Superbowl Halftime Star Walks His Own Line

Even If you weren't one of the millions who watched last month's Superbowl halftime show, you may still have seen the image of Andy Lewis, the "Will Ferrell look-alike" dressed in a toga who, for 30 stunning seconds, bounced on an elastic line alongside Madonna, and landed in the international spotlight. 

Countless sources, the New York Times, CNN and NBC, to name only a few, later reported that Andy Lewis, a former Greenbrae resident and 2004 Redwood High School graduate, was exhibiting his skills as a slackliner. The two-inch wide, tightrope-like trampoline, off which Lewis did his successive flips, is called a slackline. Lewis is a world record holder in the previously little known extreme sport called slacklining, a sport he helped develop since he was introduced to it in 2004.  

Lewis, who now resides in Moab, Utah, calls slacklining "the sport that changed (his) life," and he "thank(s) Madonna for giving (him) a chance to tell the world about it."  Madonna sought to find a slackliner to appear in her show after she attended a slackline competition earlier in the year. Gibbon, the manufacturer of the lines and sponsor of Lewis, recommended him, and Lewis was hired. He trained for six weeks and was required to remain quiet about the details of the performance. Lewis' mother, Lynn Lewis, of Greenbrae, said her son told her, "I can't tell you too much.  I'm wearing a toga."

It was that toga, perhaps, along with Lewis' charisma, his Will Ferrell hairdo, and his series of acrobatic belly flops that took center stage on Superbowl Sunday, rivaled only by, maybe, MIA's not-so-well-received use of the middle finger, and, oh yes, the football game. A flurry of questions followed the show:  Who was the guy? What was he doing? Now, does that hurt?

Perhaps the biggest fascination was the perceived "fitness" of Lewis' groin, as his frontal falls on the wire, a "tricklining" move Lewis has termed the "sick nasty," looked impossibly painful.  Lewis says, "Even though a lot people made fun of that fact that it looks like it would hurt…it overall blew up the sport." Lewis explained during his February appearance on Conan O'Brien Show that he carefully watches the placement of his body in order to avoid injury.

Lewis says he sees the future of slacklining going in many directions, "an extreme outdoor sport, performance sport or maybe in the X-Games or Olympics,"  though he sees the sport's value extending beyond the realm of athletics. "I see it as a show, an art, a hobby, a lifestyle."

Slackling as a sport is very different from the "Hollywood" of a Madonna performance.  It is usually performed outdoors, and often at death-defying heights.  In fact, Lewis, known in the sport as SkAndy, a blending of Sketchy and Andy, has completed numerous "free-solos," walks across a slackline, often hundreds of feet in the air, without the use of a safety harness.  He rejects the idea that this is a "stunt."

"I don't think of what I do as stunts. It's a focused mindset to know that you are depending on your own actions to save your life. If you want to live badly enough, you will perform. And if you don't, your life is the cost. This makes the game serious. And that seriousness, that intensity, those moments, connect me to myself in a great way."

Lewis says that, "anyone can learn to slackline easily" by starting with a low-line, one to two feet high, to learn "the balance that evolution has built into us but has been forgotten."  

Lewis' mother notes, however, that her son showed an amazing ability to climb early on.  At thirteen months of age, "just after he learned to walk," says Lynn Lewis, "Andy climbed to the top of a jungle gym."  One of the other mothers present at the park saw this and turned to her to ask, "How old is he?"

Andy Lewis maintains that spending a little time on the wire "each week or day" will do more than improve your balance.  "It will improve your life significantly."

Lewis certainly walks the talk of Slacklife.  In fact, he turned down a job offer from Madonna to perform in her world tour over the next year-and-a-half.  That's no matter for Lewis who has other plans, sort of.

"I have no plans, but freedom to do anything, anywhere. The world is my playground, and the purpose of my line is that it is my line of purpose. I will get lost.  I will see new things.  I will challenge myself, and whether I succeed or fail, I always find my way home.

Lynn Lewis says of her son's dangerous line of work, "It's scary.  I've had dreams.  I've had dreams of him falling…" She continues with certainty in her voice, "He will keep climbing.  That's just who he is."