NATHAN FIELDER IS OUT OF HIS MIND (AND INSIDE YOURS)

The comedian is known for his often hilarious, sometimes mean, always uncomfortable stunts. In his new show, The Rehearsal, he's staging his grandest experiment yet.

-  LILA SHAPIRO

In 2009, when the comedian NATHAN FIELDER first moved to L.A., he learned to tell his managers not to send him to meetings. WHY BOTHER? If the point was to charm people into giving him a job, sitting down with them could ONLY HURT HIS CHANCES. "I'd always say, 'If people like the stuff I'm making, I'm not going to do anything to heighten that in person," he recalled. "I'm not going to be very funny in the room."

This was not necessarily a case of false modesty. Fielder did not initially strike all of his friends and colleagues as the most engaging personality. Tim Heidecker, who met him in 2010, was bewildered when he heard Fielder was pitching his own show, Nathan for You, to Comedy Central. "Who? That guy?" the comedian remembered thinking. "He's deceptive," said Jimmy Kimmel, who has had Fielder on his show several times. "Because you look at him and you go, Oh, this seems like a normal guy. Maybe even a boring normal guy. Maybe even a guy I'd be bummed I had to sit next to on a plane."