Super Bowl LII is just around the corner, and anticipation for this year’s halftime show has many remembering the internet’s favorite big game entertainer: Left Shark.
Three years ago, before the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, Katy Perry performed “Teenage Dream” at halftime with two backup dancers dressed as sharks. Left Shark (he’s really on stage right) charmed audiences with his… we’ll say “interesting” dance moves.
After before an instant celebrity, the famous fish dodged the media, but now Bryan Gaw, the dancer inside that Left Shark costume, revealed to NPR’s David Greene that his flailing was all planned out.
“So there’s a set choreography,” Gaw, who now works at Mare Salon in West Hollywood, said. “There’s also what’s called free-style choreography, or, like, you get to move around or play your character as a dancer … You have flexibility [with how you dance] because you are your own character.”
“I’m in a 7-foot blue shark costume. There’s no cool in that,” Gaw said. “So what’s the other option? Well, I’m gonna play a different character.”
Gaw went on to explain that he wanted to portray the “underdog, the everyday person … You don’t have to be perfect. Nobody has to be perfect in life.”
Greene was skeptical, but Gaw reassured him that he wasn’t lying about planning those crazy moves. “One 100 percent,” Gaw said.
You can listen to the full interview here.
And look out for any standout backup dancers during Justin Timberlake’s halftime show during Super Bowl LII Sunday on NBC. Oh yeah, and the Patriots are playing in that game too.