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With the Indianapolis 500 coming up, many celebrities have come into town to join in on the celebrities and even be involved in the race. North Central native Marc Summers who is now been a television host for many different reality shows will be apart of the Indy 500 parade. He talks to JMV to give interesting scoops into the wild world of Hollywood as well as to tallk about his excitement to come back home to Indy and be back to the speedway.
How excited are you to be back in Indy and to be able to be apart of the Indy 500 parade?
“I am very excited, years ago I wanted be part of the parade when my show Double Dare got gigantic. There was someone directing the talent for who gets to be in the parade so I called up and asked if I could be in it, and the woman told me in quote that I was not famous enough and I would never be in the Indy 500 parade. So when they called me this year, I was so excited. At almost 68 years old, to come home and ride down Meridian Street and be in the Indy 500 parade. First time I went to the track was in third grade at Delaware Trail School it was a mandatory event. I was there the day Tony Bettenhausen got killed in practice. That stayed in my mind for a long time and I’ve been to many races. I’m bringing my son and my brother with me. Two boys from Indiana ready to get back home.”
How did you get the big breakthrough of getting to be the host of the popular show Double Dare?
“It started in 1986, I moved to Los Angeles in 1973. It took me thirteen years to get my first national show. I was a magician, I was working at a place called the magic castle doing magic shows. And then I became a regular at the Comedy Store in 1976. I started at the sametime as Dave, Jay, Robin, and Garry Schandling. We were all there around the same time. And then I started doing warmups on television shows. I was auditioning constantly, but because I was trying to be a game show host they said to come back when I had grey hair and wrinkles. But Nickelodeon was this kids’ network, they were looking for someone with a younger look at the time and although I was 34 back in the day I looked about ten years younger. They had auditions of about 2,000 people and I ended up with the job and it changed my life forever.”
Tune in hear to listen to everything that JMV and Marc Summers talked about as they were able to joke around about everything from Hollywood to the 500.
