Man On Wire

Philippe Petit explored in almost everyway possible. He travelled to many places worldwide, sharing his love for wire-walking and street performing with many people, and made great impacts upon the people of Sydney and New York, with his Sydney Harbour Bridge and World Trade Center wire-walks. He became a cult legend in Paris for his street performing and Notre Dame wire-walk, and even more so for his amazing “coups” at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the WTC. Physically, he explored things that were thought to be beyond human. Walking across a wire at 417 metres in the air is something that not many people could even dream of, but Philippe explored the limits and did it. In fact, possibly the easiest part for him was the actual walking. The set up was also an amazing thing. Breaking into one of the tallest buildings in the world and securing a wire between them is almost unthinkable. Also, his amazing feat broke many people’s thoughts of what is conventional. Only two and a half years after his WTC wire-walk, a toymaker named George Willig scaled the South Tower using special suction cups, doing an illegal but amazingly beautiful thing, very similar to Philippe’s feat.

Philippe was looked upon by both his friends and the general public as an amazing person. His charismatic personality attracted people to him, and made him, in their eyes, comparable to great historic figures, whether explorers like Columbus or Cook, or artist like Picasso and Mozart. He was, in some ways, more recognised by people, because he actually affected their lives and was part of their generation. Whilst explorers like Columbus and Magellan discovered new places, and even continents, Philippe Petit was someone that you might of seen, or met, or heard about in recent media. Old explorers and artists are, well, old. You’d barely ever hear about them on the news or anything, but you would hear about Philippe.

Phillipe’s natural aptitude for storytelling, combined with his amazing charisma, won him many friendships and good things. His ability to convince people to join him and help him in his crazy escapades was amazing. Almost everyone who joined him could not have been recruited by anyone except for him. Even when trying to obtain an object, such as a wire, he had an amazing ability to get by with what he had. When planning the Sydney Harbour Bridge coup, he managed to secure the wire by putting on a show for friends of the shop owner, and telling stories of some of his feats. This shows that he was naturally an amazingly charismatic person and a profound storyteller.