Marc Summers Explains Why Reality TV Sucks
The comedian made famous by Double Dare talks marriage, Marc Vetri, and his new off-Broadway show.
Marc Summers / Photograph by Emily Assiran; shot on location at The Civilian Hotel NYC
Longtime Double Dare host and Food Network personality Marc Summers has plenty of connections to Philadelphia. He lived here for twelve years. Double Dare got its start here. And, well, he just loves the place. We caught up with Summers in New York, where he’s currently in his own off-Broadway show, The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers.
The name on my birth certificate is actually … Marc Berkowitz. But very early on in my showbiz career, I turned on Good Morning America one day and saw that they identified the Son of Sam as David Berkowitz. My agent called me and made me change my name immediately. He said, “I’ll never be able to get you a gig otherwise.” And I simply became Marc Summers.
I lived in Philly … for 12 years. I used to live at that big pink building on Broad Street. The Symphony House? I left five years ago. Also, when we first started Double Dare, we filmed at WHYY in Philadelphia because Nickelodeon didn’t have money. We shot in Philly for $9,000 an episode, compared to $25,000 in New York.
The TV shows I grew up watching were … Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan. I would sneak into the den after bedtime to watch Johnny.
My first job in TV was … as one of those kids on Romper Room. I was the standby kid for when other kids would get sick. They’d call my parents and say that so-and-so was sick. “Can you get Mark down here right away?” I just loved being in the studio, watching the crew. the magic of television is just something I always connected with.
These days, I live in … airplanes. I have two homes in California. One in Santa Barbara. One in L.A. And I also live in a hotel in New York.
Reality TV … sucks.So many shiny floors. So many bright lights. No real people. Everyone is so phony. And what’s with these shows like America’s Got Talent and their “contestants”? Unless you’ve had some tragedy in your life that they can make a five-minute segment about, you’re not getting on the show. Why does everybody need a backstory?
When they offered me the job on Double Dare … I immediately accepted. But they actually didn’t tell me about the huge vats of chocolate syrup and slime until I showed up on set. I have OCD and am a neatness fanatic. With Double Dare, I had to talk myself through that show every day.
I got my start in stand-up … at the Comedy Store in 1976, alongside Dave Letterman, Jay Leno and Robin Williams. And I became a warmup guy for lots of shows like Soap, Star Search, What’s Happening Now, Donny & Marie. I was the guy who would go out to get people hyped up before the shoot. I’d tell them when to laugh and when to applaud, The idea was to get them to feel like they were on speed. It’s all about the energy in the room.
If somebody sees me on the street and says, “Hey, you’re the guy from that slime show” … I’m just glad somebody remembers. There’s a whole generation of people who only know me from my Food Network show, Unwrapped, and never heard of Double Dare.
After I learned that Double Dare was canceled … I was okay. I had a love-hate relationship with it, and I also didn’t want to be a kid-show host forever. We did something like 500 episodes. Sometimes you want things to go on forever. Sometimes you don’t.
When people ask me what Philly is like … I tell them it’s historically brilliant, culinarily amazing, and that the people are the best.
When I visit, I go to … Campo’s for a cheesesteak, Butcher & Singer for anything, and wherever Marc Vetri is.
People may be surprised to know that I am … a cancer survivor. Dr. Stadtmauer at Penn saved my life after a doctor in Chicago gave me six months.
My current projects include … my off-Broadway show, The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, which runs through early June, and my podcast, Marc Summers Unwraps. Both are essentially about overcoming obstacles. People see you on TV and think everything is good. There are ups but also many downs.
Next up, I hope to … do more theater. I want to land a minor role in a Broadway show.
The best game show was … Pyramid. Any version of it.
The worst was … The Gong Show. I actually had an interesting interaction with Gong Show host Chuck Barris about that show. You see, he really broke the fourth wall with that show, where he encouraged the audience to interact with people on the show. And what happened after that was that sometimes, because that fourth wall had been broken by The Gong Show, you’d have people in live studio audiences trying to interact with the performers while they were shooting the show. You can’t do that! I reprimanded Chuck. I really did.
.
One of my more famous friends is … Dennis Miller. We do lunch once a week.
My relationship status is … that I’ll be married 50 years as of June 16th. We’re going on an Alaskan cruise. I’m not a cruise guy, but when you’ve been with a woman for 50 years and she says she wants to go on an Alaskan cruise, guess where you’re going?
Published as “One of Us: Marc Summers” in the May 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
