Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) - CZM Rewind: left shark, ten years later

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

In honor of the ten year anniversary of the left shark moment at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015, a very special rerun! Sixteenth Minute exclusive! We’ve got the first in depth interview with Bryan Gaw, aka the Left Shark himself.  This week, Jamie revisits the 2015 Super Bowl saga that was Left Shark — the costumed cartilaginous fish that went rogue in 2015 beside Katy Perry during a chorus of ‘Teenage Dream,’ capturing the world’s heart. The person inside is just as lovable, and Jamie takes the bus to West Hollywood to meet dancer-turned-celebrity-stylist Bryan Gaw to revisit one of the internet’s few wholesome moments.  Plus… ELLLLLVIS PRESTOOOO Follow Bryan Gaw here: https://bryangaw.com/ And here: https://www.instagram.com/bryangaw Original Air Date: 9.3.24See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, in honor of the Super Bowl, the game I will be watching and enjoy so much. I wanted to re-release this episode about the Super Bowl halftime show in the form of a profile of the amazing Brian Gaw, aka Left Shark. There has been a lot about Brian that has been coming out in the last couple of days because it is the 10-year anniversary of the Left Shark moment during the Katie Perry Super Bowl halftime show. Please enjoy this special re-release and a very merry Elvis Presto to us all. Welcome to 16th minute. I need to talk to you about a man named Elvis.

Presto. The NFL and Magicom Entertainment present of Super Bowl halftime extravaganza. Could this be magic? Shur-Chinaw. Starring at Prince of Presto Digitation, Elvis Presto. He's got a magic time. Shut-up. It's Fibba, Van Buto.

This magic moment. Maybe you're confused. What you just heard was a 60s-style girl group, think the Supremes impersonators I guess, talking over a very 80s-looking, bright colors and shapes digital screen. And then that fades to that same girl group addressing the camera in the middle of a gigantic, packed football stadium. It's 1989. We're at the fucking Super Bowl. And the headlining act for the halftime show is a man called Elvis Presto. Let's have a theoretical conversation. Wait a second, you say. I've never.

never heard of Elvis Presto. I roll my eyes and reply, I'm sorry, try waking up for the first time in your life. Elvis Presto is, of course, an Elvis impersonator who is also a magician. And so he's going to arrive in the middle of the football field by way of some kind of magic. I didn't say great magic. In that clip, Elvis Presto just kicked his way out of an old jukebox. He's not necessarily giving Elvis, but it's the beginning of the show. Let's give him a chance. Hmm, you think, was Elvis Presto a popular act in the 80s that I just never heard about?

Oh, no, I reply, this was a character made up. for the Super Bowl. Okay, you think, well, at least he's played by a professional Elvis impersonator, right? Uh, no, he's not. Hello, baby. This man is not an Elvis impersonator. I checked. Okay, you say, then surely he's a magician.

I promise you, you're going to find. This card trick's going to blow your mind. But first you have to pick a card. Come on and concentrate real hard. He isn't a magician. The guy that plays Elvis Presto is not a magician. There is technically a feat of magic performed within this show, but it's all production. It's never Elvis Presto. There are so many things that happen in this 12-minute show, and none of them make sense. It's awesome. There's hundreds of dancers in poodle skirts. There's guys on trampolines. There's flaming batons, one of which almost sets Elvis Presto on fire. There's a hundred motorcycles. And the central act is a character who is just made up a couple weeks ago performing quote-unquote the world's largest card trick. And you won't believe this, but the world's largest card trick didn't really translate to TV at all. But the idea was that there were four gigantic playing cards laid out on the field. Elvis Presto read the name of

each card and the crowd picked a card via applause. And then Presto, the card everyone chose, the King of Hearts, which was the only character and the only heart, so pretty easy to stack the deck there. But Elvis Presto knew all along it was going to be the King of Hearts. This is how it plays out. Which card it's going to be depends on just how loud you clap, my friend, card one, two, three, four. Now clap for the card that you adore. The card you chose, only Mr. Presto knows.

Prepare for my most mystifying feet. The cards you chose is under your seat. For his most mystifying feet. And at this point, all of the dancers turn a card over to reveal a gigantic king of hearts. And the audience is asked to flip their seat cushions over where there's also a picture of the king of hearts. Wow. I love this.

This trick belongs at a kid named Evans' birthday party. But we're at the Super Bowl. So no, the man on the field isn't Elvin. Elvis, and he isn't Presto. But you asked me, well, this guy is an actor, right? He's at least been cast for the part of Elvis Presto. He didn't just, for example, have to fill in for someone else and learn all of the choreography in three days, explaining why he doesn't sing live vocals, doesn't perform

any magic, and doesn't look anything like Elvis. Well, here's an interview with a guy who played Elvis Presto from an NFL short doc back in 2016. After solid gold, I moved into choreography. I got a gig to choreograph the Super Bowl. Reagan Patineau was our lead, and he was perfect. I mean, he was like a blonde Elvis. He got a Lee Jeans commercial three days before the Super Bowl and decided to quit the Super Bowl and go do the Lee Jeans commercial.

So it was like, okay, now what? So yeah, he wasn't Elvis. He wasn't Presto. He wasn't an actor. And he wasn't a singer. And at this point in our theoretical conversation, your head is dangling off your fucking neck, and you're like, Jamie, at very least, the bare minimum, surely the musical selection that Elvis Presto plays are Elvis songs. Doesn't he? Doesn't he?

No, fuck this town, rocking inside of Do you love me? No! No, he doesn't play a single Elvis song. Outside of saying hunkah, hunker burning love in a transition one time. Not a single Elvis song was licensed for this performance, nor has this man done an Elvis impression before, nor can he do magic or sing. This man had never appeared on television and never would again. He now owns a yoga studio in Portland, Oregon.

It's my favorite thing I've ever learned. I have been healed by this information. Also, this Super Bowl show was allegedly filmed and broadcasted in 3D? Why did they call it bebop bamboozled? Oh boy. and because great artistry is never recognized in its day, and I guess not for 35 full years after its day, people don't talk much about the Elvis Presto Super Bowl halftime show today,

something I hope to be a small part of rectifying here. But in spite of that, this is still a historically consequential Super Bowl halftime show, because when I thought of halftime shows prior to the sacred knowledge of Elvis Presto, I thought of basically a vagus show for the entire world, where a generational artist plays their hits, does a million costume changes, invites their past collaborators to play one of their songs, there's pirate techniques, there's acrobatts. In Usher's case last year, I remember there being roller escapes. It's a huge victory lap for a musician's career that isn't just for their fans, it's a world stage event.

But upon further investigation, the Super Bowl has been going on for 58 years, and this big concert aspect has only been true of the halftime show for about the last thing. 30 years. Before that, you got mostly colorful marching band slash baton twirling kind of standard fare. Here's the former NFL director of special events, Jim Stieg, talking about what the approach to the halftime show was, free Elvis Presto. You really found very few named stars involved. It was more about filling the field with color and music, dancing snowflakes. The Super Bowl has been going on since 1967 and was originally called the AI NFL NFL World Championship game.

And they would generally do what football halftime shows had been doing since the late 1800s in the U.S. and still at American high schools today. There were marching bands, there were dancers, there were cheerleaders, there were demented levels of needless patriotism, and in the case of the Super Bowl, usually a celebrity guest or two who would sing an American standard. In the early days of the Super Bowl, this meant guests like Carol Channing, Ella Fitzgerald, and Andy Williams, who performed a song or two. two-and-the-half-time show in the 70s.

In the 80s, shows were majority by nonprofit and military performance organizations with themes like, salute to Motown, Hollywood's 100th anniversary, and honestly, a bunch of bought and paid for Disney ads that stretched well into the 90s that kind of wound up just being a Disneyland parade on a football field. Quick side note, these weird Disney shows would go into the 90s as well. My favorite was a really bizarre 1995 halftime show that was meant to advertise the Indiana Jones show at Disney World, but they also put Patty LaBelle in it as a character?

Well, Indiana Jones, you've got that trophy back. So now tell me, sugar, what's next? I'm giving it to the winner of Super Bowl 29. Well, that's the right attitude, baby. Well, I'm not a lot. Interesting full halftime show if you want to watch it. I was entertained. But in the late 80s, the Super Bowl team was interested in creating more spectacle around

the halftime show. The year before Elvis Presto, they contracted Radio City Music Hall to put a show together that featured Chubby Checker and the Rockettes and started to pull back from the standard marching band Fair. But it's still not quite there. Chubby Checker is still very much the featured act. It's not his halftime show. And then along came Elvis Presto.

And sure, people feel. fucking hated it, but there's no other act in the show but him. And that was the first. Here's a particularly scathing review. The reigning principle was excess. Too many dancers, too many pastel colors, and the whole thing went on too long. Mr. Presto's last trick was his best. He and the cast of thousands disappeared.

You know what else people hated when it came out? Citizen Kane, probably. So. Presto! Hey, baby! Okay, Elvis Presto happens in 1989, and then everyone quietly agrees that will never happen again. 1990 doesn't improve very much.

There are iconic performers like Irma Thomas, but the theme is Charlie Brown's birthday, complete with these terrifying Peanuts mascot costumes. 1991 has New Kids on the Block headlining, but even they have to follow Roger Rabbit and Goofy Breakdancing and an entire chorus of It's a Small World. In 92, Gloria Estefan kind of had to split the bill with U.S. Olympic figure skaters and an entire hockey team. But in 1993, the formula is locked in.

This is the year that Michael Jackson headlines, and we start to see the halftime show as what we think of it today. You weren't just getting a ticket to the biggest football game on the planet. You were also getting a ticket to one of the hottest concerts possible. After Michael Jackson, it's off to the races for pop and rock megastars headlining the halftime. show, with the exception of the Indiana Jones thing. Let's hear it again. Well, Indiana Jones, you got that trophy back. So now tell me, sugar, what's next? Sure, Patty. The 90s brought big shows from headliners like Diana Ross, a huge Motown salute. Gloria Estefan with Stevie Wonder instead of a hockey team. That's an improvement.

And in the 2000s, the show really hit its stride, because that's when I started forming memories, and so that's when history began. Just kidding. History began. here. Ah, sorry. Okay, the 2000s. Pose 9-11, we had a U-2 headlined halftime show in 2002 with Bono's little American flag jacket. He's Irish, and I thought anti-war, but sure. We had a very chaotic 2004 that led to the infamous Janet Jackson quote-unquote wardrobe malfunction, sending Justin Timberlake to the gutters of history. We had the best halftime show of all time from Prince in 2007, and one I remember really enjoying from Bruce Springsteen in 2009.

I want you to step back from the guacamole dip. I want you to put the chicken fingers down and turn your television. But by the early 2010s, was starting to run out of establishment rock acts to headline, starting the decade with the Who and then leaning heavily into pop acts. The Black Eyed Peas, a really fun Madonna show. Beyonce, in a close second to Prince for the all-time best halftime show, then came Bruno Mars, and on February 1st, 2015, Hopstar Katie Perry headlined at what ended up being one of the most memorable halftime shows ever in Glendale, Arizona. And whether you were a fan or not, this was peak Katie Perry.

If you haven't watched it in almost 10 years, let me remind you of what the show was like. It starts big and silly, what Perry was known for at the time. and she enters on this gigantic, gilded lion puppet with glowing red eyes. It's pretty awesome. She's saddled onto the lion in a dress covered in Guy Fieti flames, and she's singing her hit, Roar, and singing live. Shout out to that. She gets to the stage, dismounts the gigantic lion puppet,

and then launches into the next song, Dark Horse. And the second she hits the stage, there's dancers. And the way Katie Perry had dancers at this time was very specific. It's really campy, really over the top. The LED stage becomes this huge chessboard, and her dancers, complete with their faces painted in silver, are sexy chess pieces like flipping and dancing their asses off. Awesome.

She moves her way across the stage and launches into the next hit. And by the way, this is the only Super Bowl show ever that featured all number one hits. Her first guest artist, Lenny Kravitz, comes out, who's looking full Lenny Kravitz leather jacket jeans the whole bit. And he does a cover of her early hit, problematic bisexual anthem, I Kissed a Girl. Back before out queer pop stars were legal, I don't know. The two sing a chillingly heterosexual duet. And then the set changes into a California beach. And we head into the next

song, All-Timer pop anthem Teenage Dream. We're approaching the halfway mark of the show now, and Katie Perry does her first abrupt costume change. And the dancers have changed too. No longer dresses chess pieces. Many of them are now dressed as anthropomorphic Disneyland-style grinning palm trees, surfboards, beach balls, and sharks. Katie comes out in a primary colored beach ball-inspired dress and the character dancers kind of bob around her. Something that always stuck out to me is that the beach balls had these little teeth. I hate when things have teeth and they don't have teeth. The cars from cars? Regardless, the costumes are elaborate, and the anthropomorphic characters have these mouths that move in time with the music while the

dancers are inside them. And as we head into the chorus of Teenage Dream, Katie is flanked by two bright blue costumed sharks. The costumes mouth along to the words of the chorus, and the dancers do their thing, but as the chorus is ending, viewers across the world begin to notice that the shark on the left side of the screen seems to have maybe lost the thread a little. He's dancing a little out of sink, he slaps himself in the face, and then he kind of just like wings it. This happens very quickly. The whole thing takes less than five seconds, and then the sharks are both locked into the choreography for the rest of the show. But the moment has already been screen grab. This was a Super Bowl that was not just watched on TV, but experienced in real time on social media. And so within

seconds, an online phenomenon still remembered to this day was born. Left Shark Brian Gaw, your 16th minute, starts now. Sixteen minute of fame. Sixteen minute of fame. Sixteen minute of phase. One more minute of fame. Not so bad when you're taking up my mind. Welcome back to 16th Minute, the podcast where we interview the internet characters of the day from time gone by to see how their big moment affected them and what it says about the internet and us.

And today I'm speaking with the infamous Left Shark from the Katie Perry's Super Bowl halftime show back in 2015. This is a true 16th minute exclusive. It's only the second interview that Left Shark has done ever in almost 10 years. And spoiler alert, I like him so much. He's awesome. But to fully appreciate his story, I think we need to take a closer look at what and why this moment happened. Because like millions of other people, I very much remember seeing this in real time. I was babysitting my boss's kids because I wasn't being paid enough by my boss. And so their solution was, take care of my kids while I go to my friend's Super Bowl

party. Anyway, the kids and I were watching this. And I probably tweeted about Left Shark in the moment. So buckle in. Part your hair to the side and come with me, if you dare, to February 2015. Harper Lee is announced to be releasing a second book called Go Set a Watchman, prompting allegations that she was forced into publishing via elder abuse. Brian Williams goes on hiatus after being caught lying about being in a helicopter that was shot down in the Iraq war. Remember that?

And pop star Katie Perry headlined the Super Bowl halftime show with surprise guests, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott. And by the way, yeah, Missy Fucking Elliot. Left Shark became the main thing that this halftime show was remembered for. But let's not forget, Missy Elliott was the surprise guest on this show. And right after the sharks clear the stage, she comes out of nowhere and performs Get Your Freak on and Work It before the show concludes with Katie Perry singing Firework

while flying through the audience on a gigantic shooting star prop that kind of looked like the more you know logo. It was a really good show, making the fact that Left Shark was the main takeaway for a lot of people, all the more remarkable. Before we get into how this show came together, a quick disclaimer, because I'm talking about the Super Bowl and therefore the NFL this week, I want to be clear about a few things. I do feel the need to say that the NFL is a demonstrably dog shit organization from just about any angle you look at it from. This was true in 2015 and would only become more true in the years to come. The year after this halftime show, Colin Kaepernick famously took a knee during the U.S. national anthem at a game to protest racial inequality and police brutality, which brought his professional career to a screeching halt soon after, leading to lawsuits between Kaepernick and the league. That's not to mention how the NFL has historically ignored the rampant CTE traumatic brain injuries brought on by players' repeated concussions that have destroyed players' lives and led to the death of many.

The NFL has never confronted this and even went as far to intimidate scientists who were studying CTE in 2017. There's the matter of massive NFL stadiums uprooting entire communities, most often poor communities. And these rotten to the core issues with the NFL is what's caused some musicians to turn down playing the Super Bowl in the past. Most notably, Rihanna, Pink, and Cardi B in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick back in 2019. Although Rihanna did later do the Super Bowl in 2023, so I guess she got over it. Don't yell at me. I'm a Rihanna fan, but like, come on. Anyways, I did want to acknowledge that reality before digging into this Super Bowl halftime show story.

Because admittedly, there is my ooh, shiny, awesome pretty show with fireworks brain. That means I generally still tune into the halftime show almost every year. And in general, Americans are just... Weirdly into the Super Bowl. The amount of bizarre, campy media that exists around the Super Bowl is hard to quantify it. If you don't believe me, here's a clip of the Chicago Bears singing 1985's novelty single, The Super Bowl Shuffle. The song is very famous. I can't account for it. The song has ten verses. The song has ten verses. and was nominated for a Grammy.

But don't worry, the New England Patriots also made a novelty song about wanting to win the Super Bowl that year. Huge L for New England. It's just embarrassing. Sorry, just one more. In 1986, the Los Angeles Rams recorded a novelty rap song that is basically porn. This is a limousine wedding.

My moves are like dreams. They call me the demon on special teams. I know how to rock from the toes to the head. When I pull the trigger, I'll knock you dead. I'm a mountain man from West VA. They call me Hirk, and I came to play. I learned long ago if you rammed just right, so can ram it all day and ram it all night.

Ram it eat. Do you know how to run it just ram it? The Super Bowl is deeply American. It's big. It's annoying. It's bad for the world. And people have a lot of fun watching it. The year that Katie Perry performed, the teams playing were the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

And that will be the last time I will be talking about the teams. Because for my money, the Left Shark moment defined this entire broadcast. Think about moments that have stuck with you from halftime shows of Yore. The Rihanna pregnancy reveal from 2023. Lady Gaga jumping off a building at the beginning of her show in 2017. MIA flipping off the camera before the broadcast had time to cut it during Madonna's show in 2012. And most infamously ever, the Janet Jackson Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunctioned from 2004 that slowed Janet Jackson's career to a crawl in spite of the fact that she had done nothing except have a nipple.

And Justin Timberlake went on to headline a Super Bowl show, only seeing his complicity in this incident catch up with him in the last couple of years. What tour? The World Tour. Now, you'll notice that all these stories have to do with these celebrities at the center of the show, leaving Left Shark in a class of his own. Because, sure, Left Shark was a part of the Katie Perry show, but it wasn't planned. The moment was not defined by her. It wasn't a tabloid moment.

It wasn't a scandal. It wasn't a carefully engineered reveal. Left Shark's going rogue was something weird and organic that brought social media together. But this was a single moment inside of a gigantic show that had been worked on for months. So to give you an idea of how unbelievably complicated it was to bring this and all contemporary Super Bowl halftime shows together, here's an approximate timeline of how long the Katie Perry show took to come together. Because of course there's a documentary about it, and of course I watched it twice. So the actual Super Bowl show happens on February 1st, 2015,

but the first rumblings of a Katie halftime show start in August 2014 when the shortlist is revealed to be Katie Perry, Rihanna, and Coldplay. And the Wall Street Journal reported that there were pay-to-play rumors, which means their record labels would pay the NFL a premium in order to get them booked. The NFL denied this, and they famously love to tell the truth, so I say let's believe them. But whatever happened or didn't happen, Katie Perry was in. And Colplay and Rihanna would play the Super Bowl in the next 10 years, so whatever.

Proper planning started in fall 2014, and Katie Perry said from the beginning that she wants a guest artist to surprise the audience and the same big, colorful aesthetic of her touring show. Billboard announced she would be the lead act in October 2014 and the NFL confirmed in November. And through the end of that year, while she and her dancers were on the prismatic world tour in the U.S., Katie's team was communicating and planning their vision. to the go-to group of Super Bowl halftime organizers. Logistics while she's gone include designing and constructing a stage unique to this specific stadium in more than 800 original costumes.

Katie and the dancers finished the tour on December 20th and after the holiday break, it was all hands on deck to learn an entirely different show than they were doing on tour. So about a month to rehearse a show for 120 million people. This is from the documentary.

We got to physically rehearse for one month straight. First, we were in a dance studio because you don't get to always rehearse in a stadium. We're boiling down six months of work every day, all hours of the day, seven days a week,

boils down to 12.5 minutes. And for those 12 and a half minutes, everything's got to go right. And in this rehearsal footage, you can see the man who would soon be Left Shark. They start rehearsing in the stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 11th, And the infrastructure is massive.

There is 18,000 square feet of LED stage. There's flame cannons. There's a $10 million budget. 500 stage hands are there to rehearse assembling and disassembling the stage in the space of a single commercial break. And the whole crew is run by a Vietnam vet. They literally run this shit like the military. So we have two surfboards, eight palm trees, four beach balls, two shocks.

Yeah, yeah. We're crazy. So by mid-January, Katie Perry is rehearsing on the gigantic, prismatic, lion puppet, Missy Elliott, and her dancers come in to start rehearsing. There's this amazing moment when Brian Gaw is in his shark costume and he and Katie goof around. And their mouths all move. Will you sing me some? Do you feel like I'm living up?

Do you feel like you have a handle on that costume? Like you're not going to go timber at any point? Honestly. No, this is pretty easy. Iconic, and you see her talking with her dancers, wearing the huge costumes, and making sure they're comfortable. They perfect rapid costume changes. There's a flying rehearsal, camera rehearsal. They film promos.

Hi, I'm Katie Perry. Popstar. Welcome to my halftime show testing facility. And finally, after six months of planning, it's Super Bowl Eve. Katie Perry appears to have micromanaged this event down to the micro detail. And the night before, she has this premonition that the Sharks will be the star of the show. You don't understand that, like, the Sharks are going to get so much love on love. Well, today was the first day I saw it.

It's so funny. It was so funny. You just heard the voice of Scott Murrick, aka Right Shark. He's actually still a working dancer and was one of the dancing kens at the Oscars last year. And then, it's the day of the Super Bowl. Kitty Perry was a pastor's daughter, I guess. So in this room full of her dancers, dressed as chess pieces and Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott, she gives a pep talk with prayer. I pray God that you will look after us.

Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity. And we know it's because of you because you have chosen us. And we believe that we are exactly where we are supposed to be today at this moment and we will be present and conscious and we will smile and we will live in this 12.5 minute! And then the huge show happens, and one of the sharks did this thing at some point. But after they get off stage, it seems like the crew's takeaway is, wow, that went really well. Instantly well reviewed and declared one of the best halftime shows ever. It causes this huge spike in Katie Perry music sales, everything you would hope from a performance of that scale.

And if you'll permit me to make a quick aside, it's just interesting that Katie Perry needed months to put this show together. because my favorite Super Bowl act learned his entire part in three days. But by the time the stage had been disassembled for New England to win the game, there had been three million tweets about the halftime show in the 13 minutes it was airing.

And the lion, the shooting star, and the costumes made a lot of conversation, but there was a clear favorite moment. But everyone's favorite moment had nothing to do. with this six months of planning. Guess who? Katie.

Did you forget your routine again, left shark? Left shark. No. Katie. Don't lie to me, left shark. Left shark. Yes. I guess it's up to me to decide.

Am I going to be a right shark or a left shark today? Hashtag deep. Every time I get sad about the Seahawks, I will turn to left shark. If you were wondering, that was me. in the shark costume. That last tweet was Snoop Dog. And while it takes people a little time to catch on,

Brian Gaw reveals himself as Left Shark the night of the Super Bowl by posting a screenshot of Katie Perry with the Sharks on Instagram and Twitter with this caption. Yep. The rumors are true. Yours truly. And the next day, he shares a picture of himself dressed as a rook in the chess sequence. Throughout the rest of the night, the Left Shark meme edits came in, fast and heavy.

There was Left Shark being beamed into the sky, like the bat signal. There was Left Shark on the poster of Jaws. There was Left Shark looming behind L.L. Cool J and Deep Blue Sea. And sure, there were a few people who were being mean to Left Shark saying that he messed up the choreography, but by and large, it was a stunningly positive moment. The kind you don't get very often on the internet, Left Shark became the rare main character with all but no negative backlash. It was a mystery of identity.

And because it was the Super Bowl, mainstream media was all over Left Shark the next morning. Katie Perry, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for Left Shark. How did you like the dancing sharks? Not much. And the one who went rogue and started doing the Macarena? That looked like it was from Saturday Night Live. I hear this. The Shark's screen left was a killer.

Noted one sports blog, Left Shark failed out of choreography. School. On Twitter, they were compared to the hologram shark from back to the future. Love Shark became the human interest. Finst? No. The human interest story of the day, but most of the reporting about him in the first wave is either about the perceived miscarography or about how much the internet loved him. He was everywhere. And the suggestion that the dancer messed up the choreography was so outsized in the first stage. day that a series of things happens. First, halftime show choreographer R.J. Dorell came out on

Monday to say that Left Shark did nothing wrong. In the Hollywood reporter, this was the headline. Katie Perry's choreographer. Left Shark nailed it. Here's the story. The sharks were given two main objectives. Perry's choreographer, R.J. Derell tells T.H.R. One, perform Katie's trademark moves to the Teenage Dream Chorus, which they both did perfectly. And two, to have loads of fun and bring to life these characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a tweedledee, tweedledum, type persona. Clearly, that was portrayed with the overzealous shark on the right, hitting precise stance moves while the left shark, Dorell says, was playing up a more goofy, fun-spirited sports fan mascot type that was just happy to be at the Super Bowl.

And interestingly, at the end of this article, Dorel leans into the already developing narrative around left shark. Don't forget, we all have a little hashtag left shark. in us. Hashtag indeed. Katie Perry herself tweets out her support of the meme the night after the Super Bowl with an illustrated graphic of an embarrassed Left Shark with text reading, you the real MVP.

And while the reveal of Brian Gaul was very satisfying, as well as the reassurance that Left Shark's notoriety wasn't going to affect his livelihood, that doesn't really stay the focus of the story here. It becomes this pretty wholesome, be-yourself message that catches on, do your thing with passion, and the world will appreciate you. And so for the next few days, there are some pretty funny, standard 15 minutes of fame things that happen. A guy gets a left shark tattoo.

People dressed as the left and right sharks appeared in a sports center ad, and on the Late Late Show with John Mayer didn't look into it further. But, drama, it would appear that Katie Perry's team wanted to make sure that the left shark phenomenon wasn't making money for random people. By February 6th, her team had issued a cease and desist to Orlando artist Fernando Sosa for selling 3D printed left shark toys. By February 10th, Sosa's lawyer had fired back, saying, We also wonder what Katie Perry could possibly stand to gain from declaring war on an internet meme? Well, what she stood to gain was revealed in March 2015, when the Katie Perry stores started selling officially licensed shark onesies,

advertised with this tweet. Attention internet. No longer do you have to DIY left shark costume. You can now be a proper hashtag left shark with this official, glorious hashtag left shark onesie. This was launched alongside an officially licensed left shark t-shirt. And I will say that merch is a pretty common refraining with main characters. With people like Hawk to a Girl and previously 30 to 50 Farrell Hogs Guy, people will sometimes create their own merch in order to comment.

combat opportunistic people capitalizing on their image or catchphrase or idea. I do think that it made sense that Katie Perry did this, but it looks a little different when a millionaire pop star is doing it because Brian didn't seem to profit from the meme himself and didn't really seem interested in it, turning down most interview requests. After Brian's identity was revealed, it doesn't seem like he has much else to do with the story in the short term, but Katie Perry and her team stay at it.

By April 2015, Katie posted a photo with a Coachella trash can styled to look like Left Shark. That same month, it's revealed that her team had been rejected for various attempts to trademark the character with the U.S. Trademark Office. The requests included trademarking the costume design, as well as phrases Left Shark, Right Shark, Drunk Shark, and Basking Shark, trips off the tongue. Merch Wars aside, Left Shark had a weird amount of staying power throughout 2015. Most notably, he came up in a commencement speech at Boston University given by Meredith Fiera. Um, here it is. Stay away from Affects. Better yet, be the left shark.

Remember last Super Bowl when the Patriots won? Yeah, well. And at this point in the speech, someone in a left shark costume comes out and, it becomes a lesson about doing your own thing. The NFL has also repeatedly made reference to this moment. To this day, Left Shark is mentioned in the official YouTube upload of the Katie Perry halftime show, crediting the three musical artists and Left Shark, not even the director of the broadcast.

This shark's power, his raw power. And it's just interesting because confident imperfection was not always tolerated on that stage, was it? Hello, baby. Oh, hmm. And so Left Shark had become the rare, feel-good character, and as always, eventually the internet moved on. Katie Perry

and her dancers flew out to Spain to resume the Prismatic World Tour on February 16th, 2015. Brian Gaw went with them. He was publicly known to be Left Shark. He'd been defended and celebrated by his peers, and he returned to dancing. Something I found

interesting researching this story is that it's consistently the Katie Perry team that continues to make this big deal out of Left Shark. Never Brian Gaw. It's the team that owns the costume, the team that tries to do the trademark. I mean, Brian certainly enjoys the moment itself, but he never tries to seek eternal association with this. He wanted to get back to work, and that's what he did. Years later, Katie Perry and company would towed out the Left Shark a few times in 2018, including at a super pre-show. This is her talking to someone in the Left Shark suit, not Brian. But you would be made fun of all over the world. Do you think you're a good dancer?

Left Shark also made an appearance on her tour, promoting the album Witness throughout 2018. Then, weirdly, Left Shark went viral again on TikTok in 2022, when California girls had a brief resurgence and TikTokers were buying the costume and having all of their friends wear them and dancing them. I don't know. The only interview Brian Gaw would ever give on the subject would be in 2018 to NPR. But by that time, he'd very much moved on from this moment.

Although he still embraced the meme in general. He also defended his choreography choice, echoing what had been said years earlier. It was a freestyle. It was fair play. Brian Innocent. He also said he had retired from dancing at the end of 2015, shortly after the Prismatic Tour ended and was now working at an upscale

West Hollywood hair salon. But that was all we knew. Until now. Because listener, here's the thing about an upscale West Hollywood hair salon. I can make my boyfriend drive me there on a Tuesday morning. And so, when we come back, I speak to Left Shark, Brian Gaw himself, in the lobby of a very fancy hair salon. Yeah! A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA.

Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors,

and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short.

term highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sometimes it's hard to remember, but... Going through something like that is a traumatic experience, but it's also not the end of their life. That was my dad, reminding me and so many others who need to hear it, that our trauma is not our shame to carry, and that we have big, bold, and beautiful lives to live after what happened to us. I'm your host and co-president of this organization. Dr. Leitra Tate. On my new podcast, The Unwanted Sorority, we weighed through transformation

to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like and sounds like in real time. Each week, I sit down with people who've lived through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the systems that failed us. We're going to talk about

the adultification of black girls, mothering as resistance, and the tools we use for healing. The unwanted sorority is a safe space, not a quiet space. So let's lock in. We're moving towards, Together. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes every Thursday on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for it. a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. Like you're building a team from scratch. And so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community.

When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier. And we watched Ottawa against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me. Not only was that going to be my game, but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to 16th Minute.

It was so nice of everyone at Left Shark's hair salon to not comment on my new haircut because my new haircut is, a triangle shape. And that's not the stylist's fault I asked for the triangle shape. And she talked me out of bangs. So it actually is a good haircut. And today, I have an exclusive in-depth interview with a certain left shark. Brian Gaw currently works at the Serrano Salon in West Hollywood, inside of a store called Just One Eye. The store is huge and gorgeous and scary in a way that stores in West Hollywood can be. The ceilings are high. There's a sexy anime stage. statue, but it's classy. I have no idea what they were selling there. And in the very back is this small, gorgeous salon. Brian is both a successful hairstylist for private clients and for

high fashion. His Instagram includes a lot of this work. I'm talking doing hair for red carpets, billboard ad campaigns, Vogue Hong Kong. He has built this incredible career for himself. And his friends to this day with Katie Perry. And I am very intimidated by these kinds of spaces, but everyone at the salon was so, so kind. It's owned by long-time celebrity stylist, George Serrano, who Brian has worked with for years. So when I arrived, we were in this beautiful cavernous space, and Brian said that the only place to do the interview would be right there. So this interview has been edited for time and clarity, and it sort of sounds like we're sitting in the lobby of a very fancy hair salon, because we are. Here's my interview with

Left Shark, Brian Gaw. My name's Brian. I'm a hairstylist, and I am also a professional dancer. The dancing part has kind of taken a back seat. So yeah, I'm just happy to be here to chat with you. Could you tell me where we are? Yeah. So we're in the Sycamore district called a multi-brand kind of art installation called Just One Eye. There's lots of high-end retail art. And we're a boutique salon located in the back called Serrano Salon. We are a small team of stuff. stylists. And yeah, we're like a little family back here. I was intimidated by the doors. I was like, I don't, am I allowed to go in? Tell me about where you grew up, how you grew up, what were you like as a kid? So I grew up in Houston, Texas, a project of doing how I got into dances. I grew up doing martial arts. I was always very physically active. And during my high school years. So yeah, I did my first audition. That year, I had to wait until I turned 18

because they didn't have a men's team on the NBA that year. So I ended up auditioning again, got the job, danced for the NBA. And then at that time, like, okay, fine, here's the age thing. At that time, like, Britney Spears was really big and, like, her dancers were all over MTV. This was a different time in pop culture. Like, you would see your media on, TRL, which is an MTV show, or you would hear it on the radio. Yeah, still the like Carson Daily era of curation. Yes. So I was like, wow, like in my eyes, my young eyes, and like, these dancers could be amazing. They could be quote unquote famous. I want to be a dancer. So I would go back and forth

between L.A. and New York to take class. And I just really opened my eyes. Like at that time, also one of my former teammates, Gilbert, he had already moved to L.A. So I danced right after him, and he had already moved to L.A. He was on the Houston comments dance team also. And everybody was like, he's dancing for Christina Aguilera. You know, like, you could totally move to L.A. and do this. And I was like, oh, gosh, like, I really want to try that. And that's sort of how I moved from Houston to L.A.

That's such a big move so young, too. I mean, I moved here when I was 22, and I still was like, ugh, could have waited longer. Yeah. And like, what was that experience like? It was crazy because, like, you know, I went to college for a little bit for a few years back in Houston. And I still lived with my parents. And my time in L.A., like, or moving here, yeah, I had friends that, you know, I had made here also. But it was like, that was my college experience, if you will. You know, I moved out to an apartment by myself. I was auditioning all the time. Luckily, I got an agent kind of right away when I first moved here. Okay. And then, yeah, it just was a really, it was a very interesting time because it's like, all I cared about was dance.

The only thing that was important to me was dance. And that was like my one dream. As a person, I kind of like was always super into my hair anyways. And you can ask my family growing up, I would always like play in people's hair and just kind of like, I was just always into that. And I kind of thought, oh, well, eventually I'll end up going down this path. But, you know, for right now, it's just like, just. to dance. I wanted to be a professional dancer. And that's what I did. So when you get here and you're doing early auditions, what were those early audition experiences like? Were they like big cattle calls?

Yeah, it's amazing. You get an agent and you don't realize like you think you're new here. You get an agent and you know, you're the whatever, the quintessential. You're the best from your town or you've made it because you got to L.A. Well, honey, you don't realize like all these other people have been doing this. Like, right. So you're going to the big cattle call. auditions, 500 people auditions thinking, oh, they called you for an audition. But, you know, this is like, yeah, you stood outside, you waited your turn, you learned the combo, waited your turn. And then you had that couple minutes to go and you were either cut or you kept making cuts or they kept making cuts down the line. It was like an all-day process. I think the experience

of it, you just enjoyed. You didn't think it sucked because you just cared about dance. You wanted to book these jobs and this is an opportunity to, you know, dance for Janet or dance for Britney and you're like, these are the biggest stars at the time. And yeah, you wanted to be a part of that, you know, and you were very close in terms of tangibility. I mean, it certainly happened for you. It seems like several times over. I'm curious about those early gigs. I looked at your IMDB and I was like, wow, you're on every Disney Channel show. I loved so much. Yeah. So what, I think what you don't, you think you're, you have this career steered in one way and life just takes you either down that path or either down a more unique path. I think what was also interesting for me is like it did end up happening. I did work

with all the, you know, hot female pop stars. But early on in my career, it was very, I looked young. You know what I mean? I looked like a kid. So I was booking like commercials and TV and movie spots on kid type TV shows, which is great because it allowed me my first like footing in the door. It's like how you work with these big choreographers. It's how you, like, you book that first job. You get to know the working dancers. You get to know the working choreographers and directors. And that's kind of how you segue into bigger jobs.

You know, those other choreographers and directors, they work on other big projects. You know what I mean? You do these gigs. You take these gigs. You get the experience. And then you build on it. It's like a stepping stone kind of. It is a stepping stone.

You know, hey, some people move out here. Their first audition now is, you know, their dream job. For me, it wasn't. There was a learning curve. I had to, like, bust my ass in class. because you're good in your hometown, but you're only so good compared to where people have the experience here in L.A. Like in L.A. and New York, you're dealing with the best dancers in the world. And that's just the truth. And honestly, I was behind. I had to catch up. The truth is I

wasn't as good. And when you started, I mean, like kind of later too, right? Yeah. The truth is, I was very lucky and I worked hard. I was good enough, but I was never the best dancer in the room. Like, I just had the drive to aspire to be the best dancer in the room. And I really feel like the heart of that is what got me to where I ended up getting to with dance here. That's what you can say. Which to me is like the S tier. I mean, it's like, that's awesome. And supportive family, supportive friends? Supportive family, yes. I had a group of friends here that were from Texas and ended up meeting people here also as you do in dance class. It's really interesting because, yes, supportive family, but also a family that I'm the first one to do something non-traditional.

I see. Okay. Which is polarizing because you know how it is. Yeah. You know, there's an expectation and you're not on that path. And you kind of have to prove it to yourself and to everyone else. And then you start booking jobs and then you get on TV and then you do this and that. And it's like, I think another thing I like would love to just impart is like so many of these moments for all performers, it's the pinnacle of their years of work. And I like attributed to like the Olympics or

anything else. Like what you're seeing is a final product of hours, years, like a lifetime of work. And it's really easy for spectators or, you know, onlookers to just be a critic. And the way in which media is so consumed these days are just very easy to be critical of something or another without understanding where the art or performance comes from and it is it's a little disheartening but you got to also understand that like you put your time in and hopefully it's well received i mean i have to imagine as a professional dancer it's a testament to your craft if you're not making it look hard yeah but then people treat you like well how hard could it be because look how easy it looks you're like well no i spent 10 years making it look that easy i'm glad for where we're at these day

in like this day and age we've grown so much right but also back in the day it was rough like people in power could talk to you a certain way you know like you had to look a certain way you had to i mean just very bluntly there was a body standard for both men and women um unspoken but not unspoken right right the dance world is tough you know and it's you're supposed to look a certain way the shapes are supposed to look a certain way you know what i mean and that's how it was back then you know when do you start touring regularly when do you start working with these sort of bigger pop stars because I know I saw Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and then Katie Perry. Yeah. So like I would say probably around 2008. I was working with a few big

choreographers. I was working with Tony Braxton at the time, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus. And I was kind of transitioning off that like I had done a little run with Miley when she was doing her kind of Hannah Montana but kind of trying to like break from. So and I think she was that was also the tail end of her time at Disney. I was also working with Lady Gaga at the time. Lady Gaga was just getting famous. We were doing live shows, videos for her. I had done a couple gigs with Katie. I think the first one I had done was like the Teen Choice Awards or something like that. And then the tour was going to come around and it's like, okay, like you got a foot in because she's familiar with you, but also like, you know, you got to audition. I think at that time, like I was, I guess if you want

to say like at the height of like my dance ability, like all the, just sort of all the pieces. were there, right? I knew the right people. I had worked my butt off talent-wise to get to a certain level where I could perform at that level. And then, yeah, I had to audition just like everybody else. So, yeah. What tour was your first tour with her? It was the California Dreams tour. You're getting at it before, and I want to hear more about just giving people an idea of what an incredible grind it is being on these tours. What do your days look like? It seems exhausting. When you're touring, this is kind of like, I don't know for me, or I don't want to speak out of turn, but for me, like, that was like a pinnacle of booking a dance job. You're on a big

dance job with a huge pop star, you know, arguably the hottest pop star at the time at those specific years. Your job is to rehearse. You will rehearse for a couple months before tour. Skeleton work, it's a lot of figuring it out. And then it's, you know, it turns into the refining process. Even when you're on the road, you're rehearsing. You're doing tech, you know, every day before the show. You might have time to, like, sightsee or something like that. And then you're doing a show. And then it's like you're either in that same city or you're off to the next city on a bus, on a plane, either that night or the next day.

For weeks, months, years. Yeah, for weeks, months, years. Yeah. As I said, like, the tour, that initial tour got extended. And then went into, like, sort of a break, which is great. You know, it kept us as dancers working. It sounds like a little when you're like, oh, I'm working once a month or twice a week. a month, but you don't understand, like, there's weeks and weeks of rehearsal that goes into

one show. It's not just like you show up and do this show. So working once or twice a month doing a different or a new show tailored to, like, different or specific audiences, is still like you're working. Here's a little tidbit. There was an exciting moment when, like, there were rumblings, right? That, like, hey, you guys are going to get tapped to do the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the biggest show in America, okay? And then as a dancer, you know, only certain dancers get to do Super Bowl because A, it has to be a pop artist or an artist that's going to utilize dancers, right? Right. And B, you have to be sort of like in with that set choreographers or whatever or that artist, you know, that so it doesn't get to happen. I know amazing dancers that should

have done a Super Bowl. Again, it's like an anomaly. It's a timeline. But then there are other dances that have done multiple Super Bowls, which is also amazing. So back to what I was saying is there are rumblings like, hey, you guys are going to do a Super Bowl. And then I remember a specific show we were doing and they were saying management was saying, okay, no joking around. This is very, very important show, wink, wink, whatever. And I remember feeling like they flew out the choreographers, like we had to rehearse our asses off before this. Like I feel like that show was like an audition. Yeah, it's a lot. So we go from like, having a break from tour to go in to rehearse for the Super Bowl.

We'll be right back with more Brian Gaw. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next time. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes it's hard to remember, but... Going through something like that is a traumatic experience, but it's also not the end of their life. That was my dad, reminding me and so many others who need to hear it, that our trauma is not our shame to carry. And that we have big, bold, and beautiful lives to live after what happened to us.

I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Lyotra Tate. On my new podcast, The Unwanted Sorority, we wade through transformation to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like, and sounds like in real time. Each week, I sit down with people who live through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the systems that failed us. We're going to talk about the adultification of black girls, mothering as resistance, and the tools we use for healing. The Unwanted Sorority is a safe space, not a quiet space.

So let's walk in. We're moving towards liberation together. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes every Thursday, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change.

Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum.

the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club.

We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game, game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. Like you're building a team from scratch and so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community. When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier and we watched Ottawa against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me.

Not only was that going to be my game, but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to 16th Minute. Ryan Gaw is one of the nicest people I've ever interviewed. After we talked, I walked to a restaurant that I liked to go to when I lived in West Hollywood and had no money. It's called Crazy Rock and Sushi.

Don't judge me. And while I was there, Brian texted me to say, if I had time to come back to the salon, he and the manager had a bunch of free hair care products to give me. It was so nice. My hair is still a triangle. Here's the rest of our interview. So I think we started rehearsal like in November or December of 2014. And mind you, you're rehearsing the same thing for that long and just making tweaks and adjustments to that.

I read elsewhere that you obviously infamously Left Shark, but also a horse for Dark Horse? I was a horror. Yes. The Left Shark gets a lot of attention. Great. But I was dancing in the first half of the show. I was a chess piece. This was a full-on production utilizing all the dance.

Like, I had a costume change that my lovely dresser Avalon helped me get into off the side of stage. And then, yeah, and then we did the California Girls and Teenage Dream Medley. Let's talk about the day. I mean, it's interesting because, like, I think I don't want to say you become numb to it. I use this analogy, not in a ungrateful way, but in a way where you were so trained by that time. Like you almost turn into a robot. We've like rehearsed in the arena so many times. You've rehearsed on that stage. We've rehearsed at the actual Arizona arena. I mean, you have done this routine so many times. You're so excited for the day, right? Because it's exciting. But if this makes sense, it's also, well, okay, here it is. You know what I mean? Because you're like, finally, yes. Were you rooting for anyone in that particular Super Bowl? Sorry, audience. No. Same. But it was really cool. I guess Tom Brady was in that one, right? I think so. I think so. I'm from Massachusetts. I should know. Yeah. So that was supposed to be a really big thing. I don't follow football. Don't kill me. Audience. I don't. I cannot think of an audience that probably knows less about football than my audience. It was cool to like be in the locker rooms and like see the players run past. Like the energy of the stadium, the energy of what's going on. It's really super exciting. The game is super exciting. So the performance happens, the left shark moment happens, kind of unbeknownst to you.

Yeah. Take me through what that, like, you get off stage. So what was really cool is, if you watch the entire performance, you see that Katie ends the show on her own, right? Right. So by the time I get off stage, they're holding us on the, like, everything had gone according to plan. You know, we're cheering for Missy Elliott's dancers. Yeah. Just enjoy, oh, we're on the sideline, enjoying the moment.

Like, this is such a cool thing. We see Katie fly in the air. And then, you know, look, but the NFL does not play any games. When you're done, you're done. Get out. So, like, you're, like, escort, like, get off the field. We're literally, like, running. Are you still in full shark at this point?

Full shark outfit. Just, okay, then run, get off stage, go change. And then, yeah, there's no, like, you get to hang around. No. Go. You're back. We were back at our hotel before the game ended. They didn't let you stay? No. You leave. That's what I mean. You're like, I'm furious. When I tell you that the NFL, there is no, no game, like, the NFL plays no games with, or with any of these people.

During the performance, it, I mean, you're just like, it's just another show. It's gone according to plan. Right. I guess, you know, like, yes, Twitter was around, like, in popular, but this is like, this happened like a slow burn where, like, people were texting me. like, hey, did I just see you? Which shark were you? And it didn't really, like, come out, like, meme until I feel like either later that evening or the next day.

And then literally the next day, I was getting fielded phone calls from reporters, from people, from this, that. How did they find you? I don't know. Like, prime agent. I remember this, like, wave of internet, like, left shark memes and all that stuff. People found you pretty quickly. They found me pretty quickly, number one.

I did post that, yes, that was me. But then it sort of carried on because, like, I was also under NDA. I was working with Katie. And the next day, you know, we flew out to go back to L.A., change our bags out, and then go back on tour. So it wasn't like, we were in the middle of being on tour. Like, the dancers think of like, oh, this is weird. This is funny. Like, what was your family's reaction?

Like, people in your life. No, everybody was super supportive. My friends and family were like, wow, you know, like, this is great. Proud and excited that it was me. It was awesome. And I got a great response. Katie pulled us sharks in the. dressing room she made us like shark onesies outfits you know she was happy about it you know so it was

great and like i said we were back on tour it's crazy to think that it's such a pop culture moment because it was made a meme was made out of it which is i think is how it sort of like came about it was just a really fun moment to be part of did my life change there wasn't like a change a pivotal moment and you know or any of these things like i said i kind of like went back on the road with katie I had done a couple like game show or I did a game show that they said okay too because you know she owns a costume and licensing and all that I'm just grateful to be part of that you know yeah part of that movement I'm grateful to have that experience and I think it is that like metaphor for life like you have these dreams and aspirations and they like just pan out like

at the time my biggest dream was like to dance for Brittany and like who knew Katie was going to become a huge pop star and turn into this and I was going to get to do all these similar opportunities but like in a different way. I think a lot of times like we see or look at our path in such a linear way whereas like if we're just open to how it's going or the universe is taking you, like you'll get these big opportunities. Also I've had time obviously to reflect on this and I didn't realize it. I didn't realize like how big it was until after the fact.

The beginning of 2015, the year where you decide you want to take a step back from dancing. Take me through the rest of that year. Yeah. So you know what? Like I think people have these moments in life and you really, like reflect and you go on them, not to sound overly rhetorical, but like, where is my life heading or anything? Sure. I sort of actually got handed that to me in the best, most grateful way from the universe. What actually happened is I was like, okay, I'm going to go back on tour.

This is around, like, I want to say like summertime. And I'm like, I'm going to downsize my life. I'm going to get a VESPA, sell my car, do all these things. Well, I had gotten into a VESPA accident where I had a kidney contusion and I'm like sort of like you grow up as a dancer and I'm saying this because like you're like oh your leg hurts it's fine that's just sort of like the generation I grew up in like something's hurting you just make it look good or keep it moving right well unbeknownst to me it was I was like really is this serious unbeknownst to me it was very serious I ended up being in the hospital for six days I say all this because I thought to myself like Like, wow, dance was not taken from me, which totally could devastate somebody, right? But it's sort of my outlook on it was like, wow, this is a gift from God, from the universe saying, like, you have dance. It is still there. It is time to move on. Because I thought in those six days, like, why am I here?

You know, you have all the thoughts. Like, am I going to be able to dance again? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like all the things, right? I called a Katie's manager. I'm like, look, I'm in the hospital. I'm supposed to leave. I tell the doctors, I'm like, I'm supposed to leave for Australia in two days.

Like, there's no, like, I have to go. Obviously, I didn't get to go when I was scheduled to go. And Katie's managers and everybody, Katie, so graciously, like, take your time. And then, you know, I ended up missing two stops in Australia. I missed, and I met them in Sydney, you know, my first time to fly alone. I was still on painkillers, but I'm like, I'm finishing this tour. And they let me back. I got to finish the tour.

That's awesome. And then, but I also knew I was like, okay, like, you know, you really got to get this, like, second career, this hair thing going because, like, I'm not a naysayer, but I was definitely also like, it's never going to get bigger than this. You know what I mean? Like with the biggest pop star getting at the height of her career doing the height of the jobs, like all the jobs. Right. The VMAs, the Grammys, like, you do all the jobs and you're like, how many of these jobs do I'm going to keep doing? Which, not to naysay, you can keep doing them and they're amazing and all the experience, they're just so amazing. But I also wanted to, like, move my life in a way where I felt like, you know, okay, I was able to accomplish one thing and then time to move on. And, you know, dance is still with you. You know, dance is still with me today, you know? Like, I feel like such a common refrain you hear from athletes, too, of just like what.

do I do when my body's not cooperating with me? Dancers get a bad rap like we are we are athletes people think it's like oh they're just have kids having a good time we work at this and we work our bodies for this we train for this we work hard I want the pub your or whoever to know that like dancers work so hard yeah and it is a lot of work I feel like everyone has their version of this but being physically forced to stop and reevaluate is such a like intense powerful thing yeah it was so strong and it was something like my dreams were met. I had a gracious team. Katie was so gracious. I have my family. I have a partner, you know, like I had all these support systems that were great in terms of being able to be like, okay, what's next? And still being supported

and going through that. So yeah, after that, took a year off to get my license. And then I stumbled upon some amazing celebrity hairstylists, one of them being George Serrano, who owns this salon, assisted him for a few years and assisted a ton of other amazing stylists to just make sure I had a foundation similar to dance. It really was like taking a piece of humble pie to really know that I could do this, but like know that these people have been doing this for eons before me. I need to realize that and learn my lessons, which I did. And again, land on my feet and be successful in this whole other way, which is amazing. So you've been doing hair full time since like 2016, 17?

Yeah, 2016, 2017. As you said, like be in the city and be able to build this. But also like so many of my like relationships have just crossed over. You know, I've seen other than my dance friends like on set. And it's interesting, you know, it's slash fun to have them see me do hair. And then, you know, they're choreographing now or something like that. So it's really, it's really great. It's like I say, I'm in the same industry.

I just, like, jumped departments. Yeah, you're in a different chair at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Totally. I'm still that artist at heart, which I'm just grateful in a way to have, like, evolved as an artist and just been able to continue my path, but just in a different way. How do you look back on that moment now where it's like life has changed and you've evolved

as an artist and a person? When you say it like that, it seems like an eternity. But in the same hand, it also seems like yesterday. you know it's time is a weird thing that it's been 10 years it's taken that time for me to enjoy it be grateful for that and also understand the opportunity that that's presented to me from that one time and i'm so grateful that people enjoy that moment and enjoy katie and enjoy they're enjoying the super bowl for what it is the halftime show for what it is a fun time i love that it wasn't like overly criticized or it's this or that it was a moment in time that was fun and that's what

we're here to do to share our art. We're here to like just do that share. Thank you so, so much to Brian Goff for his time and his openness. You can follow his work over at the links in the description. This interview just put me in a terrific mood. I think it is so incredible that Brian listened to his gut and tried something new and has built a really impressive career for himself twice. It made me feel like making changes in my own life was possible. And it was because Brian Gaw always did his own thing. He trusted his instincts. He trusted his passion and didn't do what was expected or prescribed to him.

And wait, is this the perfect conclusion I've stumbled upon? Brian has built a fascinating and successful life by embracing his inner left shark. Well, I'm not going to stick the landing harder than that. Brian Gaw, aka Left Shark, you will always be famous to me, but your 16th minute. It Ends Now. And here's your moment of fun. More bad reviews of Elvis Presto. Whether you watched it in 3D or not, the show was overwrought and boring.

Said one caller to the Daily Press, I just hope by not having my glasses, I missed something. You didn't. All the 3D did was bring out how horrible this Elvis Presto character was. Forget Elvis Presdo. I'll take the Three Stooges in 3D any day over the 50s flailings of lukewarm songs and dance.

What was the big deal about the halftime? What is with these ponytail of guys? Isn't Barbara Bush such a refreshing change from Nancy Reagan for First Lady? I think she's going to be a good one. I'm actually looking forward to the next four years. Bye.

16th Minute is a production of Cool Zone Media and IHeart Radio. It is written, hosted, and produced by Jamie Lachis. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichten and Robert Evans. The Amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor. Our theme song is by Sad 13. And pet shoutouts to our dog producer Anderson, my cats flea and Casper, and my pet rock bird who will outlive us all. Bye. right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell, and the DNA holds the truth.

He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology's already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story.

Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking for another heavy podcast about Trump, trauma. This ain't it. This is for the ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant,

loud, soft, and whole. The unwanted sorority is where black women, fims, and gender expansive survivors of sexual violence rewrite the rules on healing, support, and what happens after. And I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Leitra Tate. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced.

He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.