‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Public Access Dancing Guy Shares the Secrets Behind His Moves

Of the many harebrained schemes the Gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have attempted in an effort to hit it big, the one from “Frank Sets Sweet Dee on Fire” remains among the dumbest. Mac, Frank and Charlie devise a plan to make their own hard-hitting news show with Mac as the host. They then decide to air it on Philadelphia public access television. Mac, however, protests the public access part of the plan, arguing that no one watches it. 

To prove his point, he turns on the public access channel and he — along with everyone else in Paddy’s Pub — becomes mesmerized by what’s on screen. A man in cowboy boots and blue boxer briefs — and nothing else — dances in front of a green screen that changes its background every few seconds, from a desert setting to a beach to a waterfall, and so on. 

While Charlie, Frank and Mac fail to get their news program off the ground, Dee and Dennis end up on Philly public access anyway after they’re filmed at a nightclub dancing in diapers with the same guy they saw on TV.

Although he never appears on the show again, the public access dancing guy has remained beloved by Sunny fans, inspiring multiple YouTube videos and Reddit threads. And so, I tracked down Pedro Lopez, who played the dancing guy, to ask him about his killer moves.

How did you become the dancing guy?

After retiring from being a school teacher, my son convinced me to get into acting and about a year into it, I booked the dancing guy. I got an audition, and I went into the room and they said, “What’s your name? Are you ready?” I said, “Yeah,” and then they said, “Okay, well, start dancing.” So I started dancing and I got it. 

The moves that we see in the show, are those all yours?

Yeah. They gave me free rein. I didn’t know what they wanted, so I just made up my routine in the moment. I pretty much trusted that my moves were fine.

Are you much of a dancer in real life?

When I lived in San Diego, I took some salsa dancing classes, but just at a beginner level. I always liked dancing, but I wasn’t really a dancer.

When you taped the episode, I’m guessing you had no idea what images would be projected behind you, right?

Yeah. I think I taped that at Fox Studios. The one who directed me was Fred Savage. He did both that and when I was in the nightclub.

How long did they have you dance for?
It was probably just a few minutes, but at some point, when we were doing the green screen, I got tired. You can see the full thing on YouTube, and you can see where I stopped and took a breath.

What about the nightclub scene?

It was fun. When we were doing the club scene, I had all these beautiful girls clapping for me and saying, “Dancing guy!”

That was the scene where you danced with Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson. What was that like?

I just danced even faster and harder because I wanted to impress them.

As the dancing guy, can you rate them as dancers?

They weren’t as good as me, definitely not. I think because they don’t have that Latino blood.