Advice from Super Bowl icon Left Shark: ‘Don’t take life so seriously’

Once upon a time, pop star Katy Perry danced and sang on stage along with dancing beach balls and sharks at Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.

While Katy Perry was nearly flawless during her halftime performance, one of her backup dancers stole the show after he flubbed the choreography during “Teenage Dream.”

From there, Left Shark became a viral and relatable meme.

NPR’s Morning Editionrecently interviewed the dancer Bryan Gaw, who is better known as “Left Shark.”

Three years later, Gaw answered the million dollar question: What happened on that infamous night?

“There’s a set choreography, [and] there’s also what’s called freestyle choreography or like you get to move around and play your character as a dancer,” Gaw said. “You have some flexibility because you are your own character.

“I’m in a 7-foot blue shark costume,” Gaw continued. “There’s no cool in that, so what’s the other option? Well, I’m gonna play a different character and that’s how it was.”

So what character was he exactly going for?

“An underdog,” Gaw said.

Yes, left shark said he planned to be a relatable character where “you don’t have to be perfect.”

Gaw, who actually puts that he is “left shark” on his resume, also shared some life advice.

“Don’t take life so seriously,” he said. “I was on the biggest stage in the world, acting crazy, and I got a lot of press and a lot of attention for it, in the most positive ways. It’s great. Be you. Do you.”

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