Andy Lewis Brings Slacklining to the Next Level (Again)
Slacklining went mainstream in gold shoes and a toga Sunday afternoon as 111 million fans tuned in for Super Bowl Forty-Six. Andy Lewis orchestrated the biggest break ever for the emerging sport as he bounced and tricked under the adoring eyes of Madonna during this, the most watched TV event in history. While most of the world is asking this week, “Who was that guy?” and, “What is a slackline?” we in the slackline community mostly want to know “How did he do it?”
Andy Lewis has long been known for pulling off the impossible, from landing the first slackline backflip in 2006 to snagging the world record highline free solo in 2011 at breathtaking length of 55 meters (180 feet). As a leader in the slackline community and the inventor of more than half of tricklining’s most radical moves Andy has always been a star in the world of slackline. So of course, when Madonna’s boyfriend and son began slacklining in her Hollywood backyard, Andy Lewis was the man they looked up to, and the one they recommended to Madonna for her big show.
Cirque du Soleil contacted Andy for the job several months ago, and after weeks of rehearsal with Madonna in New York the show went live, and Andy’s part went viral. News outlets around the nation are talking about how the “Sean White of Slacklining” stole the show. Conan O’Brien even had an Andy look-alike steal his show in a hilarious episode Tuesday where a toga-clad, afro-sporting comedian blocks the cameras slacklining directly in front of the TV star.
There’s lots of talk about what Andy will be doing next. Madonna announced this week that he will be accompanying her on her world tour this year, but Andy is not so sure. He says “I’m one of the few people in the world whose life would actually be less exciting after taking this job” and “I’m not sure I want to stop in my tracks for this”. Since his return to Moab, Utah, the desert paradise home to the biggest towers and sandstone cliffs in the US, Andy has remained remarkably unchanged. He is constantly answering phone calls and requests for interviews and TV appearances, even fielding offers for a reality TV show about his life, but Andy is doing it from his iPhone on top of 500-foot desert towers.
The day he returned from the Super Bowl he BASE-jumped off Kingfisher tower, and then orchestrated a simultaneous highline send and BASE flyby that produced the most amazing slackline photo so far this year. He shocked CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and the rest of America with his “Balls of Steel” video response to the Nation’s collective outcry about the condition of his private parts after the multiple chest bounces he executed in time with Madonna’s song and dance.
So,
despite all of the attention, Andy has kept his offbeat sense of humor and
indomitable drive to surprise and impress his fans. It’s impossible to predict
what Andy will do next, but I think it is safe to say that it will be BIG, both
for slacklining, and extreme sports at large.
