Marc Summers tells stories of his iconic career
Double Dare host performs The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers at Gretna Theatre in August
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Scott LaMar
Airdate: July 24th, 2023
Many of us grew up watching Marc Summers hosting the kids’ messy, chaotic game show Double Dare on Nickelodeon. Slime became a thing during that time.
A game show host is what Summers aspired to be, although being hit with pies and all kinds of other substances was not part of what he had in mind.
Summers has had a great career before Double Dare and afterwards as well hosting talk show on Lifetime and the History Channel and the Food Network’s Unwrapped, but on The Spark Monday, Summers said he being busy came natural to him,”It’s weird. I always had this passion. I came out of the womb knowing exactly what I wanted to do, and I just never accepted the word no. And the thing about it is, in our show, we talk about the word no and how it stops creativity and halts wonder. And a lot of people just retreat. And I never wanted to be the kind of guy who got up and went to work every day and hated my life and hated my job. And so I just pursued. I never did it. I lectured colleges and I always said, why do you want to get in the entertainment business? And people will say, I want to be rich and famous. And I say, Well, don’t even bother, because the odds of it happening are slim and none. And it’s also be careful what you wish for. And so I never give up. I used to have people say, I’ll hire you if you stop calling me. I was a pain in the neck. I just kept going after it and after it. And I was in L.A. for 13 years before I landed Double Dare, my first national TV show. But I worked as a page and I was at the Comedy Store. I was a regular at the Magic Castle. I always found stuff to do.”
Marc Summers on The Spark with host Scott LaMar
All the while Summers suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which manifested itself as Summers always having to have things in order and clean,”Everything had to be perfect. Most of it had to be symmetrical. I couldn’t do my homework, and unless everything on my desk was absolutely perfect and there was a rug that had fringe, and the fringe wasn’t absolutely straight. I would sit there and straighten it. And it runs in families. My grandparents had it. My mom and dad had it and I had it. It passed down in the genes. And what drives you is intrusive thoughts. You tell yourself, unless you make these things perfect, bad things might happen to members of the family. Or the next time you take a plane ride, it’s going to crash. And it just drives you to do these repetitive actions and it’s miserable. And the way I got diagnosed, I was hosting a talk show on Lifetime television called Biggers and Summers, and we had Dr. Eric Hollander discussing OCD. And I was doing the research the night before in my apartment in New York City, and I thought, Oh my God, all these things I’ve been doing my entire life, it has a name and I guess I’m not crazy, but maybe I am.”
Summers tells the story in a show called The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers at the Gretna Theatre in Mt. Gretna August 3rd through 6th. On The Spark he described the show,”It is about OCD and cancer and overcoming obstacles and the fight of getting your jobs in show business. And how the answer is no 98% of the time. And one why do some people keep pursuing it and why that some people give up? And, you know, I think it’s a motivational show in many ways.”
