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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. Welcome to sixteenth minute. I need to

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Speaker 1: talk to you about a man named Elvis Presto.

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Speaker 2: NNL a Magic Com Entertainment present of Super Bowl halftime Extravaganza.

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Speaker 3: Song I got pretty.

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Speaker 4: Suppresto digitation Elvis Presto, it's feb BAMT.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you're confused. What you just heard was a sixties

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Speaker 1: style girl group. Think the Supremes impersonators, I guess talking

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Speaker 1: over a very eighties looking bright colors and shapes digital screen,

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Speaker 1: and then that fades to that same girl group addressing

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Speaker 1: the camera in the middle of a gigantic, hacked football stadium.

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Speaker 1: It's nineteen eighty nine. We're at the fucking Super Bowl,

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Speaker 1: and the headlining act for the halftime show is a

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Speaker 1: man called Elvis Presto. Let's have a theoretical conversation. Wait

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Speaker 1: a second, you say I've never heard of Elvis Presto.

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Speaker 1: I roll my eyes and reply, I'm sorry. Try waking

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Speaker 1: up for the first time in your life. Elvis Presto is,

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Speaker 1: of course an Elvis impersonator who is also a magician,

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Speaker 1: and so he's gonna arrive in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: football field by way of some kind of magic who

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Speaker 1: I didn't say great magic in that clip. Elvis Presto

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Speaker 1: just kicked his way out of an old jukebox. He's

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Speaker 1: not necessarily giving Elvis, but it's the beginning of the show.

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Speaker 1: Let's give him a chance. You think was Elva is

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Speaker 1: Presto a popular act in the eighties that I just

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Speaker 1: never heard about? Oh no, I reply, this was a

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Speaker 1: character made up for the Super Bowl. Okay, you think, Well,

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Speaker 1: at least he's laid by a professional Elvis impersonator. Right, No,

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Speaker 1: he's not. Hello baby, this man is not an Elvis impersonator.

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Speaker 1: I checked. Okay, you say, then, surely he's a magician.

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Speaker 3: Propert scheer.

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

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Speaker 4: The first you have to pick the card kimal On,

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Speaker 4: He comes and try for your card.

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Speaker 1: He isn't a magician. The guy that plays Elvis Presto

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Speaker 1: is not a magician. There is technically a feat of

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Speaker 1: magic performed within this show, but it's all production. It's

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Speaker 1: never Elvis Presto. There are so many things that happened

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Speaker 1: in this twelve minute show, and none of them makes sense.

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Speaker 1: It's awesome. There's hundreds of dancers and poodle skirts, there's

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Speaker 1: guys on trampolines. There's flaming batons, one of which almost

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Speaker 1: sets Elvis Presto on fire. There's one hundred motorcycles, and

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Speaker 1: the central act is a character who was just made

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Speaker 1: up a couple of weeks ago, performing quote unquote the

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Speaker 1: world's largest card trick. And you won't believe this, but

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Speaker 1: the world's Largest card trick didn't really translate to TV

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Speaker 1: at all. But the idea was that there were four

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Speaker 1: gigantic playing cards laid out on the field. Elvis Presto

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Speaker 1: read the name of each card, and the crowd picked

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Speaker 1: a card via applause, and then Presto the card. Everyone

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Speaker 1: chose the King of Hearts, which was the only character

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Speaker 1: and the only heart, so pretty easy to stack the

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Speaker 1: deck there. But Elvis Presto knew all along it was

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Speaker 1: going to be the King of Hearts. This is how

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Speaker 1: it plays out.

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Speaker 5: Which card it's gone The feed depends on just how

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Speaker 5: loud you clap my friend card one, two, three, four,

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Speaker 5: Now clap for.

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Speaker 2: The card that you don't.

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Speaker 5: The cards you only mister Presto knows.

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Speaker 4: Prepare for my most mystifying feet.

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Speaker 3: The cards you childs.

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Speaker 2: There's some lead your.

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Speaker 1: Seat, and at this point, all of the dancers turn

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Speaker 1: a card over to reveal a gigantic King of Hearts,

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Speaker 1: and the audience is asked to flip their seat cushions over,

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Speaker 1: where there's also a picture of the King of a hearts. Wow,

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Speaker 1: I love this. This trick belongs at a kid named

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Speaker 1: Evan's birthday party. But we're at the super Bowl. So no,

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Speaker 1: the man on the field isn't Elvis and he isn't Presto.

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Speaker 1: But you asked me, Well, this guy is an actor, right,

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Speaker 1: He's at least been cast for the part of Elvis Presto.

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Speaker 1: He didn't just, for example, have to fill in for

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Speaker 1: someone else and learn all of the choreography in three days,

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Speaker 1: explaining why he doesn't sing live vocals, doesn't perform any magic,

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Speaker 1: and doesn't look anything like Elvis. Well, here's an interview

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Speaker 1: with a guy who played Elvis Presto from an NFL

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Speaker 1: short doc back in twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 6: After Solid Gold, I moved into choreography. I got a

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Speaker 6: gig to choreograph the Super Bowl or Reagan Patno was

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Speaker 6: our lead and he was perfect. He was like a

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Speaker 6: blonde Elvis. He got a Lee Jean's commercial three days

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Speaker 6: before the super Bowl and decided to quit the super

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Speaker 6: Bowl and go do the Lee Jean's commercial. So it

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Speaker 6: was like, okay, now what so.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he wasn't Elvis, he wasn't Presto, he wasn't an actor,

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Speaker 1: and he wasn't a singer. And at this point in

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Speaker 1: our theoretical conversation, your head is dangling off your fucking neck,

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Speaker 1: and you're like Jamie at very least the bare minimum.

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Speaker 1: Surely the musical selection that Elvis Presto plays are Elvis songs,

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Speaker 1: doesn't He doesn't.

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Speaker 3: He's crazy.

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Speaker 1: No, No, he doesn't play a single Elvis song outside

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Speaker 1: of saying hunka hunk of burning Love in a transition

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Speaker 1: one time. Not a single Elvas song was licensed for

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Speaker 1: this performance. Nor has this man done an Elvis impression before,

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Speaker 1: Nor can he do magic or sing. This man had

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Speaker 1: never appeared on television and never would again. He now

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Speaker 1: owns a yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. It's my favorite

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Speaker 1: thing I've ever learned. I have been healed by this information. Also,

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Speaker 1: this super Bowl show was allegedly filmed and broadcasted in

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Speaker 1: three D? Why did they call it? Bebop? Bamboozled? Oh boy.

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Speaker 1: And because great artistry is never recognized in its day,

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Speaker 1: and I guess not for thirty five full years after

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Speaker 1: its day. People don't talk much about the Elvis Presto

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Speaker 1: super Bowl halftime show today, one thing I hope to

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Speaker 1: be a small part of rectifying here. But in spite

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Speaker 1: of that, this is still a historically consequential super Bowl

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Speaker 1: halftime show because when I thought of halftime shows prior

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Speaker 1: to the sacred knowledge of Elvis Presto, I thought of

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Speaker 1: basically a Vegas show for the entire world where a

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Speaker 1: generational artist plays their hits, does a million costume changes,

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Speaker 1: invites their past collaborators to play one of their songs.

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Speaker 1: There's pyrotechnics, there's acrobats. In Usher's case last year, I

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Speaker 1: remember there being roller skates. It's a huge victory lap

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Speaker 1: for a musician's career that isn't just for their fans.

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Speaker 1: It's a world stage event. But upon further investigation, the

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Speaker 1: super Bowl has been going on for fifty eight years

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Speaker 1: and this big concert aspect has only been true of

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Speaker 1: the halftime show for about the last thirty years. Before that,

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Speaker 1: you got mostly colorful marching band slash baton twirling kind

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Speaker 1: of standard fare. Here's the former NFL Director of Special Events,

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Speaker 1: Jim Steeg, talking about what the approach to the halftime

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Speaker 1: show was pre Elvis Presto.

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Speaker 3: You really found very few name stars involved.

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Speaker 1: It was more about filling the field with color.

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Speaker 3: And music, dancing stoke flakes.

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Speaker 1: The Super Bowl has been going on since nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: seven and was originally called the AFL NFL World Championship Game,

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Speaker 1: and they would generally do what football halftime shows had

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Speaker 1: been doing since the late eighteen hundreds in the US

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Speaker 1: and still at American high schools today. There were marching bands,

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Speaker 1: there were dancers, there were cheerleaders, there were demented levels

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Speaker 1: of needless patriotism, and in the case of the Super Bowl,

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Speaker 1: usually a celebrity guest or two who would sing an

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Speaker 1: American standard. In the early days of the Super Bowl,

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Speaker 1: this meant guests like Carol Channing, Ella Fitzgerald, and Andy

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Speaker 1: Williams who performed a song or two in the halftime

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Speaker 1: show in the seventies. In the eighties, shows were majority

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Speaker 1: by nonprofit and military performance organizations with themes like Salute

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Speaker 1: to Motown, Hollywood's one hundredth Anniversary, and honestly a bunch

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Speaker 1: of bought and paid for Disney ads that stretched well

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Speaker 1: into the nineties that kind of wound up just being

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Speaker 1: a Disneyland parade on a football field. Quick side note,

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Speaker 1: these weird Disney shows would go into the nineties as well.

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Speaker 1: My favorite was a really bizarre nineteen ninety five halftime

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Speaker 1: show that was meant to advertise the Indiana Jones show

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Speaker 1: at disney World, but they also put Patti Labella in

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Speaker 1: it as a character.

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Speaker 7: Wow, Indiana Jones.

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Speaker 2: You've got jet drop it back.

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Speaker 1: So now tell me show what nixt.

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

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Speaker 1: That's the right attitude. Waby interesting full halftime show if

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Speaker 1: you want to watch it. I was entertained. But in

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Speaker 1: the late eighties the Super Bowl team was interested in

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Speaker 1: creating more spectacle around the halftime show. The year before,

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Speaker 1: Elvis Presto a contracted Radio City Music Hall to put

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Speaker 1: a show together that featured Chubby Checker and the Roquettes

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Speaker 1: and started to pull back from the standard marching band.

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Speaker 1: Fair but it's still not white there. Chubby Checker is

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Speaker 1: still very much the featured act, it's not his halftime show.

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Speaker 1: And then along came Elvis Presto, and sure people fucking

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Speaker 1: hated it, but there's no other act in the show

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Speaker 1: but him, and that was a first. Here's a particularly

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Speaker 1: scathing review.

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Speaker 4: The reigning principle was excess too many dancers, too many

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Speaker 4: pastel colors, and the whole thing went on too long.

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Speaker 4: Mister Presto's last trick was his best. He and the

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Speaker 4: cast of thousands disappeared.

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Speaker 1: You know what else people hated when it came out,

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Speaker 1: Citizen Kane, probably.

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Speaker 4: So Elvis Presco, Hey, baby.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Elvis Presto happens in nineteen eighty nine, and then

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Speaker 1: everyone quietly agrees that will never happen again. Nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: doesn't improve very much. There are iconic performers like Irma Thomas,

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Speaker 1: but the theme is Charlie Brown's Birthday, you complete with

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Speaker 1: these terrifying peanuts mascot costumes. Nineteen ninety one has New

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Speaker 1: Kids on the Block headlining, but even they have to

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Speaker 1: follow Roger Rabbit and Goofy breakdancing and an entire chorus

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Speaker 1: of It's a Small World. In ninety two, Gloria A.

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Speaker 1: Stefan kind of had to split the bill with US

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Speaker 1: Olympic figure skaters and an entire hockey team. But in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, the formula is locked in. This is

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Speaker 1: the year that Michael Jackson headlines, and we start to

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Speaker 1: see the halftime show as what we think of it today.

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Speaker 1: You weren't just getting a ticket to the biggest football

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Speaker 1: game on the planet. You were also getting a ticket

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Speaker 1: to one of the hottest concerts possible. After Michael Jackson,

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Speaker 1: it's after the races for pop and rock megastars headlining

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Speaker 1: the halftime show, with the exception of the Indiana Jones thing.

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Speaker 1: Let's hear it again. Wow, Indiana Jones, You've got Judge

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Speaker 1: ot agay, So now tell me shut up west Nick, sure, Patty.

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Speaker 1: The nineties brought big shows from headliners like Diana Ross,

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Speaker 1: a huge Motown salute, Gloria a step fun with Stevie

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Speaker 1: Wonder instead of a hockey team. That's an improvement. And

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Speaker 1: in the two thousands the show really hit its stride

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Speaker 1: because that's when I started forming memories, and so that's

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Speaker 1: when history began. Just kidding, history began here, Ah, sorry, okay,

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Speaker 1: the two thousands, post nine to eleven, we had a

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Speaker 1: U two headlined halftime show. In two thousand and two

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Speaker 1: with Bono's little American flag jacket. He's Irish and I

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Speaker 1: thought anti war, but sure. We had a very chaotic

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four that led to the infamous Janet

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Speaker 1: Jackson quote unquote wardrobe malfunction, sending justin Timberlake to the

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Speaker 1: gutters of history. We had the best halftime show of

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Speaker 1: all time from Prince in two thousand and seven, and

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Speaker 1: want to remember really enjoying from Bruce Springsteen in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and nine.

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Speaker 2: I won't you just step back from the quack of

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Speaker 2: hole it?

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Speaker 3: Devin, how about you that shit get things down. I'm

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Speaker 3: turning your television.

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Speaker 1: But by the early twenty tens was star ording to

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Speaker 1: run out of establishment rock acts to headline, starting the

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Speaker 1: decade with The Who, and then leaning heavily into pop acts.

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Speaker 1: The Black Eyed Peas, a really fun Madonna show, Beyonce

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Speaker 1: in a close second to Prince for the all time

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Speaker 1: best halftime show. Then came Bruno Mars, and on February first,

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, pop star Katy Perry headlined at what ended

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Speaker 1: up being one of the most memorable halftime shows ever

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Speaker 1: in Glendale, Arizona, and whether you were a fan or not,

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Speaker 1: This was peak Katy Perry. If you haven't watched it

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Speaker 1: in almost ten years, let me remind you of what

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Speaker 1: the show was like. It starts big and silly, what

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Speaker 1: Perry was known for at the time, and she enters

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Speaker 1: on this gigantic gilded lion puppet with glowing red eyes.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome. She's saddled onto the lion in address

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Speaker 1: covered in Guy Fieri flames, and she's singing her hit

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Speaker 1: Roar and singing live shout.

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Speaker 2: Out to that.

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Speaker 1: She gets to the stage, dismounts the gigantic lion puppet,

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Speaker 1: and then launches into the next song, dark Horse, And

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Speaker 1: the second she hits the stage, there's dancers, and the

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Speaker 1: way Katy Perry had dancers at this time was very specific.

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Speaker 1: It's really campy, really over the top. The led stage

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Speaker 1: becomes this huge chessboard, and her dancers, complete with their

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Speaker 1: faces painted in silver, are sexy chest pieces like flipping

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Speaker 1: and dancing their asses off. Awesome. She moves her way

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Speaker 1: across the stage and launches into the next hit. And

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Speaker 1: by the way, this is the only Super Bowl show

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Speaker 1: ever that featured all number one hits. Her first guest artist,

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Speaker 1: Lenny Kravitz, comes out Who's looking full Lenny Kravitz leather jacket,

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Speaker 1: jeans the whole bit, and he does a cover of

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Speaker 1: her early hit, problematic Bisexual anthem, I kissed a girl

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Speaker 1: back before out queer pop stars were legal, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: The two sing a chillingly heterosexual duet, and then the

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Speaker 1: set changes into a California beach and we head into

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Speaker 1: the next song, all timer pop anthem teenage Dream. We're

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Speaker 1: approaching the halfway mark of the show now and Katy

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Speaker 1: Perry does her first abrupt costume change, and the dancers

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Speaker 1: have changed too. No longer dresses chess pieces. Many of

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Speaker 1: them are now dressed as anthropomorphic Disneyland style grinning palm trees, surfboards,

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Speaker 1: beach balls, and sharks. Katie comes out in a primary

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Speaker 1: colored beach ball inspired dress and the character dancers kind

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Speaker 1: of bob around her. Something that always stuck out to

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Speaker 1: me is that the beach balls had these little teeth.

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Speaker 1: I hate when things have teeth and they don't have teeth.

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Speaker 1: The cars from cars, regardless. The costumes are elaborate, and

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Speaker 1: the anthropomorphic characters have these mouths that move in time

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Speaker 1: with the music while the dancers are inside them. And

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Speaker 1: as we head into the chorus of Teenage Dream, Katie

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Speaker 1: is flanked by two bright blue costume sharks. The costume's

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Speaker 1: mouth along to the words of the chorus, and the

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Speaker 1: dancers do their thing. But as the chorus is ending,

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Speaker 1: viewers across the world begin to notice that the shark

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Speaker 1: on the left side of the screen seems to have

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Speaker 1: maybe lost the thread a little. He's dancing a little

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Speaker 1: out of sink. He slaps himself in the face, and

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Speaker 1: then he kind of just like wings it. This happens

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Speaker 1: very quickly. The whole thing takes less than five seconds,

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Speaker 1: and then the sharks are both locked into the choreography

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Speaker 1: for the rest of the show. But the moment has

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Speaker 1: already been screen grab This was a Super Bowl that

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Speaker 1: was not just watched on TV, but experienced in real

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Speaker 1: time on social media, and so within seconds, an online

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Speaker 1: phenomenon still remembered to this day was born. Left Shark.

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Speaker 1: Brian gaw Your sixteenth Minute starts now. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: sixteenth Minute, the podcast where we interview the Internet characters

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Speaker 1: of the day from time gone by to see how

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Speaker 1: their big moment affected them and what it says about

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Speaker 1: the Internet and US and today. I'm speaking with the

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Speaker 1: infamous Left Shark from the Katy Perry Super Bowl halftime

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Speaker 1: show back in twenty fifteen. This is a true sixteenth

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Speaker 1: minute exclusive. It's only the second interview that Left Shark

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Speaker 1: has done ever in almost ten years, and spoiler alert

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Speaker 1: him so much. He's awesome. But to fully appreciate his story,

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Speaker 1: I think we need to take a closer look at

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Speaker 1: what and why this moment happened, because, like millions of

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Speaker 1: other people, I very much remember seeing this in real time.

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Speaker 1: I was babysitting my boss's kids because I wasn't being

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Speaker 1: paid enough by my boss, and so their solution was

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Speaker 1: take care of my kids while I go to my

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Speaker 1: friend's Super Bowl party. Anyway, the kids and I were

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Speaker 1: watching this, and I probably tweeted about left Shark in

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Speaker 1: the moment. So buckle in, part your hair to the

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Speaker 1: side and come with me if you dare to. February

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Harper Lee is announced to be releasing a

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Speaker 1: second book called Go Set a Watchman, prompting allegations that

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Speaker 1: she was forced into publishing via elder abuse. Brian Williams

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Speaker 1: goes on hiatus after being caught lying about being in

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Speaker 1: a helicopter that was shot down in the Iraq War.

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Speaker 1: Remember that? And pop star Katy Perry headlined the Super

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Speaker 1: Bowl halftime show with surprise guests Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott.

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Speaker 1: By the way, yeah, Missy fucking Elliott left. Shark became

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Speaker 1: the main thing that this halftime show was remembered for.

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Speaker 1: But let's not forget Missy Elliott was the surprise guest

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Speaker 1: on this show, and right after the Sharks clear the stage,

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Speaker 1: she comes out of nowhere and performs get your freak

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Speaker 1: on and Work It, before the show concludes with Katie

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Speaker 1: Perry singing firework while flying through the audience on a

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Speaker 1: gigantic shooting star prop that kind of looked like the

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Speaker 1: More You Know logo. It was a really good show,

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Speaker 1: making the fact that lef Shark was the main takeaway

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people all the more remarkable. Before

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Speaker 1: we get into how the show came together, a quick disclaimer.

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Speaker 1: Because I'm talking about the Super Bowl and therefore the

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Speaker 1: NFL this week, I want to be clear about a

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Speaker 1: few things. I do feel the need to say that

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Speaker 1: the NFL is a demonstrably dogshit organization from just about

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Speaker 1: any angle you look at it from This was true

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Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen and would only become more true in

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Speaker 1: the years to come. The year after this halftime show,

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Speaker 1: Colin Kaepernick famously took a knee during the US national

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Speaker 1: anthem at a game to protest racial inequality and police brutality,

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Speaker 1: which brought his professional career to a screeching halt soon after,

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Speaker 1: leading to lawsuits between Kaepernick and the league. That's not

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Speaker 1: to mention how the NFL has historically ignored the rampant CTE,

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Speaker 1: traumatic brain injuries brought on by players repeated concussions that

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Speaker 1: have destroyed players' lives and led to the death of many.

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Speaker 1: The NFL has never confronted this, and even went as

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Speaker 1: far to intimidate scientists who were studying CTE in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 1: There's the matter of massive NFL stadiums uprooting entire communities,

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Speaker 1: most often poor communities, and these rotten to the core

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Speaker 1: issues with the NFL is what's caused some musicians to

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Speaker 1: turn down playing the Super Bowl in the past, most

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Speaker 1: notably Rihanna, Pink and Cardi b in solidarity with Colin

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Speaker 1: Kaepernick back in twenty nineteen. Although Rihanna did later do

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Speaker 1: the super Bowl in twenty twenty three, so I guess

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Speaker 1: she got over it. Don't yell at me. I'm a

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Speaker 1: Rihanna fan, but like, come on anyways, I did want

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Speaker 1: to acknowledge that reality before digging into this Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: halftime show story, because admittedly there is my oo shiny, awesome,

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Speaker 1: pretty show with fireworks brain. That means I generally still

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Speaker 1: tune into the halftime show almost every year, and in general,

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Speaker 1: Americans are just weirdly into the super Bowl. The amount

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Speaker 1: of bizarre, campy media that exists around the Super Bowl

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Speaker 1: is hard to quantify it. If you don't believe me,

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Speaker 1: Here's a clip of the Chicago Bears singing nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: five's novelty single, the super Bowl shuffle.

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Speaker 3: Shot.

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Speaker 1: The song is very famous. I can't account for it.

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Speaker 1: The song has ten verses and was nominated for a Grammy.

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Speaker 1: But don't worry. The New England Patriots also made a

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Speaker 1: novelty song about wanting to win the Super Bowl that year.

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Speaker 1: Huge l for New England. It's just embarrassing. Sorry, just

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Speaker 1: one more. In nineteen eighty six, the Los Angeles Rams

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Speaker 1: recorded a novelty rap song that is basically horn.

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Speaker 3: This is limousine money, my movies like Dreams. They call

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Speaker 3: me the domn Ahose Special Teams. I know how to

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Speaker 3: run from the toes to the head. When I pull

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Speaker 3: the to the eye, knock you did.

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Speaker 1: I'm a mountain man from West Va. They call me

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Speaker 1: Hursk and I came to play. I learned long ago.

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Speaker 1: If the rama just rights, you can ram it all day.

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Speaker 2: And ram it all night.

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Speaker 1: The super Bowl is deeply American. It's big, it's annoying,

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Speaker 1: it's bad for the world, and people have a lot

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Speaker 1: of fun watching it. Anyways, the year that Katy Perry performed,

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Speaker 1: the team's playing were the New England Patriots and the

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Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks. And that will be the last time I

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Speaker 1: will be talking about the teams because for my money,

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Speaker 1: the left Shark moment defined this entire broadcast. Think about

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Speaker 1: moments that have stuck with you from halftime shows of yore.

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Speaker 1: The Rihanna pregnancy reveal from twenty twenty three, Lady Gaga

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Speaker 1: jumping off a building at the beginning of her show

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Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, Mia flipping off the camera before the

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Speaker 1: broadcast had time to cut it during Madonna's show in

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Speaker 1: twenty twelve, and most infamously ever, the Janet Jackson Justin

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Speaker 1: Timberlake wardrobe malfunction from two thousand and four that slowed

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Speaker 1: Janet Jackson's career to a crawl in spite of the

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Speaker 1: fact that she had done nothing except have a nipple,

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Speaker 1: and Justin Timberlake went on to headline a super Bowl show,

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Speaker 1: only seeing his complicity in this incident catch up with

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Speaker 1: him in the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: What tour the world tour.

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Speaker 1: Now you'll notice that all these stories have to do

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Speaker 1: with these celebrities at the center of the show, leaving

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Speaker 1: Left Shark in a class of his own. Because sure,

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Speaker 1: Left Shark was a part of the Katy Perry Show,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't planned. The moment was not defined by her.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a tabloid moment, It wasn't a scandal, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a carefully engineered reveal. Left Shark's going rogue was

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Speaker 1: something weird and organic that brought social media together. But

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Speaker 1: this was a single moment inside of a gigantic show

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Speaker 1: that had been worked on for months. So to give

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Speaker 1: you an idea of how unbelievably complicated it was to

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Speaker 1: bring this and all contemporary Super Bowl halftime shows together.

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Speaker 1: Here's an approximate timeline of how long the Katy Perry

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Speaker 1: Show took to come together, because of course there's a

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Speaker 1: documentary about it, and of course I watched it twice.

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Speaker 1: So the actual Super Bowl show happens on February first,

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Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, but the first rumblings of a Katie halftime

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Speaker 1: show start in August twenty fourteen, when the shortlist is

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Speaker 1: revealed to be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Coldplay, and The

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal reported that there were pay to play rumors,

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Speaker 1: which means their record labels would pay the NFL a

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Speaker 1: premium in order to get them booked. The NFL denied this,

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Speaker 1: and they famously love to tell the truth, so I say,

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Speaker 1: let's believe them. But whatever happened or didn't happen, Katie

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Speaker 1: Perry was in and Coldplay and Rihanna would play the

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Speaker 1: super Bowl in the next ten years, so whatever proper

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Speaker 1: planning started in fall twenty fourteen, and Katy Perry said

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Speaker 1: from the beginning that she wants a guest artist to

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Speaker 1: surprise the audience, and the same big, colorful aesthetic of

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Speaker 1: her touring show. Billboard announced she would be the lead

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Speaker 1: act in October twenty fourteen, and the NFL confirmed in

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Speaker 1: November and through the end of that year, while she

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Speaker 1: and her dancers were on the Prismatic World Tour in

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Speaker 1: the US, Katie's team was communicating and planning their vision

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Speaker 1: to the go to group of Super Bowl halftime organizers.

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Speaker 1: Logistics while she's gone include designing and constructing a stage

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Speaker 1: unique to this specific stadium in more than eight hundred

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Speaker 1: original costumes. Katie and the dancers finished the tour on

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Speaker 1: December twentieth, and after the holiday break, it was all

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Speaker 1: hands on deck to learn an entirely different show than

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Speaker 1: they were doing on tour. So about a month to

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Speaker 1: rehearse a show for one hundred and twenty million people.

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Speaker 1: This is from the documentary.

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Speaker 8: We got to physically rehearse for one month straight. First,

430
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 8: we were in a dance studio, because you don't get

431
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 8: to always rehearse in a stadium.

432
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,719
Speaker 9: They're boiling down six months of work every day, all

433
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 9: hours of the day, seven days a week, boils down

434
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 9: to twelve and a half minutes, and there those twelve

435
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 9: and a half minutes, everything's got to go right.

436
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 1: And in this rehearsal footage you can see the man

437
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: who would soon be left Shark. They start rehearsing in

438
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,359
Speaker 1: the stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on January eleventh, and the

439
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:44,159
Speaker 1: infrastructure is massive. There is eighteen thousand square feet of

440
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: led stage. There's flame cannons, there's a ten million dollar budget.

441
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: Five hundred stage hands are there to rehearse assembling and

442
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: disassembling the stage in the space of a single commercial break,

443
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,119
Speaker 1: and the whole crew is run by a Vietnam vette.

444
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: They literally run this shit like the military.

445
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 9: So we have two surf forwards, a palm trees, four

446
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 9: be swells, two sharks.

447
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we're so.

448
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 1: By mid January, Katy Perry is rehearsing on the gigantic

449
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: prismatic lion puppet. Missy Elliott and her dancers come in

450
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 1: to start rehearsing. There's this amazing moment when Brian gaw

451
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: is in his shark costume and he and Katie goof

452
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 1: around in their mouths all moved.

453
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 3: What do you think that, TV?

454
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 8: Do you feel like you have a handle on that costume,

455
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,879
Speaker 8: Like you're not gonna go timber at any point?

456
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: Honestly, No, this is pretty easy, iconic and you see

457
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 1: her talking with her dancers wearing the huge costumes and

458
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:49,120
Speaker 1: making sure they're comfortable. They perfect rapid costume changes. There's

459
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:54,160
Speaker 1: a flying rehearsal, camera rehearsal, they film promos. Hi, I'm

460
00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 1: Katy Perry, pop star.

461
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 8: Welcome to my halftime show testing facilities.

462
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: We're testing. Finally, after six months of planning, it's Super

463
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:06,119
Speaker 1: Bowl Eve. Katy Perry appears to have micro managed this

464
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: event down to the micro detail. And the night before

465
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: she has this premonition that the Sharks will be the

466
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 1: star of the show.

467
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 8: You don't understand that, like, the Sharks are going to

468
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 8: get so much love on life.

469
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: You just heard the voice of Scott Merrick aka Wright Shark.

470
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: He's actually still a working dancer and was one of

471
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 1: the dancing Kens at the Oscars last year. And then

472
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: it's the day of the Super Bowl. Katy Perry was

473
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: a pastor's daughter, I guess.

474
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:34,199
Speaker 2: So.

475
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,120
Speaker 1: In this room full of her dancers dressed as chess

476
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: pieces and Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, she gives a

477
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: pep talk with prayer where I pray God that you

478
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: will look after us.

479
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 8: Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity.

480
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 1: And we know it's because.

481
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 8: Of you, because you have chosen us, and we believe

482
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 8: that we are exactly where we are supposed to be

483
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,280
Speaker 8: today at this moment, and we will be present and conscious,

484
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 8: and we will smile, and we will live in this

485
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 8: twelve and.

486
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: A half note it, and then the huge show happens

487
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: and one of the Sharks did this thing at some point,

488
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: But after they get off stage, it seems like the

489
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: cruise takeaway is Wow, that went really well, instantly, well

490
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: reviewed and declared one of the best halftime shows ever.

491
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: It causes this huge spike in Katy perry music sales,

492
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 1: everything you would hope from a performance of that scale.

493
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 1: And if you'll permit me to make it quick aside,

494
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: it's just interesting that Katy Perry needed months to put

495
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 1: this show together because my favorite Super Bowl act learned

496
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: his entire part in three days. Who But by the

497
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,560
Speaker 1: time the stage had been disassembled for New England to

498
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,800
Speaker 1: win the game, there had been three million tweets about

499
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,959
Speaker 1: the halftime show in the thirteen minutes it was airing,

500
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: and the Lion, the Shooting Star and the costumes made

501
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation, but there was a clear favorite moment,

502
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:09,280
Speaker 1: but everyone's favorite moment had nothing to do with this

503
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: six months of planning.

504
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 4: Guess who, Katie, did you forget your routine again? Left Shark,

505
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 4: Left Shark? No, Katie, don't lie to me. Left Shark,

506
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 4: Left Shark Yes.

507
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:27,560
Speaker 1: I guess it's up to me to decide. Am I

508
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: going to be a right shark or a left shark today?

509
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 4: Hashtag deep every time I get sad about the Seahawks,

510
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 4: I will turn to left shark.

511
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: If you were wondering, that was me and the shark costume.

512
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: That last tweet was Snoop Dogg. And while it takes

513
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: people a little time to catch on, Brian Gaw reveals

514
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: himself as left Shark the night of the Super Bowl

515
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,320
Speaker 1: by posting a screenshot of Katy Perry with the sharks

516
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter with this caption.

517
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 4: Yep, the rumors are true, yours truly, And.

518
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 1: The next day he shares a picture of himself dressed

519
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: as a rook in the chest sequence. Throughout the rest

520
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: of the night, the left Shark meme Edits came in

521
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: fast and heavy. There was left Shark being beamed into

522
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: the sky like the bat signal. There was left Shark

523
00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: on the poster of Jaws, there was Left Shark looming

524
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: behind llll coolj and Deep Blue Sea. And sure there

525
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 1: were a few people who were being mean to Left Shark,

526
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: saying that he messed up the choreography, but by and large,

527
00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 1: it was a stunningly positive moment, the kind you don't

528
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: get very often on the Internet. Left Shark became the

529
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: rare main character with all but no negative backlash. It

530
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: was a mystery of identity, and because it was the

531
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, mainstream media was all over Left Shark. The

532
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: next morning, Katie Perry, from the bottom of my heart,

533
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: thank you for left Shark.

534
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 7: How did you like the dancing sharks and the one

535
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 7: who went rogue and started doing the macarena that looked

536
00:31:58,880 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 7: like it was from Saturday Night?

537
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 3: Hear this?

538
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,880
Speaker 7: The shark's screen Left was a killer, noted one sports blog,

539
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 7: Left Shark failed out of choreography school. On Twitter, they

540
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 7: were compared to the hologram shark from Back to the Future.

541
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: Left Shark became the human interest fintrest no the human

542
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 1: interest story of the day, but most of the reporting

543
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 1: about him in the first wave is either about the

544
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: perceived miss choreography or about how much the Internet loved him.

545
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:35,120
Speaker 1: He was everywhere, and the suggestion that the dancer messed

546
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 1: up the choreography was so outsized in the first day

547
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: that a series of things happened. First halftime show choreographer r. J.

548
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: Durrell came out on Monday to say that left Shark

549
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: did nothing wrong. In the Hollywood Reporter, this was the headline.

550
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 4: Katie Perry's choreographer, Left Shark nailed it.

551
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: Here's the story.

552
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 4: The Sharks were given two main objectives, Perry's choreographer RJ.

553
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 4: Derell tells thhr one perform Katie's trademark moves to the

554
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 4: teenage Dream Chorus, which they both did perfectly, and two

555
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 4: to have loads of fun and bring to life these

556
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 4: characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a tweetledd Tweedledum

557
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,240
Speaker 4: type persona clearly that was portrayed with the over zealous

558
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 4: shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while the

559
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,479
Speaker 4: left Shark, Durell says, was playing up a more goofy,

560
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 4: fun spirited sports fan mascot type that was just happy

561
00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 4: to be at the Super Bowl.

562
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 1: And interestingly, at the end of this article, Durell leans

563
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: into the already developing narrative around left Shark.

564
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 4: Don't forget we all have a little hashtag left shark.

565
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 2: In US hashtag.

566
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 1: Indeed, Katy Perry herself tweets out her support of the

567
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 1: meme the night after the Super Bowl with an illustrated

568
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 1: graphic of an embarrassed left Shark with text reading you

569
00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: the real MVP. And while the reveal of Brian Gaul

570
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: was very satisfying, as well as the reassurance that left

571
00:33:56,760 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: Shark's notoriety wasn't going to affect his livelihood, doesn't really

572
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,080
Speaker 1: stay the focus of the story here. It becomes this

573
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 1: pretty wholesome be yourself message that catches on do your

574
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: thing with passion and the world will appreciate you. And

575
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: so for the next few days, there are some pretty

576
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: funny standard fifteen minutes of fame things that happen. A

577
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: guy gets the left Shark tattoo, people dressed as the

578
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:22,319
Speaker 1: left and right Sharks appeared in a SportsCenter ad and

579
00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: on the Late Late Show with John Mayer didn't look

580
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: into it further, but drama it would appear that Katy

581
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: Perry's team wanted to make sure that the left Shark

582
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 1: phenomenon wasn't making money for random people. By February sixth,

583
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 1: her team had issued a cease and assist to Orlando

584
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:45,000
Speaker 1: artist Fernando Sosa for selling three D printed left Shark toys.

585
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: By February tenth, Sosa's lawyer had fired back, saying.

586
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 4: We also wonder what Katy Perry could possibly stand to

587
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:54,480
Speaker 4: gain from declaring war on an internet meme.

588
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,720
Speaker 1: Well, what she stood to gain was revealed in March

589
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, when the CA Katy Perry stores started selling

590
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 1: officially licensed Shark onesies, advertised with this tweet Attention Internet,

591
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,400
Speaker 1: no longer do you have to diy left shark costume.

592
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: You can now be a proper hashtag left shark with

593
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 1: this official glorious hashtag left Shark onesie. This was launched

594
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:22,560
Speaker 1: alongside an officially licensed left sharked T shirt. And I

595
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: will say that merch is a pretty common refraining with

596
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: main characters, with people like Hawkta Girl and previously thirty

597
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: to fifty Faral Hogs Guy. People will sometimes create their

598
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: own merch in order to combat opportunistic people capitalizing on

599
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 1: their image or catchphrase or idea. I do think that

600
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: it made sense that Katy Perry did this, but it

601
00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: looks a little different when a millionaire pop star is

602
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,160
Speaker 1: doing it. Because Brian didn't seem to profit from the

603
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:52,320
Speaker 1: meme himself and didn't really seem interested in it, turning

604
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:56,279
Speaker 1: down most interview requests. After Brian's identity was revealed, it

605
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like he has much else to do with

606
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: the story in the short term, but Katie d Perry

607
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:04,200
Speaker 1: and her team stay at it. By April twenty fifteen,

608
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: Katie posted a photo with a Coachella trash can styled

609
00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:10,800
Speaker 1: to look like Left Shark. That same month, it revealed

610
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,799
Speaker 1: that her team had been rejected for various attempts to

611
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:17,560
Speaker 1: trademark the character with the US Trademark Office. The requests

612
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,760
Speaker 1: included trademarking the costume design, as well as phrase's Left Shark,

613
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: Bright Shark, drunk Shark, and basking Shark, trips off the

614
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 1: Tongue March Wars. Aside, Left Shark had a weird amount

615
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: of staying power throughout twenty fifteen. Most notably, he came

616
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,799
Speaker 1: up in a commencement speech at Boston University given by

617
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:43,399
Speaker 1: Meredith Vieira. Here it is stay away from afex better

618
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:53,239
Speaker 1: yet be the Left Shark remember last Super Bowl when

619
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 1: the Patriots won. Yeah, Well, and at this point in

620
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,480
Speaker 1: this speak, someone in a Left Shark costume comes out

621
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 1: and it becomes a lesson about doing your own thing.

622
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: The NFL has also repeatedly made reference to this moment

623
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 1: to this day. Left Shark is mentioned in the official

624
00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: YouTube upload of the Katy Perry halftime show, crediting the

625
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 1: three musical artists and Left Shark not even the director

626
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:27,880
Speaker 1: of the broadcast. This Shark's power is raw power. And

627
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 1: it's just interesting because confident imperfection was not always tolerated

628
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 1: on that stage, was it. Who oh hmm? And so

629
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: Left Shark had become the rare feel good character, and

630
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 1: as always, eventually the internet moved on. Katy Perry and

631
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: her dancers flew out to Spain to resume the Prismatic

632
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 1: World tour on February sixteenth, twenty fifteen. Brian gaw went

633
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:56,960
Speaker 1: with them. He was publicly known to be Left Shark.

634
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 1: He'd been defended and celebrated by his peers, and he

635
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: returned to dancing. Something I found interesting researching this story

636
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: is that it's consistently the Katy Perry team that continues

637
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 1: to make this big deal out of Left Shark, Never

638
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: Brian Gaw. It's the team that owns the costume, the

639
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 1: team that tries to do the trademark. I mean, Brian

640
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 1: certainly enjoys the moment itself, but he never tries to

641
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 1: seek eternal association with this. He wanted to get back

642
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 1: to work, and that's what he did. Years later, Katy

643
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,400
Speaker 1: Perry and Company with towed out the Left Shark a

644
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: few times in twenty eighteen, including at a Super Bowl

645
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 1: pre show. This is her talking to someone in the

646
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:37,879
Speaker 1: Left Shark suit, not Brian.

647
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 8: But you would be made fun of it all over

648
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 8: the world.

649
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 3: Life Do you think you're.

650
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:47,759
Speaker 8: A good dancer?

651
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 1: Left Shark also made an appearance on her tour promoting

652
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: the album Witness throughout twenty eighteen. Then, weirdly, Left Shark

653
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,439
Speaker 1: went viral again on TikTok in twenty twenty two, when

654
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,879
Speaker 1: California Girls had a brief resurgence and TikTokers were buying

655
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 1: the costume and having all of their friends wear them

656
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 1: and dance in them. I don't know. The only interview

657
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,239
Speaker 1: Brian Gaw would ever give on the subject would be

658
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen to NPR, But by that time, he'd

659
00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:18,919
Speaker 1: very much moved on from this moment, although he still

660
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:23,120
Speaker 1: embraced the meme in general. He also defended his choreography choice,

661
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,680
Speaker 1: echoing what had been said years earlier. It was a freestyle.

662
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 1: It was fair play, Brian innocent. He also said he

663
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,760
Speaker 1: had retired from dancing at the end of twenty fifteen,

664
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:36,960
Speaker 1: shortly after the Prismatic Tour ended, and was now working

665
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 1: at an upscale West Hollywood hair salon. But that was

666
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:47,680
Speaker 1: all we knew until now. Because listener, here's the thing

667
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 1: about an upscale West Hollywood hair salon. I can make

668
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: my boyfriend drive me there on a Tuesday morning, and

669
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: so when we come back, I speak to Left Shark

670
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:01,600
Speaker 1: Brian gaw himself in the the lobby of a very

671
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:02,960
Speaker 1: fancy hair salon.

672
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:21,280
Speaker 10: Yeah, welcome back to sixteenth minute.

673
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,920
Speaker 1: It was so nice of everyone at Left Shark's hair

674
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:27,440
Speaker 1: salon to not comment on my new haircut, because my

675
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 1: new haircut is a triangle shape and that's not the

676
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 1: style of fault. I asked for the triangle shape and

677
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 1: she talked me out of bangs. So it actually is

678
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: a good haircut. And today I have an exclusive, in

679
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: depth interview with a certain left Shark. Brian Gaw currently

680
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 1: works at the Serrano Salon in West Hollywood, inside of

681
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 1: a store called Just One Eye. The store is huge

682
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 1: and gorgeous and scary in a way that stores in

683
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 1: West Hollywood can be. The ceilings are high, there's a

684
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:01,160
Speaker 1: sexy anime statue, but it's classy. I have no idea

685
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: what they were selling there, And in the very back

686
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:07,839
Speaker 1: is this small, gorgeous salon. Brian is both a successful

687
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 1: hairstylist for private clients and for high fashion. His Instagram

688
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 1: includes a lot of this work. I'm talking doing hair

689
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:19,279
Speaker 1: for red carpets, Billboard, ad campaigns, Vogue, Hong Kong. He

690
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:23,720
Speaker 1: has built this incredible career for himself and his friends.

691
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 1: Did this day with Katy Perry and I am very

692
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,279
Speaker 1: intimidated by these kinds of spaces, but everyone at the

693
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:34,400
Speaker 1: salon was so so kind. It's owned by longtime celebrity

694
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,720
Speaker 1: stylist George Serrano, who Brian has worked with for years.

695
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 1: So when I arrived, we were in this beautiful, cavernous space,

696
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: and Brian said that the only place to do the

697
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:48,040
Speaker 1: interview would be right there. So this interview has been

698
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: edited for time and clarity and it sort of sounds

699
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: like we're sitting in the lobby of a very fancy

700
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,520
Speaker 1: hair salon, because we are. Here's my interview with Left

701
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:57,919
Speaker 1: Shark Brian gaw.

702
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 2: My name's Brian. I'm a hair stylist and I am

703
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 2: also a professional dancer. The dancing part has kind of

704
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 2: taken a back seat. So yeah, I'm just happy to

705
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 2: be here to chat with you.

706
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:14,160
Speaker 1: Could you tell me where we are?

707
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're in the Sycamore district called a multi

708
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:21,359
Speaker 2: brand kind of art installation called Just One I. There's

709
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 2: lots of high end retail art and where a boutique

710
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:27,799
Speaker 2: salon located in the back called Serrano Salon. We are

711
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 2: a small team of stylists and yeah, we're like a

712
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 2: little family back here.

713
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:33,640
Speaker 1: I was intimidated by the doors. I was like, I

714
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,880
Speaker 1: don't am I allowed to go any Yeah. Tell me

715
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: about where you grew up, how you grew up. What

716
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:41,040
Speaker 1: were you like as a kid.

717
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 2: So I grew up in Houston, Texas a product of

718
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 2: doing how I got into dances. I grew up doing

719
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,040
Speaker 2: martial arts. I was always very physically active during my

720
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:56,240
Speaker 2: high school years. So yeah, I did my first audition

721
00:42:56,640 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 2: that year. I had to wait till I turned eighteen

722
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 2: because they didn't have a men's team on the NBA

723
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:07,520
Speaker 2: that year, So I ended up auditioning again, got the job,

724
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:12,400
Speaker 2: danced for the NBA, and then at that time, like okay, fine,

725
00:43:12,440 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 2: here's the age thing. At that time, like Britney Spears

726
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,320
Speaker 2: was really big and like her dancers were all over MTV.

727
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 2: This was a different time in pop culture. Like you

728
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 2: would see your media on TRL, which is an MTV show,

729
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:27,360
Speaker 2: or you would hear it on the radio.

730
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:30,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, still the like Carson Daily era of curation.

731
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was like wow, like in my eyes,

732
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,000
Speaker 2: my young eyes, and like these dancers could be amazing,

733
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 2: they could be quote unquote famous. I want to be

734
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 2: a dancer. So I would go back and forth between

735
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,279
Speaker 2: LA and New York to take class and it just

736
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:48,279
Speaker 2: really opened my eyes. Like at that time, also one

737
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,359
Speaker 2: of my former teammates, Gilbert, he had already moved to LA.

738
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:54,840
Speaker 2: So I danced right after him and he had already

739
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 2: moved to LA. He was on the he was on

740
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 2: the Houston Comments Dance seem also, and everybody's like he's

741
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,160
Speaker 2: dancing for Christina Aguilera. You know, like you could totally

742
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 2: move to La and do this, and I was like,

743
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:08,879
Speaker 2: oh gosh, like I really want to try that. And yeah,

744
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:14,880
Speaker 2: that's sort of how I moved from Houston to LA such.

745
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:16,920
Speaker 1: A big move so young too. I mean I moved

746
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: here when I was twenty two, and I still was like, ugh,

747
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 1: I could have waited longer. Yeah, like what was that experience?

748
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:25,399
Speaker 2: Like it was crazy because like, you know, I went

749
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 2: to college for a little bit for a few years

750
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,359
Speaker 2: back in Houston. I still lived with my parents, and

751
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:34,000
Speaker 2: my time in La like or moving here. Yeah, I

752
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:37,279
Speaker 2: had friends that you know, I'd made here also, but

753
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,239
Speaker 2: it was like that was my college experience, if you will.

754
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:43,160
Speaker 2: You know, I moved out to an apartment by myself.

755
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:46,400
Speaker 2: I was auditioning all the time. Luckily I got an

756
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:49,760
Speaker 2: agent kind of right away when I first moved here. Okay,

757
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 2: and then yeah, it just was really it was a

758
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 2: very interesting time because it's like all I cared about

759
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 2: was dance. The only thing that was important to me

760
00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:01,320
Speaker 2: was dance, and that was like my one as a person.

761
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 2: I kind of like was always super into my hair anyways,

762
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:05,719
Speaker 2: and you can ask my family. Growing up, I would

763
00:45:05,719 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 2: always like playing people's hair and just kind of like

764
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 2: I was just some always into that and I kind

765
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 2: of thought, oh, well, eventually I'll end up going down

766
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 2: this path, but you know, for right now, it's just

767
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 2: like just into dance. I wanted to be a professional dancer,

768
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 2: and that's what I did.

769
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:25,440
Speaker 1: So when you get here and you're doing early auditions,

770
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: what were those early audition experiences like, were they like

771
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 1: big cattle calls?

772
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 2: What were Yeah, it's amazing. You get an agent and

773
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,400
Speaker 2: you don't realize, like you think you're new here. You

774
00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 2: get an agent and you know you're the whatever, the quintessential,

775
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 2: you're the best from your town, or you've made it

776
00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 2: because you've got to la. Well, honey, you don't realize

777
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:47,680
Speaker 2: like all these other people have been doing this, like right,

778
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,439
Speaker 2: so you're going to the big cattle call auditions, five

779
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:53,840
Speaker 2: hundred people auditions, thinking oh they called you for an audition,

780
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,839
Speaker 2: but you know this is like, yeah, you stood outside,

781
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 2: you waited your turn, you learned the waited your turn,

782
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,479
Speaker 2: and then you had that couple minutes to go and

783
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:06,759
Speaker 2: you were either cut or you kept making cuts or

784
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 2: they kept making cuts down the line. It was like

785
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:12,439
Speaker 2: an all day process. I think the experience of it,

786
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:16,839
Speaker 2: you just enjoyed. You didn't think it sucked because you

787
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:18,879
Speaker 2: just cared about dance. You wanted to book these jobs

788
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,360
Speaker 2: and this is an opportunity to you know, dance for

789
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 2: Janet or dance for Britney and you're like, these are

790
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 2: the biggest stars at the time, and yeah, you wanted

791
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:28,839
Speaker 2: to be a part of that, you know, and you

792
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:31,799
Speaker 2: were very close in terms of tangibility.

793
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 1: I mean, it certainly happened for you. It seems like

794
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: several times over I'm curious about those early gigs. I

795
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 1: looked at your IODB and I was like, Wow, you're

796
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: on every Disney Channel show I love just so much.

797
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what I think, what you don't you think?

798
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 2: You had this career steered in one way and life

799
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 2: just takes you either down that path or either down

800
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:54,800
Speaker 2: a more unique path. I think what was also interesting

801
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 2: for me is like it did end up happening. I

802
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 2: did work with all the you know, hot female pop stars,

803
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:01,880
Speaker 2: but early on in the career, in my career, it

804
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 2: was very I looked young, you know what I mean,

805
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 2: I looked like a kid. So it was booking like

806
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 2: commercials and TV and movie spots on kid type TV shows,

807
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 2: which is great. Because it allowed me my first like

808
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 2: footing in the door. It's like how you work with

809
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 2: these big choreographers. It's how you like you booked that

810
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 2: first job. You get to know the working dancers, You

811
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:24,319
Speaker 2: get to know the working choreographers and directors, and that's

812
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 2: kind of how you segue into bigger jobs. You know

813
00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 2: those other choreographers and directors, they work on other big projects.

814
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

815
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:33,080
Speaker 1: You do these gigs, You take these gigs, you get

816
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: the experience, and then you it you build on it.

817
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 1: It's like a stepping stone.

818
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 2: It is a stepping stone. You know. Hey, some people

819
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,239
Speaker 2: move out here their first audition, now is you know,

820
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 2: their dream job. For me, it wasn't. There was a

821
00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 2: there was a learning curve. I had to like bust

822
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 2: my ass in class because you're good in your hometown,

823
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,360
Speaker 2: but you're only so good compared to where people have

824
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 2: the experience here in LA, Like in LA and New York,

825
00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:57,279
Speaker 2: you're dealing with the best dancers in the world. And

826
00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,560
Speaker 2: that's just the truth. And honestly, I was behind. I

827
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 2: had to catch the truth is I wasn't as good.

828
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,719
Speaker 1: And when you started, I mean like kind of later too, right.

829
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, the truth is I was very lucky and I

830
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,839
Speaker 2: worked hard. I was good enough, but I was never

831
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 2: the best dancer in the room. Like I just had

832
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 2: the drive to aspire to be the best dancer in

833
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:18,880
Speaker 2: the room. And I really feel like the heart of

834
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,680
Speaker 2: that is what got me to where I ended up

835
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:23,239
Speaker 2: getting to with dancers.

836
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 1: Which is like the st here. I mean, it's like,

837
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:29,240
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Supportive family, supportive friends.

838
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 2: Supportive family. Yes, I had a group of friends here

839
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:36,919
Speaker 2: that were from Texas and ended up meeting people here

840
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 2: also as you do in dance class. It's really interesting

841
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 2: because yes, supportive family, but also a family that I'm

842
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:48,600
Speaker 2: the first one to do something non traditional I see, okay,

843
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:53,839
Speaker 2: which is polarizing because you know how it is yea.

844
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:57,719
Speaker 2: You know, there's an expectation and you're not on that

845
00:48:57,800 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 2: path and you kind of have to prove it to

846
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,720
Speaker 2: yourself to everyone else. And then you start booking jobs,

847
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:04,360
Speaker 2: and then you get on TV and then you do

848
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:06,960
Speaker 2: this and that, and it's like that's I think. Another

849
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 2: thing I like would love to just impart is like

850
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 2: so many of these moments for all performers, it's the

851
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:16,800
Speaker 2: pinnacle of their years of work. And I like attribute

852
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 2: it to like the Olympics or anything else. Like what

853
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 2: you're seeing is a final product of ours years, like

854
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,719
Speaker 2: a lifetime of work. And it's really easy for spectators

855
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:31,600
Speaker 2: or you know, onlookers to just be a critic and

856
00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:34,880
Speaker 2: the way in which media is so consumed these days

857
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,480
Speaker 2: or just very easy to be critical of something or

858
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:43,000
Speaker 2: another without understanding where the art or performance comes from.

859
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,480
Speaker 2: And it is it's a little disheartening, but you got

860
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 2: to also understand that, like you put your time in

861
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 2: and hopefully it's well received.

862
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,600
Speaker 1: I mean, I have to imagine as a professional dancer,

863
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:54,640
Speaker 1: it's a testament to your craft if you're not making

864
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 1: it look hard. Yeah, but then people treat you like, well,

865
00:49:58,320 --> 00:49:59,920
Speaker 1: how hard can it be? Because look how easy it?

866
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: Oh No, I spent ten years making it look that easy.

867
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:06,520
Speaker 2: I'm glad for where we're at these dates, and like

868
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:09,319
Speaker 2: this day and age, we've grown so much, right, but

869
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:12,800
Speaker 2: also back in the day, it was rough, like people

870
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:14,799
Speaker 2: in power could talk to you a certain way, you know,

871
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:17,319
Speaker 2: like you had to look a certain way, you had

872
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:20,520
Speaker 2: to I mean, just very bluntly. There was a body

873
00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:26,520
Speaker 2: standard for both men and women, unspoken but not unspoken, right, Right,

874
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,279
Speaker 2: the dance world is tough, you know, and it's you're

875
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:31,480
Speaker 2: supposed to look a certain way, the shapes are supposed

876
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 2: to look a certain way, you know what I mean.

877
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 2: And that's how it was back then.

878
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:37,640
Speaker 1: You know, when do you start touring regularly, when do

879
00:50:37,640 --> 00:50:39,520
Speaker 1: you start working with these sort of bigger pop stars,

880
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,000
Speaker 1: Because I know I saw Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and

881
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:42,800
Speaker 1: then Katie Perry.

882
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:46,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like I would say probably around two thousand

883
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:48,719
Speaker 2: and eight, I was working with a few big choreographers.

884
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,400
Speaker 2: I was working with Tony Braxton at the time, Lady Gaga,

885
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,600
Speaker 2: Miley Cyrus, and I was kind of transitioning off that.

886
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,759
Speaker 2: Like I had done a little run with Miley when

887
00:50:57,120 --> 00:50:59,840
Speaker 2: she was doing her kind of hand in Montana but

888
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:02,480
Speaker 2: kind of trying to like break from so and I

889
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 2: think she was. That was also the tail end of

890
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:08,120
Speaker 2: her time at Disney. I was also working with Lady Gaga.

891
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 2: At the time. Lady Gaga was just getting famous. We're

892
00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:13,640
Speaker 2: doing live shows videos for her. I had done a

893
00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:16,680
Speaker 2: couple gigs with Katie. I think the first one I

894
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 2: had done was like the Teen Choice Awards or something

895
00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 2: like that, and then the tour was going to come

896
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:23,399
Speaker 2: around and it's like, okay, like you got a foot

897
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:26,600
Speaker 2: in because she's familiar with you, but also like you know,

898
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 2: you got an audition. I think at that time, like

899
00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:30,839
Speaker 2: I was, I guess, if you want to say, like

900
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,799
Speaker 2: at the height of like my dance ability, like all

901
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:35,759
Speaker 2: the just sort of all the pieces were there, right,

902
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 2: I knew the right people. I had worked my butt

903
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:41,160
Speaker 2: off talent wise to get to a certain level where

904
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 2: I could perform at that level, and then yeah, I

905
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 2: had an audition just like everybody else.

906
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,960
Speaker 1: So yeah, what tour was your first tour with her?

907
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:53,080
Speaker 2: It was the California Dreams Tour.

908
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:55,000
Speaker 1: You're getting at it before, and I want to hear

909
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:57,960
Speaker 1: more about just giving people an idea of what an

910
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:02,759
Speaker 1: incredible grind it is being on these tours. What do

911
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:05,400
Speaker 1: your days look like? It seems exhausting.

912
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:07,520
Speaker 2: When you're touring. This is kind of like I don't

913
00:52:07,560 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 2: know for me or I don't want to speak out

914
00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 2: a turn, but for me, like that was like a

915
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:13,759
Speaker 2: pinnacle of booking a dance job. You're on a big

916
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 2: dance job with a huge pop star, you know, arguably

917
00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:19,879
Speaker 2: that the hottest pop star at the time, at at

918
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:23,880
Speaker 2: those specific years. Your job is to rehearse. You rehearse

919
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:26,800
Speaker 2: for a couple months before tour, skeleton work. It's a

920
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 2: lot of figuring it out and then it's you know,

921
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 2: it turns into the refining process. Even when you're on

922
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 2: the road, you're rehearsing, you're doing tech, you know, every

923
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:38,319
Speaker 2: day before the show, you might have time to like

924
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:40,319
Speaker 2: sight see or something like that. And then you're doing

925
00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 2: a show and then it's like you're either in that

926
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 2: same city or you're off to the next city on

927
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,160
Speaker 2: a bus on a plane, either that night or the

928
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:47,880
Speaker 2: next day.

929
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:49,000
Speaker 1: For weeks, months, years.

930
00:52:49,239 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, for weeks months years. Yeah. As I said, like

931
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:55,439
Speaker 2: the tour, that initial tour got extended and then went

932
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 2: into like sort of a break, which is great. You know,

933
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:01,600
Speaker 2: it kept us as dancers working. It sounds like a

934
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:03,759
Speaker 2: little when you're like, oh, I'm working once a month

935
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 2: or twice a month, but you don't understand, like there's

936
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 2: weeks and weeks of rehearsal that goes into one show.

937
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:12,479
Speaker 2: It's not just like you show up and do this show.

938
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 2: So working once or twice a month, doing a different

939
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:20,080
Speaker 2: or new show tailored to like different or specific audiences

940
00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:23,319
Speaker 2: is still like you're working here's a little tidbit. There

941
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:27,439
Speaker 2: was an exciting moment when like there were rumblings right that, like, hey,

942
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:29,800
Speaker 2: you guys are gonna get tapped to do the super Bowl.

943
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:32,240
Speaker 2: The super Bowl is the biggest show in America. Okay.

944
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:35,680
Speaker 2: And then as a dancer, you know, only certain dancers

945
00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 2: get to do super Bowl because A it has to

946
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:39,960
Speaker 2: be a pop artist or an artist that's going to

947
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 2: utilize dancers right right. And B you have to be

948
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 2: sort of like in with that set choreographers or whatever

949
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,920
Speaker 2: or that artist. You know that, so it doesn't get

950
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:55,120
Speaker 2: to happen. I know amazing dancers that should have done

951
00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:57,759
Speaker 2: a super Bowl. Again, it's like an anomaly, it's a timeline.

952
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:00,800
Speaker 2: But then there are other dances that have done multiple

953
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 2: super Bowls, which is also amazing. So back to what

954
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,400
Speaker 2: I was saying is there are rumblings like, hey, you

955
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:07,000
Speaker 2: guys are going to do a super Bowl. And then

956
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:09,759
Speaker 2: I remember a specific show we were doing and they

957
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 2: were saying management. I was saying, Okay, no joking around,

958
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:17,120
Speaker 2: this is very very important show, wink wink, whatever, And

959
00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 2: I remember feeling like they flew out the choreographers, like

960
00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 2: we had to rehearse our asses off before this, Like, yeah,

961
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:26,959
Speaker 2: I feel like that show was like an audition. Yeah,

962
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 2: it's a lot. So we go from like having a

963
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:31,360
Speaker 2: break from tour to going to rehearse for the super Bowl.

964
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:49,839
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more. Brian Gaw Welcome back

965
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 1: to sixteenth minute. Brian Gaw is one of the nicest

966
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:56,239
Speaker 1: people I've ever interviewed. After we talked, I walked to

967
00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:59,040
Speaker 1: a restaurant that I liked to go to when I

968
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:02,320
Speaker 1: lived in West Hollywoo and had no money. It's called

969
00:55:02,520 --> 00:55:05,640
Speaker 1: Crazy Rock and Sushi. Don't judge me. And while I

970
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:08,359
Speaker 1: was there, Brian texted me to say if I had

971
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:10,560
Speaker 1: time to come back to the salon. He and the

972
00:55:10,600 --> 00:55:13,360
Speaker 1: manager had a bunch of free haircare products to give me.

973
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:16,160
Speaker 1: It was so nice. My hair is still a triangle.

974
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:17,800
Speaker 1: Here's the rest of our interview.

975
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:22,440
Speaker 2: So I think we started rehearsal like in November or

976
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:26,520
Speaker 2: December of twenty fourteen. And mind you, you're rehearsing the

977
00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:30,800
Speaker 2: same thing for that long, yeah, and just making tweaks

978
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:31,799
Speaker 2: and adjustments to that.

979
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:36,040
Speaker 1: I read elsewhere that you obviously infamously left Shark but

980
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:39,000
Speaker 1: also a horse for dark Horse.

981
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,360
Speaker 2: Is that I was a horse yes, the left Shark

982
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:46,200
Speaker 2: gets a lot of attention. Great, But I was dancing

983
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:49,560
Speaker 2: in the first half of the show. I was a

984
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,480
Speaker 2: chess piece. This was a full on production, utilizing all

985
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:55,360
Speaker 2: the dance, Like I had a costume change that my

986
00:55:55,520 --> 00:56:00,799
Speaker 2: lovely dresser, Avalon helped me get into off the side

987
00:56:00,840 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 2: of the stage. And then yeah, and then we did

988
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,440
Speaker 2: the California Girls and teenage stream medley.

989
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:07,600
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the day.

990
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 2: I mean, it's interesting because, like I think, I don't

991
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:15,120
Speaker 2: want to say you become numb to it. I use

992
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:18,400
Speaker 2: this analogy not in an ungrateful way, but in a

993
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:22,799
Speaker 2: way where you were so trained by that time, like

994
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:26,319
Speaker 2: you almost turn into a robot. We've like rehearsed in

995
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:29,719
Speaker 2: the arena so many times. You've rehearsed on that stage,

996
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:34,319
Speaker 2: we rehearsed at the actual Arizona Arena. I mean, you

997
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:38,640
Speaker 2: have done this routine so many times. You're so excited

998
00:56:38,680 --> 00:56:40,920
Speaker 2: for the day, right, because it's exciting, But if this

999
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:44,080
Speaker 2: makes sense, it's also well, okay, here it is, you

1000
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:46,839
Speaker 2: know what I mean, because you're like, finally, yes.

1001
00:56:46,719 --> 00:56:49,360
Speaker 1: Were you rooting for anyone in that particular Super Bowl?

1002
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 2: Sorry audience, no, same, but it was really cool. I

1003
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 2: guess Tom Brady was in that one, right, I think so.

1004
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,320
Speaker 1: I think so. I'm from Massachusetts, I should know.

1005
00:56:58,560 --> 00:57:01,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, that was supposed to be a really big thing.

1006
00:57:01,719 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 2: I don't follow football. Don't kill me, audience.

1007
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:08,760
Speaker 1: I don't. I cannot think of an audience that probably

1008
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:10,600
Speaker 1: knows less about football than my audience.

1009
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:12,600
Speaker 2: It was cool to like be in the locker rooms

1010
00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:15,480
Speaker 2: and like see the players run past. Like the energy

1011
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 2: of the stadium, the energy of what's going on, it's

1012
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:21,240
Speaker 2: really super exciting. The game is super exciting.

1013
00:57:21,720 --> 00:57:25,680
Speaker 1: So the performance happens, the left Shark moment happens kind

1014
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:29,080
Speaker 1: of unbeknownst to you. Yeah, take me through what that

1015
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:30,800
Speaker 1: like you get off stage.

1016
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,400
Speaker 2: So what was really cool is if you watch the

1017
00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:36,680
Speaker 2: entire performance, you see that Katie ends the show on

1018
00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:40,680
Speaker 2: her own, right, right. So by the time I get

1019
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:44,320
Speaker 2: off stage, they're holding us on this like everything had

1020
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:47,760
Speaker 2: gone according to plan. You know, we're cheering for Missy

1021
00:57:47,760 --> 00:57:51,200
Speaker 2: Elliott's dancers. We're like just enjoy. We're on the sideline

1022
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:53,959
Speaker 2: and join the moment like this is such a cool thing.

1023
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:58,440
Speaker 2: We see Katie flying the air and then then you know, look,

1024
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:01,120
Speaker 2: but the NFL does not play any games. When you're done,

1025
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:04,200
Speaker 2: you're done, get out, So like you're like escort, like

1026
00:58:05,040 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 2: get off the field. We're literally like running.

1027
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:10,840
Speaker 1: Are you still in full shark at this point, full.

1028
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:14,640
Speaker 2: Full shark outfit? Just okay? Then run get off stage,

1029
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:18,200
Speaker 2: go change and then yeah there's no like you get

1030
00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:21,600
Speaker 2: to hang around. No, go, you're back. We were back

1031
00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 2: at our hotel before the game ended. Yeah, no, you

1032
00:58:26,560 --> 00:58:29,280
Speaker 2: leave you That's what I mean. You're like, I'm furious

1033
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 2: when I tell you that the NFL there is no

1034
00:58:31,920 --> 00:58:35,240
Speaker 2: no game, like the NFL plays no games with or

1035
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 2: with any of these people.

1036
00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,680
Speaker 1: During the performance. It I mean, you're just like it's

1037
00:58:39,680 --> 00:58:40,160
Speaker 1: just enough.

1038
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 2: Just it's gone according to plan, right, I guess you know,

1039
00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:45,760
Speaker 2: Like yes, Twitter was around like in popular, but this

1040
00:58:45,880 --> 00:58:48,360
Speaker 2: is like this happened like a slow burn where like

1041
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:51,320
Speaker 2: people were texting me like hey did I just see you?

1042
00:58:51,360 --> 00:58:53,800
Speaker 2: Which shark were you? And it didn't really like come

1043
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:57,200
Speaker 2: out like meme until I feel like either later that

1044
00:58:57,280 --> 00:59:01,000
Speaker 2: evening or the next day, and then literally the next

1045
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:04,240
Speaker 2: day I was getting fielded phone calls from reporters from

1046
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:05,520
Speaker 2: people from this that.

1047
00:59:05,640 --> 00:59:08,280
Speaker 1: How did they find you? I don't know, like primate agent,

1048
00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:12,080
Speaker 1: I remember this like wave of internet like left shark

1049
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:14,320
Speaker 1: memes and all that stuff. People found you pretty quickly.

1050
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:17,840
Speaker 2: They found me pretty quickly. Number one. I did post

1051
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:21,000
Speaker 2: that yes, that was me. But then it sort of

1052
00:59:21,040 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 2: carried on because like I was also under NDA, I

1053
00:59:23,600 --> 00:59:26,160
Speaker 2: was working with Katie and the next day, you know,

1054
00:59:26,240 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 2: we flew out to go back to La change our

1055
00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 2: bags out, and then go back on tour. So I

1056
00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:33,200
Speaker 2: wasn't like we were in the middle of being.

1057
00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:35,840
Speaker 1: On tour like the dancers thinking like, oh, this is weird,

1058
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:38,240
Speaker 1: this is funny. Like what was your family's reaction, like

1059
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 1: people in your life.

1060
00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:41,720
Speaker 2: No, everybody was super supportive. My friends and family were

1061
00:59:41,760 --> 00:59:44,280
Speaker 2: like wow, you know, like this is great, proud and

1062
00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:46,640
Speaker 2: excited that it was me. It was awesome. I got

1063
00:59:46,640 --> 00:59:49,840
Speaker 2: a great response. Katie pulled us sharks in the like

1064
00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:53,440
Speaker 2: dressing room, she made us like shark onesies outfits. You know,

1065
00:59:53,600 --> 00:59:56,280
Speaker 2: she was happy about it. You know, so it was great,

1066
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:58,240
Speaker 2: and like I said, we were back on tour. It's

1067
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 2: crazy to think that it's such a pop culture moment

1068
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:04,480
Speaker 2: because it was made a meme was made out of it,

1069
01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:06,920
Speaker 2: which is I think is how it sort of like

1070
01:00:07,120 --> 01:00:09,160
Speaker 2: came about. It was just a really fun moment to

1071
01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:11,479
Speaker 2: be part of it. Did my life change? There wasn't

1072
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:14,280
Speaker 2: like a chain of pivotal moment and you know or

1073
01:00:14,320 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 2: any of these things. Like I said, I kind of

1074
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:18,880
Speaker 2: like went back on the road with Katie. I had

1075
01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 2: done a couple like game show or I did a

1076
01:00:20,920 --> 01:00:25,080
Speaker 2: game show that they said okay too, because you know,

1077
01:00:25,120 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 2: she owns the costume and licensing and all that. I'm

1078
01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:29,919
Speaker 2: just grateful to be part of that, you know, yeah,

1079
01:00:30,200 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 2: part of that movement. I'm grateful to have that experience.

1080
01:00:33,040 --> 01:00:35,400
Speaker 2: And I think it is that like metaphor for life,

1081
01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:37,600
Speaker 2: Like you have these dreams and aspirations and they like

1082
01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 2: just pan out. Like at the time, my biggest dream

1083
01:00:40,440 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 2: was like to dance for Brittany, and like who knew

1084
01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:44,640
Speaker 2: Katie wasn't going to become a huge pop star and

1085
01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:46,360
Speaker 2: turned into this and I was going to get to

1086
01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:50,040
Speaker 2: do all these similar opportunities, but like in a different way.

1087
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:52,120
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times like we see or

1088
01:00:52,120 --> 01:00:54,800
Speaker 2: look at our path in such a linear way, whereas

1089
01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:57,440
Speaker 2: like if we're just open to how it's going or

1090
01:00:57,480 --> 01:01:00,720
Speaker 2: the universe is taking you, like you'll get these big opportunity. Also,

1091
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:02,960
Speaker 2: I've had time obviously to reflect on this, and I

1092
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:05,960
Speaker 2: didn't realize it. I didn't realize how big it was

1093
01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:07,560
Speaker 2: until after the fact.

1094
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:10,680
Speaker 1: The beginning of twenty fifteenth, the year where you decide

1095
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:12,919
Speaker 1: you want to take a step back from dancing, take

1096
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:13,800
Speaker 1: me through the rest of the life.

1097
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:16,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know what, Like I think people have

1098
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,960
Speaker 2: these moments in life and you really like reflect and

1099
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:23,000
Speaker 2: you go on them. Not to sound overly rhetorical, but

1100
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:26,280
Speaker 2: like where's my life heading or anything, Sure, I sort

1101
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:29,600
Speaker 2: of actually got handed that to me in the best,

1102
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:32,760
Speaker 2: most grateful way from the universe. What actually happened is

1103
01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:35,120
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, I'm going to go back on tour.

1104
01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:38,840
Speaker 2: This is around, like I want to say, like summertime,

1105
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:41,680
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I'm going to downsize my life. I'm

1106
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:44,320
Speaker 2: going to get a Vespa, sell my car, do all

1107
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:47,600
Speaker 2: these things. Well, I had gotten into a Vespa accident

1108
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:51,400
Speaker 2: where I had a kidney contusion, and I'm like, sort

1109
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:53,800
Speaker 2: of like, you grew up as a dancer, and I'm

1110
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 2: saying this because like you're like, oh, your leg hurts,

1111
01:01:56,520 --> 01:01:58,880
Speaker 2: It's fine. That's just sort of like the generation I

1112
01:01:58,960 --> 01:02:02,560
Speaker 2: grew up in, Like something's hurting, you just make it

1113
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:06,360
Speaker 2: look good or keep it moving right. Well, unbeknownst to

1114
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:09,120
Speaker 2: me it was. I was like, really, is this serious.

1115
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:12,120
Speaker 2: Unbeknownst to me, it was very serious. I ended up

1116
01:02:12,160 --> 01:02:15,000
Speaker 2: being in the hospital for six days. I say all

1117
01:02:15,040 --> 01:02:19,600
Speaker 2: this because I thought to myself like, wow, dance was

1118
01:02:19,640 --> 01:02:23,919
Speaker 2: not taken from me, which totally could devastate somebody, right,

1119
01:02:23,960 --> 01:02:26,800
Speaker 2: but it's sort of my outlook on it was like, wow,

1120
01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:30,040
Speaker 2: this is a gift from God, from the universe saying

1121
01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:33,720
Speaker 2: like you have dance, it is still there. It is

1122
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:36,840
Speaker 2: time to move on. Because I thought in those six days,

1123
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:38,880
Speaker 2: like why am I here? You know, you have all

1124
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:40,760
Speaker 2: the thoughts like am I gonna be able to dance again?

1125
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:43,080
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah blah, like all the things. Right,

1126
01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 2: I called a Katie's manager. I'm like, look, I'm in

1127
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:48,120
Speaker 2: the hospital. I'm supposed to leave. I tell the doctors.

1128
01:02:48,120 --> 01:02:50,520
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm supposed to leave for Australia in two days.

1129
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:52,880
Speaker 2: Like there's no like I have to go. Obviously I

1130
01:02:52,920 --> 01:02:54,760
Speaker 2: didn't get to go when I was scheduled to go,

1131
01:02:54,920 --> 01:03:00,200
Speaker 2: and Katie's managers and everybody Katie's so graciously like like

1132
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:02,280
Speaker 2: take your time, and then you know, I ended up

1133
01:03:02,320 --> 01:03:05,640
Speaker 2: missing two stops in Australia. I missed uh and I

1134
01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:08,040
Speaker 2: met them in Sydney, you know, my first time a

1135
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:11,200
Speaker 2: fly alone. I'm still on painkillers, but I'm like, I'm

1136
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:13,960
Speaker 2: finishing this tour and they let me back. I got

1137
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:16,400
Speaker 2: to finish the tour and then but I also knew

1138
01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:18,320
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, like, you know, you really got

1139
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:20,800
Speaker 2: to get this like second career, this hair thing going,

1140
01:03:20,920 --> 01:03:23,640
Speaker 2: because like I'm not a naysayer, but I was definitely

1141
01:03:23,680 --> 01:03:25,720
Speaker 2: also like it's never going to get bigger than this,

1142
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:27,919
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like with the biggest pop

1143
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:31,160
Speaker 2: star getting at the height of her career doing the

1144
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:34,160
Speaker 2: height of the jobs, like all the jobs, right the VMA's,

1145
01:03:34,200 --> 01:03:36,479
Speaker 2: the Grammy's, like you the super Bowl, the super Bowl,

1146
01:03:36,520 --> 01:03:38,600
Speaker 2: you do all the jobs, and you're like, how many

1147
01:03:38,640 --> 01:03:40,440
Speaker 2: of these jobs do I want to keep doing? Which

1148
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 2: not to nay say, you can keep doing them and

1149
01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:45,720
Speaker 2: they're amazing and all the experience, they're just so amazing.

1150
01:03:45,760 --> 01:03:48,560
Speaker 2: But I also wanted to like move my life in

1151
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:51,560
Speaker 2: a way where I felt like, you know, okay, I

1152
01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:54,400
Speaker 2: was able to accomplish one thing and then time to

1153
01:03:54,440 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 2: move on. And you know, dance is still with you. You know,

1154
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:58,000
Speaker 2: dance is still with me today.

1155
01:03:58,200 --> 01:04:01,080
Speaker 1: You know, like I feel like such a common refrain

1156
01:04:01,120 --> 01:04:03,880
Speaker 1: you hear from athletes too, of just like what do

1157
01:04:03,960 --> 01:04:06,400
Speaker 1: I do when my body's not cooperating with me?

1158
01:04:06,760 --> 01:04:09,880
Speaker 2: Dancers get a bad rap Like we are athletes. People

1159
01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:13,000
Speaker 2: think it's like, oh, they're just have kids having a

1160
01:04:13,040 --> 01:04:15,920
Speaker 2: good time. We work at this, and we work our

1161
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:18,920
Speaker 2: bodies for this, We train for this, We work hard.

1162
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:21,680
Speaker 2: I want the publier or whoever to know that, like,

1163
01:04:21,800 --> 01:04:26,000
Speaker 2: dancers work so hard and it is a lot of work.

1164
01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:27,880
Speaker 1: I feel like everyone has their version of this, but

1165
01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:31,240
Speaker 1: being physically forced to stop and reevaluate as such a

1166
01:04:31,360 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: like intense powerful thing.

1167
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:35,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so strong and it was something like

1168
01:04:35,360 --> 01:04:38,240
Speaker 2: my dreams were met. I had a gracious team. Katie

1169
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:40,760
Speaker 2: was so gracious. I have my family, I have a partner,

1170
01:04:40,920 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 2: you know, like I had all these support systems that

1171
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:47,040
Speaker 2: were great in terms of being able to be like okay,

1172
01:04:47,120 --> 01:04:51,480
Speaker 2: what's next, and still being supported in going through that.

1173
01:04:51,760 --> 01:04:54,280
Speaker 2: So yeah, after that, I took a year off to

1174
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:58,200
Speaker 2: get my license, and then I stumbled upon some amazing

1175
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:02,440
Speaker 2: celebrity hairstylists, them being George Serrano, who owns this salon

1176
01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:05,920
Speaker 2: assisted him for a few years and assisted a ton

1177
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:09,320
Speaker 2: of other amazing stylists to just make sure I had

1178
01:05:09,360 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 2: a foundation similar to dance. It really was like taking

1179
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:16,360
Speaker 2: a piece of humble pie to really know that I

1180
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:18,480
Speaker 2: could do this, but like know that these people have

1181
01:05:18,560 --> 01:05:21,480
Speaker 2: been doing this for eons before me. I need to

1182
01:05:22,040 --> 01:05:25,800
Speaker 2: realize that and learn my lessons, which I did and

1183
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 2: again land on my feet and be successful in this

1184
01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:31,840
Speaker 2: whole other way, which is amazing.

1185
01:05:32,040 --> 01:05:33,959
Speaker 1: So you've been doing hair full time since like twenty

1186
01:05:33,960 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 1: sixteen seven.

1187
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:37,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, As you said, like be

1188
01:05:37,240 --> 01:05:39,080
Speaker 2: in the city and be able to build this, but

1189
01:05:39,120 --> 01:05:42,600
Speaker 2: also like so many of my relationships have just crossed over.

1190
01:05:42,720 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen other of my dance friends like

1191
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:47,840
Speaker 2: on set, and it's interesting, you know, it's slash fun

1192
01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:50,120
Speaker 2: to have them see me do hair and then you

1193
01:05:50,160 --> 01:05:52,920
Speaker 2: know they're choreographing now or something like that. So it's

1194
01:05:52,960 --> 01:05:55,480
Speaker 2: really it's really great. It's it's it's like I say,

1195
01:05:55,520 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 2: I like I'm in the same industry. I just like

1196
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:00,440
Speaker 2: jumped departments, you know, I'm a differ sharity.

1197
01:06:00,560 --> 01:06:02,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so cool.

1198
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:05,640
Speaker 2: Totally. I'm still that artist at heart, which I'm just

1199
01:06:05,880 --> 01:06:08,960
Speaker 2: grateful in a way to have like evolved as an

1200
01:06:09,040 --> 01:06:12,040
Speaker 2: artist and just been able to continue my path, but

1201
01:06:12,160 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 2: just in a different way.

1202
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:15,680
Speaker 1: How do you look back on that moment now where

1203
01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:18,040
Speaker 1: it's like life has changed and you've evolved as an

1204
01:06:18,120 --> 01:06:19,080
Speaker 1: artist and a person.

1205
01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:21,320
Speaker 2: When you say it like that, it seems like an eternity.

1206
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:24,080
Speaker 2: But in the same hand, it also seems like yesterday.

1207
01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:26,959
Speaker 2: You know, it's time. Is a weird thing that it's

1208
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,320
Speaker 2: been ten years. It's taken that time for me to

1209
01:06:30,800 --> 01:06:33,720
Speaker 2: enjoy it, be grateful for that and also understand the

1210
01:06:33,760 --> 01:06:37,840
Speaker 2: opportunity that that's presented to me from that one time.

1211
01:06:37,920 --> 01:06:40,920
Speaker 2: And I'm so grateful that people enjoy that moment and

1212
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:44,000
Speaker 2: enjoy Katie and enjoy they're enjoying the super Bowl for

1213
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:46,040
Speaker 2: what it is in the halftime show, for what it is,

1214
01:06:46,080 --> 01:06:49,000
Speaker 2: a fun time. I love that it wasn't like overly

1215
01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:51,800
Speaker 2: criticized or it's this, or that it was a moment

1216
01:06:51,840 --> 01:06:54,640
Speaker 2: in time that was fun. And that's what we're here

1217
01:06:54,720 --> 01:06:56,920
Speaker 2: to do, to share our art. We're here to like

1218
01:06:57,440 --> 01:06:58,560
Speaker 2: just do that share.

1219
01:07:00,120 --> 01:07:02,480
Speaker 1: Thank you so so much to Brian gow for his

1220
01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:05,760
Speaker 1: time and his openness. You can follow his work over

1221
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:08,680
Speaker 1: at the links in the description. This interview just put

1222
01:07:08,720 --> 01:07:11,440
Speaker 1: me in a terrific mood. I think it is so

1223
01:07:11,600 --> 01:07:14,960
Speaker 1: incredible that Brian listened to his gut and tried something

1224
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:19,240
Speaker 1: new and has built a really impressive career for himself. Twice.

1225
01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:21,960
Speaker 1: It made me feel like making changes in my own

1226
01:07:22,000 --> 01:07:25,320
Speaker 1: life was possible, and it was because Brian gaw always

1227
01:07:25,360 --> 01:07:28,880
Speaker 1: did his own thing. He trusted his instincts, he trusted

1228
01:07:28,880 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: his passion and didn't do what was expected or prescribed

1229
01:07:32,600 --> 01:07:36,200
Speaker 1: to him. And wait, is this the perfect conclusion I've

1230
01:07:36,200 --> 01:07:40,800
Speaker 1: stumbled upon? Brian has built a fascinating and successful life

1231
01:07:41,280 --> 01:07:45,720
Speaker 1: by embracing his inner left shark. Well, I'm not going

1232
01:07:45,800 --> 01:07:48,960
Speaker 1: to stick the landing harder than that, Brian Gaw aka

1233
01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:51,800
Speaker 1: left Shark. You will always be famous to me. But

1234
01:07:51,920 --> 01:07:59,400
Speaker 1: your sixteenth minute ends now, and here's your moment of fun.

1235
01:07:59,680 --> 01:08:02,360
Speaker 1: More bad reviews of Elvis Presto.

1236
01:08:03,360 --> 01:08:05,720
Speaker 4: Whether you watched it in three D or not, the

1237
01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:09,520
Speaker 4: show was overwrought and boring, said one caller to The

1238
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:13,160
Speaker 4: Daily Press. I just don't buy not half in my glasses.

1239
01:08:13,200 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 4: I missed something you didn't.

1240
01:08:16,320 --> 01:08:18,800
Speaker 1: All the three D did was bring out how horrible

1241
01:08:18,920 --> 01:08:21,240
Speaker 1: this Elvis Presto character was.

1242
01:08:21,800 --> 01:08:24,760
Speaker 4: Forget Elvis Presto. I'll take the three Stoges in three

1243
01:08:24,840 --> 01:08:28,200
Speaker 4: d any day over the fifties flailings of Lukewarm's sons

1244
01:08:28,240 --> 01:08:28,679
Speaker 4: and dance.

1245
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:32,280
Speaker 5: What was the big deal about the halftime? What is

1246
01:08:32,400 --> 01:08:35,760
Speaker 5: with these ponytails of guys? Isn't Barbara Bush such a

1247
01:08:35,760 --> 01:08:38,639
Speaker 5: refreshing change from Nancy Reagan for fest Lady. I think

1248
01:08:38,680 --> 01:08:40,519
Speaker 5: she's going to be a good one. I'm actually looking

1249
01:08:40,560 --> 01:08:42,400
Speaker 5: forward to the next four years.

1250
01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:48,920
Speaker 1: Bye. Sixteenth Minute is a production of fool Zone Media

1251
01:08:48,960 --> 01:08:52,800
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. It is written, posted, and produced by me

1252
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:57,080
Speaker 1: Jamie Offis. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans.

1253
01:08:57,360 --> 01:09:01,400
Speaker 1: The amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising produce and our editor.

1254
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:06,080
Speaker 1: Our theme song is My Sad thirteen and Pet Shadouts

1255
01:09:06,080 --> 01:09:09,040
Speaker 1: to our dog producer Anderson, my Cat's flee and Casper

1256
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:11,400
Speaker 1: and my pet Rockberg, who will outlive us all.

1257
01:09:11,840 --> 01:09:16,280
Speaker 3: Bye.