The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers

By Dennis W.

When you hear the name Marc Summers you probably already know who the man is. He was on your or your children’s must-see television show for over a decade and was the man who brought slime into your home whether you wanted it or not. Marc Summers rose to television fame by hosting one of the mega-hits of the late 80’s and early 90’s, “Double Dare”  on Nickelodeon who then moved on to many other projects including Food Network’s “Unwrapped“. Now that same television host is bringing his life and slimes to Off-Broadway with a one-man show called, quite naturally, The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers at the New World Stages. 

Written by Alex Brightman (Actor, Broadway’s Beetlejuice) with music by Drew Gasparini (Broadway-bound The Karate Kid) and directed by Chad Rabinovitz (National Tour Penn and Teller Presents), Marc jumps right in with what he knows best and what made him a household name; audience participation.  He starts with the chance for some unsuspecting lucky audience members to join the fun, some compete in rain gear holding the promise of getting messy like they used to watch on Nickelodeon. The night I was there the theater was filled with people totally familiar with the show and ready to jump into the middle of flying slime or whipped cream. I’m not sure if you would place me in that group of groupies. 

Summers is very comfortable as he backtracks his life to young Marc and his hopes and dreams of becoming a TV personality. He very thoughtfully feels that, like one of his idols, he’ll become a magician. Marc the Magician seemed like an appropriate title. Summers breezes along through the first half of the performance as he explains how one job leads to another with some bumps along that road. But Summers always seemed to bounce back and forward landing, in 1995, a hosting gig on Lifetime that changed his life forever. 

This is where his tone changes and becomes more serious. He starts talking about when he was diagnosed, live on television, with what was then a mysterious disorder. That moment put the breaks on his career. That was until he was hired to host “Unwrapped” on Food Network, which fortunately changed the course of his life and his career.

Summers seems very at home sharing the intimate details of his life even as he tosses in some slime moments with the audience. He also has the help of a sidekick to help with laughs as he plays all kinds of characters from Summers’ mom to his bosses.

Whether you were part of the “Double Dare” television audience as a child or an “Unwrapped” fan, The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers will hold your attention as the story of a man who never gave up when faced with some pretty powerful difficulties. And to top it all off, he really seems as nice in person as he is on television.