to dance again?

(01:03:20):
Blah blah blah blah blah, like all the things. Right,
I called a Katie's manager. I'm like, look, I'm in
the hospital. I'm supposed to leave. I tell the doctors.
I'm like, I'm supposed to leave for Australia in two days.
Like there's no like I have to go. Obviously I
didn't get to go when I was scheduled to go,
and Katie's managers and everybody, Katie's so graciously like I like,
take your time. And then you know, I ended up

(01:03:41):
missing two stops in Australia. I missed h and I
met them in Sydney, you know, my first time a
fly alone. I'm still on painkillers, but I'm like, I'm
finishing this tour and they let me back. I got
to finish the tour and then but I also knew
I was like, okay, like you know, you really got
to get this like second career, this hair thing going.
Because like I'm not a naysayer, but I was definitely

(01:04:03):
also like it's never going to get bigger than this,
you know what I mean, Like with the biggest pop
star getting at the height of her career doing the
height of the jobs, like all the jobs, right, the VMA's,
the Grammy's like you, the super Bowl, the super Bowl,
you do all the jobs, and you're like, how many
of these jobs do I want to keep doing? Which
not to naysay, you can keep doing them and they're
amazing and all the experience, they're just so amazing. But

(01:04:25):
I also wanted to like move my life in a
way where I felt like, you know, Okay, I was
able to accomplish one thing and then time to move on,
and you know, dance is still with you. You know,
dance is still with me today.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
You know, like I feel like such a common refrain
you hear from athletes too, of just like what do
I do when my body's not cooperating with me?

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Dancers get a bad rap like we are we are athletes.
People think it's like, oh, they're just have kids having
a good time. We work at this, and we work
our bodies for this, We train for this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
We work hard.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
I want the publish your or whoever to know that, like,
dancers work so hard and it is a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
I feel like everyone has their version of this. But
being physically forced to stop and reevaluate as such a
like intense powerful thing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Yeah, it was so strong and it was something like
my dreams were met. I had a gracious team. Katie
was so gracious. I had my family, I have a partner,
you know, like, I had all these support systems that
were great in terms of being able to be like Okay,
what's next and still being supported and going through that.
So yeah, after that, I took a year off to

(01:05:33):
get my license, and then I stumbled upon some amazing
celebrity hairstylists, one of them being George Serrano who owns
this salon, assisted him for a few years and assisted
a ton of other amazing stylists to just make sure
I had a foundation similar to dance. It really was
like taking a piece of humble pie to really know

(01:05:55):
that I could do this, but like know that these
people have been doing this for eons before me. I
need to realize that and learn my lessons, which I
did and again land on my feet and be successful
in this whole other way, which is amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:11):
So you've been doing hair full time since like twenty sixteen.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Seven, Yeah, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, As you said, like
be in the city and be able to build this,
but also like so many of my like relationships have
just crossed over. You know, I've seen other of my
dance friends like on set and it's interesting. You know,
it's slash fun to have them see me do hair
and then you know they're choreographing now or something like that.
So it's really it's really great. It's it's it's like

(01:06:34):
I say, like, I'm in the same industry. I just
like jumped departments.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
And you're in a different chair.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
Yea, yeah, yeah, that's so cool. Totally. I'm still that
artist at heart, which I'm just grateful in a way
to have like evolved as an artist and just been
able to continue my path, but just in a different way.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
How do you look back on that moment now where
it's like life has changed and you've evolved as an
artist and a person.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
When you say it like that, it seems like an eternity.
But in the same hand, it also seems like yesterday.
You know, it's time is a weird thing that it's
been ten years. It's taken that time for me to
enjoy it, be grateful for that and also understand the
opportunity that that's presented to me from that one time,
and I'm so grateful that people enjoy that moment and

(01:07:20):
enjoy Katie and enjoy they're enjoying the super Bowl for
what it is in the halftime show, for what it is,
a fun time. I love that it wasn't like overly
criticized or it's this, or that it was a moment
in time that was fun. And that's what we're here
to do, to share our art. We're here to like
just do that share.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Thank you so so much to Brian Goff for his
time and his openness. You can follow his work over
at the links in the description. This interview just put
me in a terrific mood. I think it is so
incredible that Brian listened to his gut and tried something
new and has built a really impressive career for himself.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
Twice.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
It made me feel like making changes in my own
life was possible, and it was because Brian gaw always
did his own thing. He trusted his instincts, he trusted
his passion and didn't do what was expected or prescribed
to him. And wait, is this the perfect conclusion I've
stumbled upon? Brian has built a fascinating and successful life

(01:08:20):
by embracing his inner left shark. Well, I'm not going
to stick the landing harder than that, Brian gaw aka
left shark. You will always be famous to me. But
your sixteenth minute ends now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
And here's your moment of fun. More bad reviews of.

Speaker 4 (01:08:40):
Elvis Presto, whether you watched it in three D or not,
the show was overwrought and boring, said one caller to
the Daily Press. I just so by not have in
my glasses, I missed something you didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
All the three D dip was bring out how horrible
this Elvis Presto?

Speaker 4 (01:08:59):
Care was the get Elvis Presto. I'll take the three
stages in three D any day over the fifties flailings
of lukewarm songs and dance. What was the big deal
about the halftime? What is with these ponytails of guys?
Isn't Barbara Bush? That's your refreshing change from Nancy Reagan
for first lady. I think she's going to be a
good one. I'm actually looking forward to the next four years.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
Sixteenth Minute is a production of fool Zone Media and iHeartRadio.
It is written, posted, and produced by me Jamie lostis.
Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
The amazing Ian Jonquin is our supervising producer and our editor.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Our theme song is by Sad thirteen and Pet Shadouts
to our dog producer Anderson, my Kat's Flee and Casper
and my pet Rockberg, who will outlive us all.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Bye Bye,

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Jamie Loftus

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