Iconic Nickelodeon Host Marc Summers Is “Paying It Forward” In His One-Man Show The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers

Six times a week, Marc Summers gets a bucket of slime poured on his head on an off-Broadway stage. Some might wonder, “How did he get here?”

From 1986 to 1993, Summers entertained an entire generation of television viewers as host of the Nickelodeon game show Double Dare. The hit show followed two teams of children — the red team and the blue team — as they competed in physical and trivia challenges to win prizes. Slime was a major component of the obstacles and still remains a part of the network’s identity to this day. 

Unbeknownst to all, Summers was struggling with obsessive–compulsive disorder at the time and was on a journey towards diagnosis and treatment. The television host’s one-man play The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, written by Tony nominee Alex Brightman and with music by his frequent collaborator Drew Gasparini, takes the audience on a trip through Summers’ life and career as well as his mental health.

Summers, who has also worked as the host and producer for several shows on the History Channel and Food Network, told Pop Culture Planet over a Zoom call that Life and Slimes has been over a decade in the making. 

Summers met Gasparini in 2011 when they were both in a production of Grease in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Gasparini insisted he “should meet his pal Alex Brightman.” The three were hanging out one evening and Summers mentioned his interest in doing a one-man show. Their friendship continued to evolve and the three started regularly going out to dinner. Roughly a year and a half later, Summers says Brightman handed him a script and said, “Here’s your one-man show.”

At this point, Brightman and Gasparini had recently wrapped a show at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in Indiana called Make Me Mad and mentioned their involvement with Life and Slimes, which sparked the theater’s interest. “The next thing I know I'm going to Bloomington, Indiana to do the show,” Summers said. “Then we went to the Adirondack Theatre Festival and this past summer we did it in Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania and in Buffalo, New York.” 

Through the years the play has changed immensely, roughly 50-60% as Summers would guess. “Alex kept updating it and I've learned how to act better,” Summers shared. “It's become a really difficult show at times for me to do because it's so emotional and it involves everything in my life, but I'm having the best time I've ever had.” 

The show’s journey to off-Broadway’s New World Stages, where it is currently playing through June 2, 2024, has paid off as it premiered to praise from critics. Gillian Russo wrote in New York Theatre Guide that the show will “likely feel like a reunion with an old friend” and Rachel Graham for TheaterMania wrote that Summers “excels” in his performance and Brightman and Gasparini “make the tonal shifts from silly to serious flow naturally.” Reflecting on the reception, Summers said, “We haven't had one negative thing, which is mind boggling to me. I'm flattered and blown away and surprised that the reaction has been as positive as it's been.”

The performer noted that one of the show’s biggest changes since the early days is his “ability to understand how to do [the show].” “The nicest compliment I got after opening night was when Brightman came up to me and said, ‘When did you learn how to act?’ That really got to me,” Summers said. “When I started this, I was still executive producing Dinner: Impossible and I was focused on that so much that I didn't have time to focus on the show like I should have. But now I'm no longer doing TV and this is 150% of my life.”

Summers also said that because of the increased budget, director Chad Rabinowitz has been able to add “bigger physical challenges” during the interactive portion of the show which sees select members of the audience participating in a Double Dare-like experience. 

While Life and Slimes’ “part-game show” quality might be what draws some viewers to the theater, the 90-minute play isn’t all fun and games. The more serious parts sees Summers depicting his battle with OCD and the personification of his intrusive thoughts which creep up on him throughout the show in the form of a stalker. Summers credits these sequences to “Brightman’s brain.”

He said, “In a million years, I would have never been able to think of something such as that. Some people scratch their head and say, ‘Did Summers really have a stalker? What exactly is going on?’ That was his interpretation and it has grown tremendously.”

Summers often finds himself feeling emotional while reliving these intense moments, but appreciates that Brightman’s script goes from “such fun and craziness and laughing to such seriousness. Summers shared, “I think people initially aren't prepared for it. I can hear people crying and being choked up in the audience, which plays off the emotions that I have, as I'm going through it. It's quite a ride.”

But the show doesn’t stop right there. Summers spends a half hour “at least” at the stage door after every performance listening to emotional stories from fans and offering forms of support. In a way, Summers feels both the show and being transparent about his mental health journey is “about paying it forward.”

“When I first got diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, there was pretty much nothing people could do. There were some doctors, but there was no medication. There was nothing called cognitive behavior therapy — that evolved over the years,” Summers explained. “We've had many, many people come to the show who've experienced some of the things I talked about and they're not even aware at this point that some of that help exists.” 

Summers has high ambitions for the future of Life and Slimes and says there have been conversations about transferring the show to Broadway, going on tour, or recording it for a streaming service, but for now, he’s just taking it a day at a time. “It’s so overwhelming… but I would be thrilled if any of those things happened. It's all about timing,” he said. 

The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers is currently playing at New World Stages in New York City.