I’ve just started to watch Nathan For You on Amazon Prime and I’m confused exactly what’s real and what’s fake. I realise the “owners” in the show are in fact the real owners, however Nathan’s suggestions are all so outlandish nobody would agree to it unless they were in on it.
Pretty much every episode he does crap to unsuspecting customers, that if they were real, should carry serious consequences and the tertiary characters he brings in to solve whatever intermediary problem comes up are all so bizarre you cannot believe them to be real.
However in “Dumb Starbucks” and “The Movement” for example he shows clips of morning shows and the like reporting on his exploits in a way I don’t think he could have effectively faked so I’m assuming the clips are real, therefore some of the stuff he’s doing is real.
What’s the straight answer?
“Quick Answer: Docu-reality comedy series Nathan For You follows Nathan Fielder as he gives outrageous advice to small business owners and watches the outlandish consequences. The humorous results lead many viewers to wonder if some of the featured business owners or other people onscreen are actors in scripted scenes. Although the crew plans for certain situations ahead of time and Fielder plays an exaggerated version of himself, the reactions of the storeowners and customers are evidently genuine.”
If you think Nathan for You is nuts, check out his current project, The Rehearsal.
Absolutely no way in hell I’m ever going to believe that.
The only TV show that I have ever watched where, after it had concluded, I wasn’t sure what the hell it was that I had watched. I loved it.
From Nathan’s Reddit AMA:
In general, there seems to be an understanding that when participating in a reality show you’re not going to get full information about what will happen so that authentic moments can be captured on camera. The people that appear comfortable with this are usually the ones we end up involving in the show - those that seem open to an experience or adventure that’s different from their day-to-day life. Often in the casting process we’ll encounter business owners that have lots of specific questions about the show and exactly what we’re planning to do with them. Because going into a shoot we don’t want participants knowing any of that or that it’s a comedy show (as this would take away from them acting naturally), we usually end up avoiding these more controlling/protective personality types as the chances they’re going to get very upset by an experience they aren’t prepared for is much higher. And the goal is never to get people upset.
For your second question, we’ve definitely had business owners that start to realize that the show isn’t as straightforward as they first thought it would be (this probably happens with most of them), but we’ve only had it happen once where someone mid-way through shooting realized exactly what the show was. For that segment, we ended up having to re-shoot it with another business since it was difficult to continue after that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2aoj9b/i_am_nathan_fielder_comedian_director_and_host_of/