Man On Wire

A month or so ago, I was catching up on old podcasts of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me. On one of them, the "that's not my job" person was Philippe Petit, the man who strung a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers and walked it in 1974. The documentary about this escapade, Man On Wire, had been released and he was doing some publicity. On the radio show, M. Petit was a bizarre amalgamation of bravado, humility, confidence, humor and energy.

I had heard of the documentary before listening to Wait, Wait, but never really felt the need to watch it. It, like M. Petit, seemed to be a lot of things rolled into one. There was archival footage, interviews with his co-conspirators, reenactments (often involving frolicking in the french countryside), and an unusual sex scene. Throughout, there was this manic feel to the whole proceeding. It kind of made me wonder what it must be like to feel such a need to do something, even if that something, on the surface, seems quite meaningless.

In his radio interview, he was talking about the next walk he would like to do. There were some vague references to sponsors for an Easter Island tight rope walk. However, given the sheer magnitude of the Twin Towers walk and the fact that the feat can never be replicated, Philippe Petit may have reached his apogee 26 years ago.