There’s a moment from the ‘Nathan for You’ series finale that I often think about. It’s when Maci, the escort Nathan hires and continues to spend time with, watches an episode of the host’s Comedy Central show. She calls him funny, but mean: “You lied to every last one of them,” she says.
She’s the first person on the show to genuinely call him out on the outright lies he’s told the business owners he’s pledged to help. She sees past the facade and acknowledges the performance, the human experiment it all — that special combination of “funny” and “mean” that has come to define Nathan Fielder’s comedic style and persona.
In ‘The Rehearsal,’ premiering July 15th on HBO Max, Fielder will further elevate knack for getting normal people to reveal themselves onscreen. In the new series, Nathan gives folks the opportunity to rehearse life’s most important moments, hopefully manufacturing a perfectly planned reality. So he says in the trailer voiceover, “If you plan for every variable, a happy outcome doesn’t have to be left to chance.”
We see starry-eyed hope in some of the guests, believing he’ll make their dreams come true. Others call him see him in less flattering light, weary of what the funny guy’s got up his sleeve.
Well: “Mean,” “Willy Wonka,” “a liar,” “a dream maker,” “Daddy.” Call him what you want — Nathan Fielder is back to his ambitious imitation of life antics again. And it’s bound to be as fascinating as ever.
Starring Nathan Fielder, ‘The Rehearsal’ premieres July 15th on HBO Max.
