I don’t make friends easily…I’m just not one of those people. I just don’t have this magnetic personality that everyone is drawn to. All my comedy, especially how I relate to women on the show, comes from my early struggles with connecting to other people. I try to play a version of myself from my early 20s and late teens I just revisit that mindset. You present yourself as a supremely lonely guy on the show, but you’re actually married in real life. Maybe it’s more of a childlike understanding of…No, children are actually pretty smart when it comes to facial expressions and stuff. On the show, I try to only get my cues from what people are saying rather than those grey areas of communication. I would take that, understand that, and not continue down the road of thinking that this person is interested in whatever I’m talking about. Normally, I can tell if someone isn’t interested in doing something from the tone in their voice and the expression on their face. I’m a bit more oblivious to social cues than I am in real life.
What are the main differences between him and the real you? The Nathan Fielder we see on the show is so unaware of social cues that he seems borderline autistic. We spoke to Fielder about his show, how he mastered the art of the awkward conversation, how he differs from his onscreen character and the time he googled “old naked man.” The “Dumb Starbucks” episode of Nathan For You finally airs next Tuesday.