Last week, I watched Nathan Fielder's new documentary, You Can See Everything, and boy, was I ever surprised. The movie was nothing like I'd ever imagined, making me question anything and everything while simultaneously laughing along at every scene.
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It also prompted me to do some deeper digging into the film's director, Nathan Fielder, and I found some pretty fascinating information. So without further ado, here are 15 fun facts about Nathan Fielder that I found interesting, and I hope you will too!
1. Well, first of all, and perhaps most importantly (to me at least), Nathan Fielder is Canadian!
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The comedian and filmmaker was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.
2. He wanted to become a magician before becoming a comedian.
Yeah, you read that right. Before making a career out of awkward silence and social experiments, Fielder was obsessed with magic. He worked at a magic shop and even performed at children's birthday parties!
3. He earned a business degree from the University of Victoria before studying comedy in Toronto.
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Fielder graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Victoria in 2005. He then moved to Toronto and enrolled in Humber College's comedy program, where he continued working toward a career in entertainment. It's safe to say his career took a different direction than what you might expect after business school.
4. Before pursuing comedy full-time, Fielder briefly worked at a brokerage firm and made short films for YouTube.
After graduating from university, Fielder tried working in finance but eventually decided to pursue comedy instead. He started making short videos and uploaded them to YouTube (where you can still view some of them today!).
5. He went to high school with Seth Rogen, and they were in the same improv group.
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Before becoming successful comedians, Fielder and Rogen attended Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver. They also participated in the same improv group there and placed third in a national improv competition.
6. He worked on Canadian Idol and the satirical news show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Before Nathan for You made him a household name, Fielder actually worked behind the scenes in TV. He eventually became a correspondent on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes, where he worked on his awkward, deadpan comedy that later became his trademark.
7. He made a Starbucks parody store that people thought was created by Banksy.
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In 2014, Fielder opened a pop-up coffee shop in Los Angeles called Dumb Starbucks, which looked almost identical to the famous coffee chain, except for the word "Dumb" being added to the branding. The coffee was free, and the store was presented as an art gallery to get around trademark issues. The stunt became viral, and people even speculated that the street artist Banksy was behind it!
8. He once discovered that his green card listed his gender as female:
Even Fielder's own paperwork has created some unexpected comedy. In an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, he talked about how he discovered that his green card incorrectly listed his gender as female. He recalled, "The last time I just came back, the border guard looked at the card for a very long time and kept looking back up at me and then back at the card and then back at me..."
9. His first scripted series, The Curse, was inspired by a real-life experience.
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The show, which Fielder co-created and starred in alongside Emma Stone and Benny Safdie, was actually inspired by a similar encounter he experienced himself. After moving to Los Angeles in 2009, Fielder met a woman who asked him for money. When he said he didn't have any, she responded, "I curse you." He eventually returned with money, but the interaction stuck with him. Years later, he shared the story with Benny Safdie, which helped inspire the show's premise!
10. He's acted in several movies and voiced characters in animated shows.
New Line Cinema
Apart from his own projects, of course, Fielder has starred in films like The Disaster Artist, The Night Before, and Tour de Pharmacy. He's also lent his voice to characters in Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, and Bob's Burgers.
11. He founded his own clothing brand, Summit Ice.
In 2015, Nathan launched Summit Ice, his outdoor apparel brand that donates its proceeds to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. The idea came to him after discovering Taiga, a Canadian outdoor clothing brand that is associated with Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. In response, Fielder decided to make his own brand with a more positive message.
For the second season of the HBO series, The Rehearsal, Fielder spent more than two years training to fly planes before piloting a Boeing 737 in the season finale.
13. He's received plenty of awards for his work, including a Canadian Comedy Award and multiple Emmy nominations.
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Fielder won a Canadian Comedy Award in 2014 for his performance in Nathan for You. He's also earned multiple Emmy nominations for his work as a writer, director, and performer. You Can See Everything may be the next, as it will be eligible for Best Documentary and Best Picture!
14. Despite his comedic persona, he actually finds it difficult to keep a straight face.
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In a Reddit AMA, he shared: "It might be surprising but keeping a straight face in many of the situations we get into on the show is quite difficult for me. I began to realize that I’ll sometimes do this thing where I act like I'm picking a piece of food out of my back teeth to cover the fact that I'm smiling. Then if I can't get it together within a few seconds, I might ask for some dental floss or something because I’ve clearly been picking at this tooth for 20 seconds or so. Some moments that stand out off the top of my head would be the Gas Station episode where the owner told me that he drinks his grandson's urine to ward off fear. I often laugh when I feel uncomfortable too, so I remember having to turn my head away a couple times during the realtor segment when she was getting the exorcism."
15. He was cast in Seth Rogen's Neighbors, but his scene was cut from the final movie.
Fielder reportedly had a small role in the 2014 comedy starring Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, but his scene was eventually cut from the final film for time. In an interview, he discussed appearing in a flashback montage that ultimately didn't make the release.
And there you have it! From his early days as a magician to learning how to fly a Boeing 737, Nathan Fielder has had a very interesting career path.
Have you had a chance to watch the documentary yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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