Volunteer contestants reenact a typical Double Dare challenge as host Marc Summers (right) looks on in The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, the former Nickelodeon host’s stage show.
Marc Summers may not be a name that rings a bell to most people, although he has hosted numerous cable-television shows, most notably Double Dare (1986–93) on the Nickelodeon network. The participants in that game show for kids invariably ended up covered in goop, schmutz, and slime. The title The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers pays tribute to that calling card, but it also reveals the celebrity’s battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a malady that he has had since childhood.
Life and Slimes is part autobiography and part interactive game show, and Summers himself is an icon for a certain generation who experienced Double Dare as children, to judge from the audience reaction. It certainly helps if one knows about Double Dare, but the show is smartly tailored to its star’s abilities. It’s serious but not depressing about informing a public of the miseries of OCD, even as it reconstitutes Double Dare challenges using volunteer audience members.
Summers recreates some of the Nickelodeon show challenges for The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers.
Written by Alex Brightman and directed by Chad Rabinovitz, the show follows advice that Bob Barker once gave to Summers: “If you make everyone around you look good, you look good.” On stage Summers is accompanied by Mike Nappi, a vigorous young sidekick who plays piano during key moments and embodies a variety of people who guide or hinder Summers in his career.
Nappi brings a zestful energy to characters like cigar-chomping Mike Zannella, talent coordinator for The Tonight Show, whom the aspiring childhood magician Summers contacts for a magician’s gig. Among the other characters Nappi takes on is Summers’s Jewish mother—he was born Marc Berkowitz—and a loosey-goosey college roommate named Gil. “That bed is mine, the one with the pile of dirty clothes on it,” Gil tells Summers. “Your bed is here, the one with my other pile of dirty clothes on it.” To which Summers’s reaction is:
I clean the room from top to bottom. I vacuum the floor, wash all of the sheets and pillow cases, dust the desks, wash the desks, scrub the bathroom, and sanitize everything. … Because everything needs to be perfect.
The show generally presents Summers’s story chronologically, from his birth in Indianapolis in 1951 to his childhood desire to be a magician and his discovery that Carson started his career as a magician too. It encompasses a variety of jobs: he’s head page on The Price Is Right, then works on Truth or Consequences, where Barker hires him, at 22, to write for the show. “Truth or Consequences is a show where contestants have to answer a question correctly, or perform outlandish stunts and punishments,” he explains. “Bobbing for goldfish or trying to ride a unicycle.” The format foreshadows that of Double Dare.
Summers has battled obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) all his life, as well as cancer and a serious car accident. Photographs by Russ Rowland.
Although Summers is no actor—he abandoned that notion early on—he delivers his story with clarity and sincerity, having worked in stand-up at the Comedy Store in L.A. in the 1980s. Using his birth name, he faced competition such as Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman, Jay Leno and Garry Shandling. When the owner let him go, she said, “Let’s face it. You’re no Leno. You’re no Robin Williams. You’re wasting my stage space. And unfortunately there is already a famous Berkowitz in America. And right now, he’s killing more than you.”
Although Double Dare lasted only two years, Summers later worked on Biggers and Summers, a talk show that allowed his family to join him in New York. “And after everyone goes to bed,” he confesses, “I clean the whole apartment.” But an expert on OCD was booked on the show; after he related the symptoms on the air, Summers responded, “I think I might have OCD.” A mixed reception followed his public confession. He had interviews with Oprah, People and Howard Stern, but “I don’t hear from my parents—because they stop talking to me. … This was 1996. OCD is seen as this horribly stigmatic thing that can send you to a mental institution.”
Summers has been able to deal with his OCD, as well as three bouts of cancer and a serious car accident that required reconstructive facial surgery. Ultimately, though, his is a typical hero’s story: one of grit and luck and challenges that must be overcome to find success. In addition to hit shows like Unwrapped and Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network, Double Dare was later revived with Summers again as the host. One can’t help but laud his hard-won success.
The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers plays through June 2 at New World Stages. Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit lifeandslimes.com.
Playwright: Alex Brightman
Director: Chad Rabinovitz
Music: Drew Gasparini
Set Design: Christopher Rhoton
Costume Design: Scott Jones
Lighting Design: Jeffrey Small
Sound Design: David Sheehan, Hidenori Nakajo
