Interview: Marc Summers on How His Obsession With The Producers Led to His New Off-Broadway Solo Show

For a whole generation of TV watchers (the 1980s and 1990s babies among us), Marc Summers is an icon. One of the earliest faces of the relatively new children’s network Nickelodeon, Summers presided over the game show Double Dare, which found teams of young people competing in messy physical challenges to win prizes like a trip to Space Camp.

After Double Dare, Summers reinvented himself as the host and/or producer of a plethora of Food Network shows, including Unwrapped and Restaurant: Impossible (among many other series’ and game shows). But most people don’t know about what was really happening behind the scenes, namely that Summers has spent his life dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, something that cost him jobs along the way.

Summers is upfront and honest about his battles and his successes in his new solo show The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, which is written by Tony nominee Alex Brightman and directed by Chad Rabinovitz, with music by Drew Gasparini. How did Summers meet these folks who are several decades younger than he is? Well, it all goes back to his love of theater; specifically, The Producers…

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Marc Summers, you are one of my TV idols. How often do people of my generation come up to you and say that?
All the time. I didn’t expect it to happen. But you know what? It’s the coolest thing. I grew up and I idolized Soupy Sales. He was the Marc Summers of his generation. We became very dear friends, and it’s just cool. At the time, of course, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. It was timing and the cleverness of the show and whatever my ridiculous banter was. Who would have thought that almost 40 years later, we’d still be doing it? When Pick It comes out [during Life and Slimes], the place explodes. It’s so insane to me. I hear from so many people who say, “It’s my lifelong dream to be on Double Dare.”

Is it still fun?
I’m having the best time of my life. I never thought it was going to be this fun.I’ve kind of reinvented myself 17 times. I started off as a magician, I did stand-up comedy, I wrote game shows, I was on the Food Network…Theater was always a dream in the back of my head. So the fact that, at this point in my life, I’m getting this opportunity…This is a moment that means something to me. Do you know the actor Brad Oscar?

I do.
I first saw him in The Producers 20 years ago. I got to know him a little bit along the way. This past Saturday, I wasn’t feeling good. My voice was gone and I was thinking “How am I gonna do two shows today?” I got through the first show and I was sitting at a deli and Brad Oscar walked in. He leaned over, gave me a hug and a kiss, and said “I saw the show Monday night. I was blown away. You and I are gonna have dinner.” Well, there’s a dream done.

Tell me the story of how you hooked up with Alex Brightman and Drew Gasparini to create this show with them.
Here’s how it happened. I was obsessed with The Producers. I went to the show over 25 times. I found out that Angus McIndoe, which was the restaurant next to the St. James and is no longer there, was co-owned by Mel Brooks, Nathan Lane, and Matthew Broderick. And the third floor of Angus was all about Broadway stars, not just people from The Producers, but everybody would go up there after their shows. And I wanted to be up there in the worst way just to see what it’s like. I tried to sneak up there night after night, and night after night, the guy always stopped me.

Eventually, I got up there and I was sitting at the bar, and this guy comes up to me and says “I could have been you. I auditioned for Double Dare and didn’t get it.” And I said “Well, you and 2,000 other people.” His name was Roy Miller and he was a Broadway producer doing The Drowsy Chaperone, which I had just seen. I had a question for him, which was “How do I get on Broadway? Can you give me some advice?” He had been brought in to run Surflight Theatre in Long Beach Island, New Jersey and he said “Give me your number, and I’ll call you if anything pops up and it makes sense.” Later, he called me and said “We’re doing Grease. Do you want to play Vince Fontaine?” I said “Do I have to audition?” He said “No,” I said “I’ll take it.”

I was still producing either Dinner or Restaurant: Impossible at the time in Philly, so I would drive back and forth from Philly to Long Beach Island, and we did the show for three or four weeks back in 2011.

Drew Gasparini was playing a smaller part [Eugene] in Grease and he and I hit it off magically. I’m 62 at this point and he’s in his 20s, and he had me meet his friend Alex Brightman, so I started hanging out with him and Brightman. They had just done an online show called An Actor Prepares…Dinner, which I thought was cute and clever. I was producing a lot of stuff for Food Network at the time, and I tried to pitch it, and they had no interest, but we bonded. One night at dinner, I said I’d like to do a one-man show and Brightman says “You can never do a one-man show. You’re not compelling.” And I said “Oh, you have no idea anything about me.” For the next year and a half, I took Brightman and Gasparini out for dinner at very expensive places and they asked me questions and took notes, and they came back to me with a script two years later.

I’m glad that what they created isn’t just frivolity. As someone who also has OCD and deals with it on a fairly regular basis, it’s always nice to hear from another member of the club.
Did you know it’s predominant in Ashkenazi Jews?

I didn’t, but it makes sense, as one.
Back when I was doing speaking engagements, I had to know all this stuff. When I think about my grandmother in Toledo, she was born in Russia and had the most insane OCD. She would sweep the street every night. When I went to spend time with her, I was washing windows. She had a stainless-steel breakfast set, and if you took wax paper and rubbed it on the stainless steel, it would shine. I would have to take wax paper and do that to all the stainless steel. It was predominant in my family. Both my parents had it, both grandparents on both sides had it.

That’s definitely familiar in my life. I went on anti-anxiety medication after my kid was born.
What are you taking?

Lexapro, 10 mg. I just appreciate your openness about it, since it’s so infrequently talked about in a serious way.
I guess we hit a nerve. Alex Timbers said the sweetest stuff about the show. He said he’d never seen anything that brought it to the forefront in this way. The fact that he said it brought him to tears three times, it’s an insane compliment.

I know most people know you for Double Dare, but Unwrapped was my show. I still love that show. I would just watch it all the time and it was on all the time, like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is now.
I was Guy Fieri before Guy Fieri. They used to run that thing to death. And then we did Trivia Unwrapped. So Unwrapped was on nine to 10, and then on Mondays from 10 to 10:30 we did Trivia Unwrapped. I told the lady who was running the place, “I don’t want to see 90 minutes of anybody, especially Marc Summers.” I thought it was way too much. Those shows still air on Discovery Plus, and they trend every freaking day.

By the way, it’s always nice to meet another crazy fan of The Producers. Tickets to see the original cast was my Bar Mitzvah present. 
Oh, my God. Amazing for you. And how was your Bar Mitzvah? How many people showed up?

One hundred, 150. We’re Jews from Long Island.
Unbelievable. They’re insane. I’ve done a lot of private parties and one guy had the set of Double Dare reconstructed in Orlando. His parents owned hotels, and for his 30th birthday, his dad said “I’ll either buy you a Maserati or you could do Double Dare.” And he chose Double Dare. Nicest people I’ve ever meet. Very religious, Orthodox Jews. I couldn’t start the show ’til nine o’clock because they had to go to temple and then have dinner. And then about 40 people came into this ballroom and I did Double Dare for 40 people, even the physical challenges. I said to the guy, “I would have taken the car.”