The NATHAN FIELDER Method

His simulation-of-real-life HBO show nearly broke our brains. So we asked one of his Rehearsal subjects to help us figure Nathan Fielder out.

- SAM SCHUBE 

NATHAN FIELDER's hallucinatory HBO series The Rehearsal begins from an ostensibly reasonable premise: Wouldn't life be easier if you knew what was coming? Of course, given that Fielder is the deadpan genius last seen performing his, um, very special consulting for small-business owners on Nathan for You, things were never going to be quite that simple.

Indeed, when the show debuted this summer, its opening moments revealed the extreme lengths to which Fielder was prepared to go when it came to getting things right: Fielder's attempt to persuade a mild-mannered teacher named Kor Skeete to let Fielder put him through his own set of rehearsals was intercut with footage of Fielder spending weeks rehearsing that very interaction. All the preparation paid off: Skeete said yes, and promptly found himself inside a cross between Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Truman Show, and the Stanford prison experiment. And as the season progressed, it became increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction: What was real? What was staged? And why, exactly, was Fielder so invested in these rehearsals in the first place?

We figured the best person to ask Fielder was Skeete himself, who had answered a Craigslist ad seeking people with secrets only to find himself a star on one of the strangest, most compelling TV shows we've ever seen. Together, he and Fielder learned that no amount of careful planning can prevent odd, unforeseen, occasionally troubling, and frequently hilarious things from happening.

But when we tried to reunite them for a conversation over Zoom, we were immediately reminded that at least some things in life are made easier when you can rehearse them a few dozen times.

Nathan Fielder logs onto Zoom. 

He has Kor Skeete on the

phone and is attempting