Ryan Beehler

Senior Staff Writer

On Saturday, April 1, Union Productions brought comedian Nathan Fielder to the Ruby Diamond Concert hall to host an intimate and awkward experience for a crowded audience.

The deadpan comedian has gained a great degree of traction over the past few years; he won the most prestigious award in comedy for new comedians in 2014, he has guest starred in several shows and is currently the director and star of Nathan for You, a reality television series on Comedy Central. Fielder presented himself in the manner in which he does on his show, as an awkward, socially inept business consultant that pitches outlandish schemes to desperate small business owners.

The night began with a conversation between Fielder and Dr. David Maslach, a professor of entrepreneurship in the College of Business. This conversation also served as an introduction, and it immediately became apparent to the audience that the awkwardness Fielder is able to convey on screen translates even more effectively in person. Fielder fumbled with his stool, spoke slowly and ended his sentences ambiguously, effectively inducing anxiety in his conversation partner and the audience. To his credit, Dr. Maslach did an excellent job at avoiding the pitfalls of Fielder’s personal questions – a feat that would not be accomplished by individual students brought on stage later in the night.

When Dr. Maslach asked Fielder about the origins of Nathan for You, he explained that he came up with the idea while working on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a television program which he described as the "Canadian Daily Show, except not as well done." Fielder would only star in short segments on this program, and he wanted to expand his ideas to a larger format. He originally pitched Nathan for You to Comedy Central as a consumer advocate reality show, but producers at the network thought a the idea would be more palatable and practical if he were a business consultant.

As a professor of innovation and creativity, Dr. Maslach must have been impressed with the ridiculous yet successful business advice given by Fielder. In regards to how he came up with ideas to help businesses, Fielder said that there was no concrete method he used. Sometimes he and his team would think of an idea first and later find a suitable business to try it out. He said that crazy ideas should make sense in at least one logical way, but small business owners are not often willing to take large risks by employing a nonsensical marketing strategy.

Fielder mentioned that FSU ranked as the No. 3 party school in the nation according to Playboy Magazine, but ranked significantly lower in academics. ("At least you've got something going for you, right?") Dr. Maslach dodged questions relating to these rankings by citing his wonderful students, esteemed faculty and preeminent institution. Dr. Maslach did not comment on the crowd’s reaction when Fielder asked the audience about their feelings regarding state politics, nor did he allude to the existence of student-teacher relationships when provoked by Fielder.

For Dr. Maslach, this must have been a difficult interview, and Fielder shifted from his character for a moment to thank him for his tolerance before playing a clip from the upcoming season of Nathan for You.

Next, Fielder took questions from the audience and Dr. Maslach went backstage. Union Productions turned the houselights on and handed the microphone to members of the audience. But before they could ask a question, Fielder had to feel like he knew them on a personal level. To accomplish this, he brought up three individual members from the audience onto the stage to become acquainted. Once on stage, the house lights were turned off and all that remained were Fielder and an audience member under the intense spotlight. From this vantage point, Fielder was in his element and his guests were easy targets.

The first audience member was Brian, an English major. The two had a rough dialogue in which Fielder showed no sign of understanding social cues and Brian buckled under the pressure. Brian talked about avoiding people he knew at the grocery store, to which Fielder questioned his intentions and reasoning. Although painfully slow, this quickly escalated into Fielder asking him what his deepest, darkest impulse was, and Brian responded by saying it was something violent and sexual. Before he could elaborate, audience members shouted for him to stop. Finally, he asked his original question about an April Fool’s joke Fielder had played in the past, but the comedic value of the answer was lost due to the cringe-worthy exchange that preceded the question.

The next audience member to come up on stage was Anna, a college student who travelled from Destin, Florida. Anna mentioned that she bought two chickens recently because she does not have any friends, and that her happiest moment was of her and her dog. Eventually, Anna called out Fielder for not replying to her and her friend’s direct messages on Instagram a few days prior to the show, and Fielder responded by exclaiming that she was a liar because she said previously she did not have any friends. As the audience reacted to these claims, Anna asked if his hair color was partially grey naturally, and Fielder responded shortly that it was – still upset that she had lied to him.

The final guest Nathan invited on stage was Alex, a relatively cool-headed individual. Fielder asked him if he was in a fraternity, and Alex responded saying that he was for a couple years, but is currently inactive. Fielder asked him if he was hazed, and Alex said he could not talk about it. Fielder assumed his non-answer meant yes, and added that he would never pay to be hazed. “Neither would I, I don’t know why I did it,” replied Alex.

"Boom. Any journalism majors here? That's how you do it. Controversy unearthed. Front page headline: 'I don't know why I did it," Fielder deadpanned.

Alex asked Fielder what his first job was out of college, and Fielder responded with a thoughtful answer. Fielder said that he had tried a variety of majors in college, finally settling with business and working during college at a brokerage firm. He said that he had tried everything from dentistry to philosophy, and these experimentations led him to fully commit to his comedy. He began doing odd jobs in the comedy scene in Toronto, Canada, and eventually became a professional comedian. Of all the audience members to appear on stage, Alex was most able to effectively deal with the tension created advertently by Fielder.

Fielder’s character in Nathan for You behaves in a different manner in front of a live audience. Small business owners on his show do not know he is a deadpan comedian, but his audience last Saturday knew. To compensate for this, Fielder held hostage the people on stage with him. He dove deep into their personal lives, seeing how far he could make them go. This is how he recreated the socially awkward nature of his show, by getting the host and audience members to recreate it. Not only is Nathan for You one of the most creative shows I have ever seen, but Nathan Fielder is one of the most creative comedians I have ever seen and I am eagerly awaiting the new season of his show.