-Our next guest is a very funny comedian.
Her critically-acclaimed special "Nate: A One-Man Show"
is streaming on Netflix.
Let's take a look.
[ Laughter ]
[ Scattered laughter ]
[ Laughter continues ]
-[ Nasally ] May I?
[ Loud laughter ]
-[ Quietly ] No.
-No? -No.
-Alright. [ Cheering ]
-Please welcome to the show, Natalie Palamides.
How are you? -Hey! What is up?
[ Laughing ] How's it going? -Good.
I feel like for people who don't know you, it must be
very jarring to go from that clip
to see what you actually look like.
[ Chuckles ] -I suppose so.
-It's very different.
People throw this around a lot. This is a --
This is genuinely fearless...
I mean that literally. ...performance.
Are you happy with the fact that -- I feel like
it's coming out -- people are enjoying it?
You must miss performing live, but is the feedback been nice?
-I really do, yeah. The feedback has been nice.
I expected to get cyberbullied a bit more,
but, yeah, I'm glad that that hasn't really happened.
Yeah, I'm really grateful.
I can't believe people like it. [ Laughs ]
-You're playing a character, Nate.
Can you tell us a little bit --
how you would describe Nate to people.
-I guess most simply would just say that Nate is
a douchebag with a heart of gold.
You know.
-[ Laughing ] That really does boil it down precisely.
This is a show about toxic masculinity.
It's also -- As the clip showed pretty well,
it's a show about consent.
I think these are ideas that are tricky to approach
from a comic angle.
Did you appreciate as you approached it
that this would be difficult?
-Yes. I mean initially,
I was just seeking to make a show
exploring toxic masculinity,
but during the workshopping process, you know,
all the stuff about Harvey was blowing up,
and I was like, "I can't make a show
about toxic masculinity
and not address consent."
So I think it would've just stuck out like a sore thumb.
Like, how could you not address this?
So I was pretty timid to address the subject matter,
when I was just -- you know, 'cause I'd just throw up stuff
on stage when I'm workshopping a show.
I kind of just beat it out, have an outline,
and improvise my way through it.
I just slapped a warning on the theater door
saying what kind of subject matter I was exploring
and then invited the audience to leave, you know,
if they ever felt uncomfortable, to try to just relieve them
of the worry of maybe offending me
if they were to step out of the room.
-You know, as an audience for a show like this,
it does seem like part of the fun is not knowing
what's gonna happen next. One of the things in the special
is you wrestle an audience member.
It goes well -- as well as that can be expected --
but I imagine on some nights it didn't?
-Sure. Yeah, I mean, the guy in the special, Noah --
bless him -- he just crushes it.
Yeah, and you know, I have to kind of feel it out
each time I bring a new person on stage.
Sometimes they don't really want to wrestle me at all.
So I'll just have them hold my arm behind my back
and do some stage combat kind of stuff
where I throw myself down on the mat,
and that becomes a joke within itself
'cause the audience can see this person's not doing anything
to me but I'm screaming and saying, like,
"[ As Nate ] Leave me alone!" You know, anyway.
-One of the things I feel like we're all going through now
as we watch stand-up specials and it makes you long for
a time where it was safe to be in a theater,
laughing out loud,
sort of projecting our breath everywhere.
This show, I mean, it's everything.
You're serving drinks, you're wrestling with people,
you're in the audience.
Does it feel weird to watch it now or does it just make you
long for time when you can do it again?
-Oh... A little bit of both.
I'm really kicking myself. I'm like, "Nat,
can't you come up with any material where you don't
freaking touch somebody?" -[ Laughs ]
-'Cause I'm like, "When am I gonna get to do any sort of bits
after this whole thing lets up?"
But yeah, it is jarring watching everybody without masks.
I was even watching "The Queen's Gambit"
the other night and I was a little bit startled
when I would forget that, you know,
it's not current times. I was just like,
"They're not wearing masks." -"Really, somebody else
just touched that chess piece.
You shouldn't be putting your hands on that."
-Exactly.
-I read that your brother was a wrestler
and you actually would practice with him.
Did you then feel --
Was it important for you to show it to him and did he enjoy it?
-Yes. It was very important for me
for him to see the show.
And I actually tricked him into seeing it
because he had found out my boobies were out
as Nate and he's like,
"[ Gruffly ] I'm not watching that," or whatever.
So I invited him to see a 10-minute set
that I was gonna do at a stand-up show,
and he's like, "You're not doing 'Nate' are you?"
And I was like, "No, no, no, no. Don't worry.
I'm doing this fairy godmother character tonight.
And so he's like, "Alright," rocks up to the show,
of course I do "Nate" 'cause I just wanted
to rip the Band-Aid off
and I wanted him to see the whole show
'cause I knew he would enjoy it.
Yeah, I did "Nate" for him that night, and he liked it.
But to get me back after that show,
he smashed a piece of cake in my face.
-Well, that's only fair. I mean,
that's just sibling stuff right there.
-Exactly. It's all fair, you know.
But yeah, he would pay me in packs of gum as a kid
to try out new wrestling moves on me
whenever he was learning new moves.
-Well, it's very nice, then.
It seems like a nice cycle between you guys
of being able to trade institutional knowledge
back and forth. -Truly.
We have fun. He's the best.
-Hey, thanks so much for being here.
Congrats on the special. It's really...
It is exactly that -- It is really special
and different, and you should be really proud of it.
-Thanks so much, Seth. I really appreciate it.
-"Nate" is a one-man show. It is streaming on Netflix.