Nate: A One Man Show (2020)

Interesting facts

Nate – A One Man Show is a performance by American comedian Natalie Palamides, which explores consent through the male character Nate. Through audience participation, Nate challenges his ex-girlfriend's new partner to wrestling, and goes on a date with his art teacher Miss Jackson. Initially touring to small audiences around the U.S., Ireland and the U.K., Nate drew attention at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won the Total Theatre Award. It was adapted into a Netflix special that was released on December 1, 2020.

Background

Palamides has a history of clown performance training and improvisation, though she did not view Nate as pure clowning as it contains sexuality and anger. In a Los Angeles clown training program at the Lyric Hyperion, Palamides was asked to develop a bit in which she felt at risk. She repurposed a previous character, Nate, from 2012 when creating drag characters with the Pig Iron Theatre Company.

She experimented with Nate wrestling an audience member topless. Because of her gender, she felt it had a "taboo quality" different to men wrestling topless. Inspired to construct a love story for Nate, Palamides being exploring consent as a theme. Palamides wanted to engage the audience in ideas through comedy and asking what they thought rather than saying her own opinion.

Palamides enjoyed making audiences feel uncomfortable. She explored how to turn any audience reaction to Nate's behavior—a "yes", a "no", or silence—into humiliation. Palamides aims to get participants willing to be active, such as by calling "hey Lucas" to the crowd and letting a volunteer respond, but found that sometimes participants need to be changed and some were willing to do more than others.

Palamides initially performed the show to audiences of under 100 people. Nate played at the Los Angeles Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and at two New York tours. At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, it won the Total Theatre Award. Palamides also performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival in Ireland and in London. She estimated that she delivered it 100 times as a completed show.

After a Paper Kite producer saw the show at Edinburgh, Palamides met with Amy Poehler, founder of the production company, about adapting it into a recording. To make it marketable despite the visible genitals, Palamides suggested changing the color of the rubber penis or using fake nipples, but this idea was dismissed.

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