Nathan Fielder offers off-the-wall business advice on his Comedy Central series, "Nathan For You"; the Grammys could be a face-off between friends Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar; Scott Fagan's 1968 album, "South Atlantic Blues," gets new life thanks to Light In the Attic records.
Scott Fagan and the story behind his lost album, 'South Atlantic Blues'
It’s a common story in the music business: a talented artist records an album that goes nowhere — and neither does his or her career. That’s what happened to singer/songwriter Scott Fagan after he released “South Atlantic Blues” in 1968 on the Atco label — an imprint of Atlantic Records.
The album got little attention from the record label and radio programmers because they didn’t know what to do with music that crossed so many genres, and it was soon forgotten.
But after nearly five decades, “South Atlantic Blues” has been reissued by Saint Cecilia Knows and Light in the Attic records.
The Frame's James Kim spoke with Fagan about what was going on in his life when he wrote the album while living in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands:
“South Atlantic Blues," the song, is about the responsibility I felt to rescue my younger brothers who’d been put in foster care ... [and] to rescue my mother, who was a homeless alcoholic. I was living in a most beautiful environment, but subject to … the shameful experiences one has when their foot is sticking out from the bottom of their shoe.”
Part of Fagan's remarkable story was discovering he is the father of Stephin Merritt, frontman of the band The Magnetic Fields.
“South Atlantic Blues” is available now.
In 'Nathan For You,' bad business schemes reveal an endearing display of humanity
Nathan Fielder wants to help small business owners help themselves, but he can't promise they'll like all of his suggestions.
The Canadian-born comic is the creator, director and star of "Nathan For You," in which Fielder tries to use his business degree and life experience to develop profit-generating strategies for small businesses.
Now in its third season, the show is a blend of parody, documentary and reality TV. While the end goal is a solid episode for Comedy Central, Fielder says it's important to him to present legitimate ideas and to work with people who aren't necessarily in on the joke.
"Nathan For You" was also behind two viral stunts: one a staging of a viral video of a pig rescuing a baby goat in a petting zoo:
And of course who could forget the opening of a Starbucks parody store called "Dumb Starbucks." Unfortunately, Dumb Starbucks was forced to close after the L.A. County Department of Health Services issued a citation for operating without a valid public health permit. But Fielder maintains that the notoriety was unexpected.
Fielder stopped by The Frame recently to talk about his comedic aesthetic, what he looks for in potential business owners for his show, and how everything you need to know about the law is right there in Wikipedia.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
As people watch this show, they might start recognizing you. Do people ever know what the game is before you want them to know?
We try to avoid involving people that know the show, and who don’t ask too many questions about what the show is altogether, and just seem open to an experience that’s different from their day-to-day lives.
How helpful is it that we live in an era of reality TV where people are not only interested to be on TV, but dying to?
Well, especially living in Los Angeles, that becomes a weird problem. The type of people I like to include are people that don’t really have a desire to be famous or on TV. We go out of our way to find people that are regular — that have this opportunity to have their business featured. That middle-of-the-road thing often leads to sincere and sweet moments from people rather than people who are just driven by fame.
I want to talk about an episode from this season. A small hotel is trying to figure out how they can attract more families. So you come up with a sound-proof playroom that can be wheeled into a hotel room, that would allow the couple to do what they're going to do, and the child not to know. It's a fundamentally smart idea.
Right, we often try to find problems that haven't been solved. When I would travel with my family as a kid, we'd all stay in the same hotel room because my parents didn't want to spend a lot of money. Obviously, [the adults] can't be intimate. And it could harm the relationship if you're going on a long trip and you're not allowed to engage in intercourse. So this is a way for parents to have sex, with their kid in a sound-proof isolation chamber in the room, and it will make the whole trip experience great for everyone.
Has there ever been a point where either the person you’re dealing with or yourself has become so uncomfortable that you feel you’ve gone a little bit too far? Or does that mean you’re making good TV?
I’m less concerned about me and more concerned about the crew. For example, the segment about the soundproof isolation chamber for children — we wanted to test it out so we had pornographic performers come in and have sex. And the crew was there. And when you sign up to work on a Comedy Central show, you’re not thinking you’re going to be filming pornography, so you have to ride the line. But I’ve been very fortunate to have a team around me that’s way smarter than me and also really eager to make good stuff as well. I think that's really helpful.
How important to you is it that the show is not mean?
I never want people to be upset. In the first season, we weren’t as good at that, and there was one instance where someone didn’t know what they were getting into. I also don't want to make anyone look bad.
What was the episode where things got off in the wrong direction?
Oh, we ended up cutting the segment, but I brought a children’s book author on a drug deal. And it didn't turn out that well. In retrospect, it's obvious that everything would probably go wrong. But you want to ride the line and get authentic moments from people. It's just about managing the people and getting a good sense of how they're feeling. We respond accordingly and adjust on the fly a lot.
Most people discovered the show through “Dumb Starbucks." Did you have any idea it would catch on as it did?
No, not at all. We did something in the first season that went viral. We faked a viral video of a pig rescuing a baby goat in a petting zoo, so it would look like the petting zoo had a hero animal. It was on the NBC Nightly News. And so, in the second season, I said let’s not try to do something that goes viral because I don’t want to get known for that. It's not necessarily what the show does best.
So we opened up the shop and we thought it would just be like a local food story. And I actually think KPCC was the first to write about it. That really caught on. And it became even bigger than the thing we did in the first season. It was a pleasant surprise. But it’s less about trying to do stunts all the time. When things like that happen, it's nice to observe and then incorporate it into a story for the show. It feels more authentic when things intersect with the real world.
The lawyers for the show must do a very good job.
Before "Dumb Starbucks," a lot of the Comedy Central lawyers didn't know what the show was. Once this happened, they were very aware of the show. They started asking us who advised us legally because sometimes we just look at Wikipedia, which has a very thorough outline of the law. And you can kind of get the gist of what’s legal from that.
Fortunately the law has a great carve-out for satire and fair use and parody.
Yeah, Wikipedia was right. It was bang-on. I think the lawyers don't want you to know that it's all on Wikipedia, so they try to convince you that there's more to the law than that. But really, I don't think there is.
The third season finale of "Nathan For You" airs Thursday Dec. 10 on Comedy Central.