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Katy Perry’s Left Shark Explains His Viral Super Bowl Dance: Goofy Moves Were ‘Totally’ on Purpose

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Katy Perry performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show at University of Phoenix Stadium on February 1, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona.GLENDALE, AZ - FEBRUARY 01: Recording artist Katy Perry performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show at University of Phoenix Stadium on February 1, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Life after the Super Bowl! Left Shark became a viral sensation after Katy Perry’s Super Bowl Halftime performance in 2015 — and now the man behind the costume, Bryan Gaw, is finally telling his side of the story.

Related: Super Bowl Halftime Performers Through the Years

The shark mascot rose to fame in February 2015, after stealing the spotlight from his rival, Right Shark, when the two took the stage with Perry during Super Bowl XLIX. As the singer performed her 2010 hit “Teenage Dream,” Left Shark seemingly failed to execute the routine, grabbing people’s attention with his offbeat moves. Now Gaw is revealing that was all part of the plan.

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Katy Perry and dancer Bryan Gaw attends the screening of EPIX’s “Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour” at The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown LA on March 26, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

“So there’s a set choreography,” he told National Public Radio in a new interview published Wednesday, January 31. “There’s also what’s called freestyle choreography, or, like, you get to move around or play your character as a dancer.”

Related: Katy Perry’s Craziest Style Moments

Gaw, who had been touring with the Grammy winner for five years, told NPR that he purposely “totally” turned up the goofiness during the performance to show his character as imperfect. “I’m in a 7-foot blue shark costume. There’s no cool in that. So what’s the other option? Well, I’m gonna play a different character,” he said.

Following the performance, Gaw took to Instagram to come forward as the man behind Left Shark. “Yep. The rumors are true. Yours truly. #SuperBowlXLIX #KatyPerryHalftimeShow,” he wrote at the time, alongside a photo of the performance with Perry, 33, and Right Shark dancer Scott Myrick.

The singer’s choreographer RJ Durell spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the moment after the show. “The sharks were given two main objectives. One, perform Katy’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,” he said at the time. “Clearly, that was portrayed with the overzealous shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while the left shark was playing up the more goofy, fun-spirited sports-fan mascot type, who was just happy to be at the Super Bowl.”

Related: Viral Stars: Biggest Internet Celebrities

Gaw has since left touring behind him to become a hair stylist. He still maintains a relationship with the “Chained to the Rhythm” singer, and last November, he attended her Witness world tour stop at the Staples Center in L.A.

Will forever and #always #support my main #bossmom #katyperry @katyperry …… amazing show … duh… 🙄. And amazing night!!!

A post shared by Bryan Gaw Inc. (@bryangaw) on

“Will forever and #always #support my main #bossmom #katyperry @katyperry …… amazing show … duh… 🙄. And amazing night!!!” he captioned the photo.

While it took Gaw some time to get used to his new fame, he told NPR that he now lists his stint as Left Shark on his resume. “Actually I don’t get any negative feedback from it,” he said. “If anything, people are, like, ‘Whoa, that’s so cool!'”

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