left shark

Sixteenth Minute exclusive! We’ve got the first in depth interview with Bryan Gaw, aka the Left Shark himself. 

This week, Jamie revisits the 2015 Super Bowl saga that was Left Shark — the costumed cartilaginous fish that went rogue in 2015 beside Katy Perry during a chorus of ‘Teenage Dream,’ capturing the world’s heart. The person inside is just as lovable, and Jamie takes the bus to West Hollywood to meet dancer-turned-celebrity-stylist Bryan Gaw to revisit one of the internet’s few wholesome moments. 

Plus… ELLLLLVIS PRESTOOOO

Follow Bryan Gaw here: https://bryangaw.com/

And here: https://www.instagram.com/bryangaw

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Cool Zone Media. Welcome to sixteenth minute. I need to
talk to you about a man named Elvis Presto.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
NNL a Magic Com Entertainment present of Super Bowl halftime Extravaganza.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Song I got pretty.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Suppresto digitation Elvis Presto, it's feb BAMT.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Maybe you're confused. 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.

(00:54):
It's 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,

(01:16):
of 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 some kind of magic who

(01:46):
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 Elva is
Presto a popular act in the eighties that I just
never heard about? Oh no, I reply, this was a

(02:06):
character made up for the Super Bowl. Okay, you think, Well,
at least he's laid by a professional Elvis impersonator. Right, No,
he's not. Hello baby, this man is not an Elvis impersonator.
I checked. Okay, you say, then, surely he's a magician.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Propert scheer.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
You're going on fun. This car trick's killing him.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
The first you have to pick the card kimal On,
He comes and try for your card.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
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.
It's awesome. There's hundreds of dancers and poodle skirts, there's
guys on trampolines. There's flaming batons, one of which almost

(03:01):
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 to TV
at all. But the idea was that there were four
gigantic playing cards laid out on the field. Elvis Presto

(03:25):
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 all along it was
going to be the King of Hearts. This is how

(03:46):
it plays out.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Which card it's gone The feed depends on just how
loud you clap my friend card one, two, three, four,
Now clap for.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
The card that you don't.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
The cards you only mister Presto knows.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Prepare for my most mystifying feet.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
The cards you childs.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
There's some lead your.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Seat, 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. Wow,
I love this. This trick belongs at a kid named
Evan's birthday party. But we're at the super Bowl. So no,

(04:31):
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
someone else and learn all of the choreography in three days,
explaining why he doesn't sing live vocals, doesn't perform any magic,

(04:51):
and doesn't look anything like Elvis. Well, here's an interview
with a guy who played Elvis Presto from an NFL
short doc back in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 6 (05:00):
After Solid Gold, I moved into choreography. I got a
gig to choreograph the Super Bowl or Reagan Patno was
our lead and he was perfect. He was like a
blonde Elvis. He got a Lee Jean's commercial three days
before the super Bowl and decided to quit the super
Bowl and go do the Lee Jean's commercial. So it

(05:21):
was like, okay, now what so.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
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,

(05:46):
doesn't He doesn't.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
He's crazy.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
No, No, he doesn't play a single Elvis song outside
of saying hunka hunk of burning Love in a transition
one time. Not a single Elvas 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

(06:31):
owns a yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. It's my favorite
thing I've ever learned. I have been healed by this information. Also,
this super Bowl show was allegedly filmed and broadcasted in
three D? Why did they call it? Bebop? Bamboozled? Oh boy.
And because great artistry is never recognized in its day,

(06:52):
and I guess not for thirty five full years after
its day. People don't talk much about the Elvis Presto
super Bowl halftime show today, one thing 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 thought of

(07:14):
basically a Vegas show 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 pyrotechnics, 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.

(07:35):
It's a world stage event. But upon further 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,

(07:57):
Jim Steeg, talking about what the approach to the halftime
show was pre Elvis Presto.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
You really found very few name stars involved.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
It was more about filling the field with color.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
And music, dancing stoke flakes.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
The Super Bowl has been going on since nineteen sixty
seven and was originally called the AFL NFL World Championship Game,
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

(08:33):
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,
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

(08:57):
to Motown, Hollywood's one hundredth Anniversary, and honestly a bunch
of bought and paid for Disney ads that stretched well
into 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

(09:18):
show that was meant to advertise the Indiana Jones show
at disney World, but they also put Patti Labella in
it as a character.

Speaker 7 (09:27):
Wow, Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
You've got jet drop it back.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
So now tell me show what nixt.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
I've given a Jode Old winner of super Bowl twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
That's the right attitude. Waby interesting full halftime show if
you want to watch it. I was entertained. 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

(09:58):
and started to pull back from the standard marching band.
Fair but it's still not white there. Chubby Checker is
still very much the featured act, it's not 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

(10:20):
scathing review.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
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 (10:37):
You know what else people hated when it came out,
Citizen Kane, probably.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
So Elvis Presco, Hey, baby.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
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, you 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

(11:11):
of It's a Small World. In ninety two, Gloria A.
Stefan 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

(11:31):
game 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've got Judge
ot agay, So now tell me shut up west Nick, sure, Patty.

(11:54):
The nineties brought big shows from headliners like Diana Ross,
a huge Motown salute, Gloria a step fun 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, Ah, sorry, okay,

(12:18):
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

(12:40):
all time from Prince in two thousand and seven, and
want to remember really enjoying from Bruce Springsteen in two
thousand and nine.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I won't you just step back from the quack of
hole it?

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Devin, how about you that shit get things down. I'm
turning your television.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
But by the early twenty tens was star ording 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,
twenty fifteen, pop star Katy Perry headlined at what ended

(13:21):
up being one of the most memorable halftime shows ever
in Glendale, Arizona, and whether you were a fan or not,
This was peak Katy Perry. If you haven't watched it
in almost ten years, let me remind you of what
the show was like. 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.

(13:43):
It's pretty awesome. She's saddled onto the lion in address
covered in Guy Fieri flames, and she's singing her hit
Roar and singing live shout.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Out to that.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
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 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

(14:16):
faces painted in silver, are sexy chest pieces like flipping
and dancing their asses off. Awesome. She moves her 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,

(14:38):
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 legal, I don't know.
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

(15:01):
approaching the halfway mark of the show now and Katy
Perry does her first abrupt costume change, and the dancers
have changed too. No longer dresses chess pieces. Many of
them are now dressed as anthropomorphic Disneyland style grinning palm trees, surfboards,
beach balls, and sharks. Katie comes out in a primary

(15:25):
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 dancers are inside them. And

(15:47):
as we head into the chorus of Teenage Dream, Katie
is flanked by two bright blue costume 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. He's dancing a little

(16:07):
out of sink. He slaps himself in the face, and
then he kind of just like wings it. This happens
very quickly. 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 been 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

(16:32):
phenomenon still remembered to this day was born. Left Shark.
Brian gaw Your sixteenth Minute starts now. Welcome back to

(17:33):
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
the Internet and US 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

(17:55):
has done ever in almost ten years, and spoiler alert
him so much. 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

(18:16):
paid enough by my boss, and so their solution was
take care of my kids while I go to my
friend's Super Bowl party. Anyway, the kids and I were
watching this, and I probably tweeted about left Shark in
the moment. 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

(18:37):
second book called Go Set a Watchman, prompting allegations that
she was forced into publishing via elder abuse. Brian Williams
goes on hiatus after being caught lying about being in
a helicopter that was shot down in the Iraq War.
Remember that? And pop star Katy Perry headlined the Super
Bowl halftime show with surprise guests Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott.

(18:59):
By the way, yeah, Missy fucking Elliott 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,
she comes out of nowhere and performs get your freak
on and Work It, before the show concludes with Katie
Perry singing firework while flying through the audience on a

(19:21):
gigantic shooting star prop that kind of looked like the
More You Know logo. It was a really good show,
making the fact that lef Shark was the main takeaway
for a lot of people all the more remarkable. 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

(19:43):
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 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 to a screeching halt soon after,

(20:06):
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 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.

(20:30):
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 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

(20:52):
the super Bowl in twenty twenty three, so I guess
she got over it. Don't yell at me. 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 oo shiny, awesome,
pretty show with fireworks brain. That means I generally still

(21:14):
tune into the halftime show almost every year, and in general,
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. If you don't believe me,
Here's a clip of the Chicago Bears singing nineteen eighty
five's novelty single, the super Bowl shuffle.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Shot.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
The song is very famous. I can't account for it.
The song has ten verses and was nominated for a Grammy.
But don't worry. The New England Patriots also made a
novelty song about wanting to win the Super Bowl that year.

(22:08):
Huge l for New England. It's just embarrassing. Sorry, just
one more. In nineteen eighty six, the Los Angeles Rams
recorded a novelty rap song that is basically horn.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
This is limousine money, my movies like Dreams. They call
me the domn Ahose Special Teams. I know how to
run from the toes to the head. When I pull
the to the eye, knock you did.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
I'm a mountain man from West Va. They call me
Hursk and I came to play. I learned long ago.
If the rama just rights, you can ram it all day.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
And ram it all night.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
The super Bowl is deeply American. 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 team's 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,

(23:01):
the left Shark moment defined this entire broadcast. Think about
moments that have stuck with you from halftime shows of yore.
The Rihanna pregnancy reveal from twenty twenty three, Lady Gaga
jumping off a building at the beginning of her show
in twenty seventeen, Mia flipping off the camera before the
broadcast had time to cut it during Madonna's show in

(23:22):
twenty twelve, 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

(23:44):
him in the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
What tour the world tour.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
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 Katy 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

(24:12):
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

(24:34):
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,

(24:55):
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, Katie
Perry was in and Coldplay and Rihanna would play the
super Bowl in the next ten years, so whatever proper

(25:16):
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

(25:38):
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

(25:58):
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 and twenty million people.
This is from the documentary.

Speaker 8 (26:09):
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 (26:18):
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 there those twelve
and a half minutes, everything's got to go right.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
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 assembling and

(26:51):
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 (27:03):
So we have two surf forwards, a palm trees, four
be swells, two sharks.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, yeah, we're so.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
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 Brian gaw
is in his shark costume and he and Katie goof
around in their mouths all moved.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
What do you think that, TV?

Speaker 8 (27:31):
Do you feel like you have a handle on that costume,
Like you're not gonna go timber at any point?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Honestly, No, this is pretty easy, iconic 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 film promos. Hi, I'm
Katy Perry, pop star.

Speaker 8 (27:56):
Welcome to my halftime show testing facilities.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
We're testing. 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 8 (28:14):
You don't understand that, like, the Sharks are going to
get so much love on life.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
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.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
So.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
In this room full of her dancers dressed as chess
pieces and Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, she gives a
pep talk with prayer where I pray God that you
will look after us.

Speaker 8 (28:47):
Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
And we know it's because.

Speaker 8 (28:51):
Of you, because you have chosen us, 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.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
A half note it, 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,

(29:27):
everything you would hope from a performance of that scale.
And if you'll permit me to make it 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 in three days. Who But by the

(29:49):
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 nothing to do with this

(30:09):
six months of planning.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
Guess who, Katie, did you forget your routine again? Left Shark,
Left Shark? No, Katie, don't lie to me. Left Shark,
Left Shark Yes.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
I guess it's up to me to decide. Am I
going to be a right shark or a left shark today?

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Hashtag deep every time I get sad about the Seahawks,
I will turn to left shark.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
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 (30:55):
Yep, the rumors are true, yours truly, And.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
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 and Deep Blue Sea. And sure there

(31:21):
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 over Left Shark. The

(31:45):
next morning, Katie Perry, from the bottom of my heart,
thank you for left Shark.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
How did you like the dancing sharks and the one
who went rogue and started doing the macarena that looked
like it was from Saturday Night?

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Hear this?

Speaker 7 (32:01):
The shark's 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 (32:15):
Left Shark became the human interest fintrest 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

(32:38):
that a series of things happened. 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 (32:50):
Katie Perry's choreographer, Left Shark nailed it.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Here's the story.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
The Sharks were given two main objectives, Perry's choreographer RJ.
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 tweetledd Tweedledum
type persona clearly that was portrayed with the over zealous

(33:16):
shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while the
left Shark, Durell 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 (33:27):
And interestingly, at the end of this article, Durell leans
into the already developing narrative around left Shark.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
Don't forget we all have a little hashtag left shark.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
In US hashtag.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
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, doesn't really
stay the focus of the story here. It becomes this

(34:03):
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 the 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 look

(34:26):
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 (34:49):
We also wonder what Katy Perry could possibly stand to
gain from declaring war on an internet meme.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Well, what she stood to gain was revealed in March
twenty fifteen, when the CA 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

(35:18):
alongside an officially licensed left sharked T shirt. And I
will say that merch is a pretty common refraining with
main characters, with people like Hawkta 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

(35:40):
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 Katie d Perry
and her team stay at it. By April twenty fifteen,

(36:04):
Katie posted a photo with a Coachella trash can styled
to look like Left Shark. That same month, it 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 phrase's Left Shark,
Bright Shark, drunk Shark, and basking Shark, trips off the

(36:26):
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 Vieira. Here it is stay away from afex better
yet be the Left Shark remember last Super Bowl when

(36:53):
the Patriots won. Yeah, Well, and at this point in
this speak, someone in a 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

(37:13):
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 is raw power. And
it's just interesting because confident imperfection was not always tolerated
on that stage, was it. Who oh hmm? And so

(37:40):
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, and he

(38:00):
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, Never
Brian Gaw. It's the team that owns the costume, the
team that tries to do the trademark. I mean, Brian
certainly enjoys the moment itself, but he never tries to
seek eternal association with this. He wanted to get back

(38:23):
to work, and that's what he did. Years later, Katy
Perry and Company with 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 8 (38:37):
But you would be made fun of it all over
the world.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Life Do you think you're.

Speaker 8 (38:46):
A good dancer?

Speaker 1 (38:49):
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. I don't know. The only interview
Brian Gaw would ever give on the subject would be

(39:12):
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. He also said he
had retired from dancing at the end of twenty fifteen,

(39:34):
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 Tuesday morning, and

(39:54):
so when we come back, I speak to Left Shark
Brian gaw himself in the the lobby of a very
fancy hair salon.

Speaker 10 (40:03):
Yeah, welcome back to sixteenth minute.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
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
style of fault. I asked for the triangle shape and
she talked me out of bangs. So it actually is
a good haircut. And today I have an exclusive, in
depth interview with a certain left Shark. Brian Gaw currently

(40:44):
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 it's classy. I have no idea
what they were selling there, And in the very back
is this small, gorgeous salon. Brian is both a successful

(41:07):
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 incredible career for himself and his friends.
Did this day with Katy Perry and I am very
intimidated by these kinds of spaces, but everyone at the

(41:30):
salon was so so kind. 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, cavernous 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

(41:50):
like we're sitting in the lobby of a very fancy
hair salon, because we are. Here's my interview with Left
Shark Brian gaw.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
My name's Brian. I'm a hair stylist 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 1 (42:11):
Could you tell me where we are?

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, so we're in the Sycamore district called a multi
brand kind of art installation called Just One I. 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 (42:31):
I was intimidated by the doors. I was like, I
don't am I allowed to go any Yeah. Tell me
about where you grew up, how you grew up. What
were you like as a kid.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
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

(43:03):
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 in pop culture. Like you
would see your media on TRL, which is an MTV show,

(43:26):
or you would hear it on the radio.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, still the like Carson Daily era of curation.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
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.

(43:52):
So I danced right after him and he had already
moved to LA. He was on the he was on
the Houston Comments Dance seem 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 such.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
A big move so young too. I mean I moved
here when I was twenty two, and I still was like, ugh,
I could have waited longer. Yeah, like what was that experience?

Speaker 2 (44:23):
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.

(44:43):
I was auditioning all the time. Luckily I got an
agent kind of right away when I first moved here. Okay,
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 was important to me
was dance, and that was like my one as a person.
I kind of like was always super into my hair anyways,

(45:03):
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 (45:23):
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 2 (45:29):
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

(45:50):
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 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,

(46:13):
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 (46:32):
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 2 (46:43):
Yeah, so what I think, what you don't you think?
You had 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,

(47:04):
I looked like a kid. So it 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
first job. You get to know the working dancers, You
get to know the working choreographers and directors, and that's

(47:24):
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 1 (47:31):
You do these gigs, You take these gigs, you get
the experience, and then you it you build on it.
It's like a stepping stone.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
It is a stepping stone. You know. 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

(47:57):
that's just the truth. And honestly, I was behind. I
had to catch the truth is I wasn't as good.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
And when you started, I mean like kind of later too, right.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Yeah, 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 dancers.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Which is like the st here. I mean, it's like,
that's awesome. Supportive family, supportive friends.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
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 yea.

(48:54):
You know, there's an expectation and you're not on that
path and you kind of have to prove it to
yourself 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

(49:16):
it to like the Olympics or anything else. Like what
you're seeing is a final product of ours 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

(49:38):
another 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 (49:49):
I mean, I have to imagine as a professional dancer,
it's a testament to your craft if you're not making
it look hard. Yeah, but then people treat you like, well,
how hard can it be? Because look how easy it?
Oh No, I spent ten years making it look that easy.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
I'm glad for where we're at these dates, 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 was a body
standard for both men and women, unspoken but not unspoken, right, Right,

(50:26):
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 (50:34):
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 2 (50:42):
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

(51:05):
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,

(51:26):
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 1 (51:45):
So yeah, what tour was your first tour with her?

Speaker 2 (51:49):
It was the California Dreams Tour.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
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. What do
your days look like? It seems exhausting.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
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 at the time, at at
those specific years. Your job is to rehearse. You rehearse
for a couple months before tour, skeleton work. It's a

(52:26):
lot of figuring 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

(52:47):
next day.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
For weeks, months, years.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Yeah, for weeks months years. Yeah. 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.

(53:10):
It's not just like you show 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 gonna get tapped to do the super Bowl.
The super Bowl is the biggest show in America. Okay.

(53:32):
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

(53:55):
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 then
I remember a specific show we were doing and they
were saying management. I was saying, Okay, no joking around,
this is very very important show, wink wink, whatever, And

(54:17):
I 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 (54:32):
We'll be right back with more. Brian Gaw Welcome back
to sixteenth minute. Brian Gaw is one of the nicest

(54:53):
people I've ever interviewed. After we talked, I walked to
a restaurant that I liked to go to when I
lived in West Hollywoo 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.

(55:13):
It was so nice. My hair is still a triangle.
Here's the rest of our interview.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
So I think we started rehearsal 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 (55:32):
I read elsewhere that you obviously infamously left Shark but
also a horse for dark Horse.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
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

(56:00):
of the stage. And then yeah, and then we did
the California Girls and teenage stream medley.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Let's talk about the day.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
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,

(56:29):
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, yes.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Were you rooting for anyone in that particular Super Bowl?

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Sorry audience, no, same, but it was really cool. I
guess Tom Brady was in that one, right, I think so.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
I think so. I'm from Massachusetts, I should know.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Yeah. No, that was supposed to be a really big thing.
I don't follow football. Don't kill me, audience.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I don't. I cannot think of an audience that probably
knows less about football than my audience.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
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 super exciting.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
So the performance happens, the left Shark moment happens kind
of unbeknownst to you. Yeah, take me through what that
like you get off stage.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
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 enjoy. We're on the sideline
and join the moment like this is such a cool thing.

(57:54):
We see Katie flying 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 1 (58:08):
Are you still in full shark at this point, full.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
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 back. 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

(58:31):
no game, like the NFL plays no games with or
with any of these people.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
During the performance. It I mean, you're just like it's
just enough.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
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

(59:01):
day I was getting fielded phone calls from reporters from
people from this that.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
How did they find you? I don't know, like primate agent,
I remember this like wave of internet like left shark
memes and all that stuff. People found you pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
They found me pretty quickly. Number one. 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
wasn't like we were in the middle of being.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
On tour 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 2 (59:39):
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

(01:00:01):
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 chain 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 show or I did a
game show that they said okay too, because you know,

(01:00:25):
she 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 wasn't going to become a huge pop star and
turned into this and I was going to get to

(01:00:46):
do 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 opportunity. Also,
I've had time obviously to reflect on this, and I
didn't realize it. I didn't realize how big it was
until after the fact.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
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 2 (01:01:13):
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.

(01:01:35):
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,

(01:01:56):
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

(01:02:19):
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?

(01:02:40):
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 like
take your time, and then you know, I ended up

(01:03:02):
missing two stops in Australia. I missed uh 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

(01:03:23):
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 nay say, you can keep doing them and
they're amazing and all the experience, they're just so amazing.

(01:03:45):
But 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 (01:03:58):
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 2 (01:04:06):
Dancers get a bad rap Like 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, We work hard.
I want the publier or whoever to know that, like,
dancers work so hard and it is a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
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 2 (01:04:32):
Yeah, it was so strong and it was something like
my dreams were met. I had a gracious team. Katie
was so gracious. I have 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 in going through that.
So yeah, after that, I took a year off to

(01:04:54):
get my license, and then I stumbled upon some amazing
celebrity hairstylists, 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 that I

(01:05:16):
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 1 (01:05:32):
So you've been doing hair full time since like twenty
sixteen seven.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
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 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 I say,

(01:05:55):
I like I'm in the same industry. I just like
jumped departments, you know, I'm a differ sharity.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
Yeah, that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
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 (01:06:13):
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 2 (01:06:19):
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

(01:06:41):
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 (01:07:00):
Thank you so so much to Brian gow 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. Twice.
It made me feel like making changes in my own

(01:07:22):
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
by embracing his inner left shark. Well, I'm not going

(01:07:45):
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, and here's your moment of fun.
More bad reviews of Elvis Presto.

Speaker 4 (01:08:03):
Whether you watched it in three D or not, the
show was overwrought and boring, said one caller to The
Daily Press. I just don't buy not half in my glasses.
I missed something you didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
All the three D did was bring out how horrible
this Elvis Presto character was.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
Forget Elvis Presto. I'll take the three Stoges in three
d any day over the fifties flailings of Lukewarm's sons
and dance.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
What was the big deal about the halftime? What is
with these ponytails of guys? Isn't Barbara Bush such a
refreshing change from Nancy Reagan for fest Lady. I think
she's going to be a good one. I'm actually looking
forward to the next four years.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Bye. Sixteenth Minute is a production of fool Zone Media
and iHeartRadio. It is written, posted, and produced by me
Jamie Offis. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans.
The amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising produce and our editor.
Our theme song is My Sad thirteen and Pet Shadouts

(01:09:06):
to our dog producer Anderson, my Cat's flee and Casper
and my pet Rockberg, who will outlive us all.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
Bye.