David Lee Nelson

Podcast

2011-11-04T06:17:00.001-07:00

I'm on the new Ghandi Is That You? podcast. Have a listen...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gandhi-is-that-you/id437518559

You can't please all the people all the time.

2011-08-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

I hate science fiction movies. Whenever people talk about Star Wars or Star Trek I zone out faster then a woman zones out when a dude starts talking about... Star Wars or Star Trek. That doesn't mean they're bad movies, it just means that I don't like them. And that is perfectly ok. No where is this principle clearer than at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Due to the size and variety of what is going on here, chances are at some point you're going to find yourself in something you don't particularly like. There are so many shows, something for everybody, and if you are seeing a show and it's not your thing there's something else starting in a half hour that probably is.

For the first time in my career I've started applying this idea to my own work. This festival has taught me just to do what I do. For years I've been trapped by this need for everyone to like me, which is totally impossible. And if a show didn't go well or if a joke didn't work, I thought that there was something wrong with me. But maybe the problem isn't me or the joke, maybe for that group of people, I was their version of science fiction.

Obviously some jokes you write aren't going to be funny to anyone (my favorite joke I've ever written "I had an imaginary friend as a child. When I was seven he died in fiery plane crash" has never gotten a single laugh. Ever.) And sometimes your performance is going to be off, but as an artist I really think the main person you should be trying to please is yourself. You have to write what you think is funny, and perform it in the way you think is funny. If you stay true to that some people won't like you, but I believe what you might start to find instead are the people that love you.

Ready, Aim, Fire. Perspective at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

2011-08-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Performing in front of people is an unnatural act. Throughout human history standing in front of large groups of people usually meant you were getting executed. Which is probably why every time I head on stage my last thought is, "Im probably going to die."

Perspective is so hard for performers. If you make it through what your body perceives as a life threatening event, and you do great- you feel like a God. Your ego swells, you believe that you are invincible. This state, if not watched, can lead to drug addiction, requesting only green M and M's and 53 degree Dasani water in your dressing room, or throwing phones at hotel workers. And when it doesn't go well...this can also lead to drug addiction and throwing phones at hotel workers.

I've been very fortunate in my little career to have been a part of many great shows. I've done everything from performing stand up comedy, acting in plays, writing and doing my own solo shows, to singing in choral shows. I have had great reviews, received standing ovations, been on the cover of papers. While I have had drug and alcohol problems, I haven't been famous enough to get the green M and M's or to throw a phone at someone. I did once arrive at an airport for a gig and my ride had a sign with my name in it. It was pretty cool.

I have also been a part of bad shows. Many. Bad. Shows.

I've had people tell me to get off the stage, threaten to beat me up, sleep through my performances, and that was just when I performed stand up comedy at my family reunion. (That's right...I performed stand up comedy at my family reunion.) I've had bad reviews, lost tons of money on shows I produced and had people find me in the lobby after a performance and tell me I'm very brave to do what I do. That one hurts.

Bad shows are something that every performer, in every discipline, experiences. It's part of the deal. But whenever the bad shows happen, we all start to think we are alone in the world. That everyone else is killing, everyone else is sold out. That we are alone, and that everyone, even people who didn't see the show, know just how awful we really are. The good reviews were frauds, they were laughing out of sympathy, and this wretchedness is my proper state. This is of course insane thinking but it is all too real to the performer, alone with his thoughts in the dressing room, wondering how long he has to stay in there before everyone, included the cleaning crew, has left.

What does this have to do with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? No where is perspective more difficult, or more valuable, then in the biggest performing arts festival in the world.

I'm seven shows into my 20 show run. I've had four that were fantastic, one that was fine, and two that weren't good at all. There are always factors that go into these things: the room was too hot, the crowd was too old, too drunk, didn't get my American references, people came in late and that threw things off. Whatever the reason, afterwards all I wanted was to go back to my apartment and sleep for the rest of the month. You try to shake it off but the residue stays with you and all night at the bar you look at everyone's face and you're pretty sure that they too are thinking about how awful you were. I've been doing this long enough to know that this too shall pass, that tomorrow is another day, but I've talked to lots of younger performers since I've been here who don't have that perspective. It's a scary place to be.

That's where other performers can be so valuable. We are the only ones who can get each other out of it, because we've all been there. So thank you so much to all the people brave enough to admit when a show didn't go well. To talk about their show that had 40 people who spoke no English, or their show that had 3 people in the crowd, or the show that people kept walking out of. Thank you for getting up tomorrow and doing it again, when every bone in your body wants to stay in the safety and comfort of the green room. Because you know deep down that no matter how it goes, good or bad, there's no place you feel more alive than out there, on stage, in front of the firing squad.

Shows, Shows, Shows.

2011-08-07T04:53:00.000-07:00

One cannot anticipate the size of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I thought I had my head wrapped around it, had prepared, but this is the biggest thing I've ever seen. Every pub, hotel, theatre, coffee shop has three different venues with shows on from noon to 1am. I went to a Unitarian Church service this morning and even that was a Fringe Venue.

The amazing thing is- most of the shows are packed. The adventurous, up for anything spirit of the audiences here are inspiring. And it has rubbed off on me. I saw three shows last night, 8:30, 9:45, 11pm, and if had been given a flyer for one starting at 12:30 I probably would have gone to that one too.

(Full disclosure- my show yesterday was packed and awesome, which seriously helped with my "up for anything" attitude. If we had had another bunch of hooligans, the only thing I would have wanted to see would have been the covers over my head.)

I have a show today at 3:45, seeing a show at 6, doing a stand up spot at 7:30 and hopefully watching something at 9. And if you see me wandering back to my apartment, have a show after midnight and give me a flyer, I might see that too.

Why vs How

2011-08-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

A Scottish guy told me that you can tell someone is Scottish if instead of saying “why” they say “how.” Like:

“Can you help me me bring my bags upstairs?”

Instead of us saying:

“Why, you lazy fuck?”

they would say:

“How?”

A few drinks later my friend was trying to think of another example of using “how” instead of “why” in a sentence. After several failed attempts my friend said:

“So what if you said ‘I slapped that bitch in the face.’”

The Scottish guy looked horrified and said:

“No mate- then you would just saw ‘why!’ Why? Why would you ever do that?”

Just spreading American love and peace all over the British Isle.

I’ve finally gotten used to the fact that coins are real money here, not just things you dump into a jar when you get home. I made that mistake the second day I was here. I got a coffee it was 2.50 so I thought I’d leave 50 pence as a tip, so I was handed back a bill and a bunch of change, put the change in the tip jar, sat back down. The waitress came out and grabbed all of my fliers and told me she would tell all her friends about my show. I was like "man she is really into me." When i left the cafe and looked in my wallet I realized that she wasn't into me, that I had just left a shit load of money.

I bet it must be hard to be a stripper in the UK. In the US we just slide a dollar in their G-String, here I guess they just pelt them with pounds.

Half Tourist-Half Working

2011-08-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging things for a performer's first time in Edinburgh is striking the balance between working on your show and also being a tourist in this amazingly beautiful city. So I've come up with some ways to promote my show while taking in the sights and sounds of Edinburgh:

1. Walk to the top of King Arthur's Seat. While there, I can do excerpts from my show complete with microphone and full costume.

2. Go one of those haunted murder tours, pretend to get possessed by the ghost of Deacon Brodie and have him tell everyone to go see David Lee Nelson...Status Update.

(By the way, these murder tours are crazy. How awful to have your death be so horrific that tour groups will buy tickets to see where it happened, and out of work actors will get paid to recount the gory details.)

3. Make a kilt out of extra show fliers.

4. Start an international incident by claiming to see the Loch Ness Monster. This will be made all the more remarkable by my never having been to Loch Ness.

5.Start playing the bagpipes. And threaten to not stop playing the bagpipes until every show is sold out.

6. Get sick by eating Haggis everyday. This has nothing to do with my show, I just don’t have health insurance back home and really need to see a doctor while I’m here.

7. Go on a pub crawl everyday and continuously call drunk Scotsman “English”. The severe beatings I incur will not only get David Lee Nelson...Status Update in all the papers, but it will also achieve the objective laid out in #6.

Edinburgh Adjustment Issue

2011-08-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

Arrived yesterday after an evening flight from Newark. I had a middle seat but I got lucky because my seat mates were both thin and not one of us peed the entire flight. Not sure what that says about me as a person- but I took a lot of pride in that.

Had my Virginia Tech sweatshirt on and when I got through customs the first thing I heard was "Go Hokies!" I said "Go Hokies!" back and then told the girl never to speak to me ever again.

It's weird being around other Americans in foreign countries. I feel about them like I feel about my sisters Pitt Bull. I like when they're around- but all I'm thinking is "please don't do anything to embarrass me or ruin the global economy."

The coffee here is awful. But as an Alcoholic I still plan on drinking as much of it as I can find.

Even at Starbucks the barista was like "Do you want it Shitty or Weak?"

Watched a game show last night. Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It was fun. You can tell a lot about a country by their game shows. Like our country has "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." I cannot believe that is an actual show. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a show on the air? You have to have an idea. Work up a pitch. Get a meeting. Pitch the idea. Get it approved. Hire a host. Go in front of focus groups. Get picked over all the other game show ideas. Get a time slot. Find an audience. And at no point in the process was anyone ever like "Ummm...does anyone realize that it's a show about WHETHER OR NOT A GROWN UP IS SMARTER THAN A FUCKING 10 YEAR OLD!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! THIS IS THE MESSAGE WE WANT TO BE SENDING TO THE WORLD YOU MONEY GRUBBING BACKWARD REDNECK ASSHOLES!!!"

Capped off my evening with little Al-Jezeera news. I think my dad would rather I had capped the evening off giving a guy a hand job then by watching Al-Jezeera.

Anyway...happy to be here.

2011-06-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Check out our mention in the New York Times! We open July 15 7pm at 59E59. Tickets are $15

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/.../heading-to-edinburgh-but-first-some-exposure -in-new-york/ -

Pegasus News- Dallas, TX

2011-05-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

Not being a social media devotee, I was unaware that David Lee Nelson's solo play titled Status Update (playing once more on March 8) had anything to do with Facebook or any other social network. Mr. Nelson talked about his change of status dilemma, amongst many other things, in his very personal, very funny recollections and commentary on divorce, acting, drinking, drugs and naps, all while being 32, now sober and a stand-up comedian.

Nelson discussed his life, past and present, as though he were doing a comedy gig – standing before a microphone and drinking water between laughs. During a series of "turned towards himself" videos, he slowly explained why he and his wife separated. As the videos played, he stood to the side and nervously checked his note cards before the next stand-up bit.

Dressed somewhat like Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Nelson's demeanor was all polite uncertainty. He smiled meekly and paused frequently to the extent that you felt nervous for him. But, as his stand-up continued, it being clear he was in total control and it presented itself as reflection within stand-up comedy within a play. Status Update had a spark of that highly quirky, highly imaginative work of the late Andy Kaufmann. To bear your soul and yet remain funny was no small feat and Nelson inventively juggled both in his capable hands.

Believing I was going to watch a comedian doing a often done routine, I walked out, instead, having seen a talented man explain the struggles of turning his life around while remaining a performer, a stand-up. David Lee Nelson's performance was compelling, laugh-filled and a definite must see.

Theater Jones-Dallas, Texas

2011-05-31T12:57:00.001-07:00

Loop Review: Status Update

David Lee Nelson's confessional solo should come with a giant "Like" button. With video trailer.
by Mark Lowry
published Saturday, March 5, 2011

photo: Courtesy David Lee Nelson

"David Lee Nelson...Status Update"

Status Update

by David Lee Nelson
presented by

WaterTower Theatre

Addison Theatre Centre
15650 Addison Road
Addison, TX 75001
click here for a location map

Plenty of writers and performers have mined rich material from their own failures. And as uncomfortable as it might be, we love to witness the results. Helps us feel not quite so insecure about ours. Especially if it's entertaining.

So if you get a friend request from David Lee Nelson, accept it. The New York-based comedian and playwright chronicles his journey to sobriety, a falling-apart marriage and his career as a starving artist in Status Update, in what will surely be a highlight of this year's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival.

But it's not the typical here's-how-I-effed-it-up narrative. Directed by Adam Knight, Nelson performs most of it as a stand-up comedy routine, and occasionally breaks to show a bit of personal documentary video in which he talks about his life with his wife, the divorce, vacations and, to jump the whole thing off, a very disturbing gift he received from his mother.

The stand-up starts off simple enough, with humorous life observations. It's a bit awkward as the audience wonders if this is, indeed, more of a comedy-club act than a theatrical performance. But the video interludes provide important back story, and slowly the stand-up performer grows increasingly caustic with his material.

The big climactic comedy section, which is where the show's title comes in, is the bit about the most painful act of any break-up these days: the relationship status on Facebook. Once you hit that button and become single, it's public, and you have to admit it to yourself. And if, for whatever reason, you're still Facebook friends with the ex, you get to stalk watch all the new fun he or she is having in his or her new phase of life.

Bitter, party of one.

It's at times uncomfortable and occasionally heartbreaking, but frequently funny. Laughter is the key. That's how Nelson keeps us from approaching him after the show, pulling out a few bills and offering them up with a sweet "you need this more than I do."

What's genius about Nelson's setup is that it's confessional because the age of social networking demands that it be. We've all said stuff on Facebook that we probably shouldn't have (ahem), or we've made decisions—joined a fan page, liked an '80s rom-com movie or friended certain folks—that will be questioned or even mocked by others.

Don't worry. No one's judging.

Yeah, Nelson knows that's not true. And in Status Update, no one's a bigger judge than numero uno. It's like poking yourself on Facebook, if that were possible.

To sum it up, he says "I'm a 32-year-old sober, stand-up comedian. That is the saddest thing I can think of."

And when he has our sympathy for a brief second, he goes right back into making us laugh.

To use Facebook terminology: LIKE.

◊ Click the calendar link above to see future performances for Status Update, which plays in the Addison Theatre Centre's Stone Cottage. View a full Out of the Loop Fringe Festival schedule here.

Here's a trailer for Status Update.

David Lee Nelson Status Update Trailer

2011-01-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

David Lee Nelson...Status Update Review

2011-01-12T08:35:00.003-08:00

David Lee Nelson puts the fun in dysfunctional in Status Update

One liners and lost love makes for great theatre

by Kinsey Gidick

Epically heart-breaking, tremendously endearing, and painfully funny, Piccolo attendees take note, David Lee Nelson's Status Update is not to be missed. Nelson, a College of Charleston alum and New York City based stand-up comic, opened his one man show last night, and the result was a surprisingly delightful nugget of a play. Tucked in the Simons Center's tiny black box theater, Nelson began with a confessional video clip about the best gift his wife ever gave him — a blackberry and porn. "If GQ rated gifts from wives, that would be in the top ten," he says, when he emerges on stage clad in a tan jacket, jeans, and bowtie.

But that's one of Nelson's happier memories of the 10 years he spent with his now ex-wife who left him in March 2009. Using his intimate video blips juxtaposed against long-form monologues, Nelson paints a picture of a man wrestling with his reality and trying to find the funny under it all.

And he succeeds.

Nelson's pithy reflections on life provided a fantastic rhythm to the production, but it's the raw truth of his video clips that make the show worth seeing. Halfway through Nelson reminisces about making his wife's coffee. "I knew just how to make it. I knew the exact color she liked it with just enough milk," he says, and it's like he's poured the audience a cup of heartache. Then, just when he's pushed the attendees to the edge of melancholy, Nelson brings them back with more laughs.

Famed English essayist Charles Lamb said in 1885, "We do not go to the theatre, like our ancestors, to escape from the pressure of reality so much as to confirm our experience of it," and Nelson's production is the embodiment of that idea. Status Update may be the culmination of the past year in Nelson's life played out in jokes and tell-all soliloquies, but it's bits and pieces are a reflection of the reality in all our lives. As he pokes fun at himself and his failings, we see our own issues and can laugh at them.

Now, that's not to say all audiences will love Status Update, if you're a prude, stay home. If you're in a rocky relationship, perhaps don't bring the significant other, unless you want to spend an awkward post-production cocktail hour with your date. This is a PG-13 production, and if you can't handle discussion of sex, porn, drugs, or religion, I hear there's a Spoleto marionette gig you might like. If you are interested in laughing heartily and seeing one of the more creative approaches to a one-man show the festival has produced, then snap up a ticket to Nelson's production. You'll be posting "What a great show!" on your Facebook wall the next day.

Post and Courier Review

2011-01-12T08:35:00.001-08:00

David Lee Nelson slays with sharp wit

By Dottie Ashley, Post and Courier Reviewer

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Buzz

The playlet "David Lee Nelson ... Status Update" reminded me of my paternal grandmother who would say to me whenever tears came into my eyes: "Please don't cry, dear. It'll make your nose all red, and that's so unattractive."

When Nelson, 31, who wrote this one-man show, appears in his blue polka-dot bow tie and asks: "Do you think Bill Gates ever goes to an ATM machine?" and "Have you ever looked at your cell phone and realized you hate everyone you know?"

It's as if you're watching a fledgling Jerry Seinfeld in his first few seasons on television when he performed a stand-up routine at the beginning and end of his TV show.

But make no mistake. Nelson keenly has developed his own style and varies his monologue's tone, unlike any comic I've seen. Although Nelson takes risks in offending certain segments of society, in the mode of Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), he also balances his truly funny material with heartfelt comments on his situation in life.

His monologue initially grabs your attention when he opens with: "For Christmas 2006, my wife gave me a Blackberry and a cassette of porn."

Spoleto 2010News, stories and reviews

Your guide to the events, performances and highlights of this year's festivals.

He also breaks up his monologue by switching from videos of himself in various places at various times, then back to live action.

Honest about his battle with addiction, he says, "I drank and smoked for 12 years, and I was the sober one in my family." Nelson has the knack for making a connection to his audience, as he makes wry comments about AA meetings. But he also talks seriously about how difficult it is for comics to stay married while constantly traveling. He touchingly describes the little things he misses most about his now ex-wife.

A theater graduate of the College of Charleston, Nelson makes you feel certain that behind those lively eyes is an incredibly sharp brain that someday will produce a top-flight comic. Meanwhile, let him entertain you. You probably need a laugh, or a smile.

David Lee Nelson...Status Update Preview Article

2011-01-12T08:31:00.001-08:00

David Lee Nelson gives a Status Update to his hometown crowd

It's Complicated

by Kinsey Gidick

Leslie McKellar file photo

David Lee Nelson spends way too much time on Facebook

Todd McNerney, chair of the College of Charleston theater department, likens him to Spalding Gray, famed autobiographical monologist. To others he's that guy in Piccolo favorite Skinny White Comics. And to a few optimistic CofC drama students, he's hope that an acting career outside of college exists. His name is David Lee Nelson, and as he'll explain, it's complicated.

Nelson, a five-year Spoleto veteran, graduated from the College of Charleston theater program in 2000, got his masters, married his college sweetheart, moved to L.A., then wound up in New York, where he's been working as a successful stand-up comedian ever since. Life was good, until last year. "My wife left me, and I started to update my Facebook status. A lot," says Nelson. Thus the impetus for his one-man Stelle Di Domani series Piccolo show,Status Update, all about the aftermath of his marriage and life as a comedian.

Festival regulars will remember Nelson from his original one-man show, Silence of Lucky, which debuted in 2008. A Sedaris-like anecdotal tale based on Nelson's youth, Lucky included stories about family life, including this little gem: "When I was a kid, I lived in Saudi Arabia, and all my neighbors were girls. So they dressed me as a little girl. I put on lipstick, eyeliner, panties. I got to a party that was at a mosque, and I walk in wearing full drag. I saw my dad's face, and he was so ashamed. I looked like a dirty little whore." Nelson brings humor to the awkward and painful moments in life, allowing everyone in the audience to commiserate.

In his production of Status Update, the theme is divorce, but Nelson manages to find comedy even in that. "I'm 31, and I feel like for a lot of people my age, the sheen of marriage has worn off, you're divorced or separated, or spend way too much time on Facebook," he says. "If you're one of those people, then you should come to my show."

The best news for potential audiences is that you can get a taste of the status update action, pre-Piccolo. "Monday through Friday I have a new status thing — go check those, follow those updates before the show," says Nelson. Friend him and get little festival previews such as:

"April 8, 10 a.m.: My dad called Barack Obama a thug. I guess we have much different definitions of thug. Mine is someone who wants to beat you up, his is someone who wants to expand health coverage to uninsured Americans."

Or:

"March 25, 2:05 p.m.: I like when a girl asks me what I want to do while we're having sex. Nothing is more sexy to me then talking about my eventual headlining of Carnegie Hall."

Or:

"May 1, 12:56 p.m.: I'm at my grandmother's 90th birthday party in Giddensville, N.C. We're gonna get fucking wasted!"

McNerney says Nelson is a talented young man and even credits him with helping the school's Stelle Di Domani series get off the ground. "In some ways he was the impetus behind the idea," says McNerney. "Shortly before I became our department chair, he left a demo tape of his stand-up in my mailbox, and I thought it was funny, but I didn't have a way to help him. But it stuck in my head."

When the professor took over the theater department, he wanted to make sure the college had a stronger presence at Piccolo, and that's when he recalled Nelson's tape. "I called him, and he brought a night of stand-up with Skinny White Comics." Nelson has continued to return to the festival every year since.

"He loves coming back here to the city and his alma mater," says McNerney. "He and a number of the other alumni have this wonderful opportunity to share and get a license to play in a space that would be way more difficult in New York."

Nelson agrees that both his love of Charleston and the opportunity to stretch his creative wings keeps him coming back year after year. "With stand-up, I try a bit out that night or the next day." But the focus isn't just on getting a laugh. "That frees me as a comic. It doesn't have to get a laugh," says Nelson.

It may not have to get a laugh, but judging by the material Nelson has to work with, it will.