Nathan For You 2x2

1. My name is Nathan Fielder,

2. and I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools

3. with really good grades.

4. Now, I'm using my knowledge to help struggling small business owners

5. to make it in this competitive world.

6. This is Nathan for you.

7. Over 10 million tourists visit Hollywood each year,

8. And souvenir shops compete hard to sell them items

9. that most would consider embarrassing to own.

10. But in the souvenir game, location is everything.

11. And that's why, tucked away nearly five blocks

12. from the Main Strip, L.A. Fame is struggling.

13. It's a sad tale, and with business this slow,

14. Owner John Kim has a tough time finding things to boast about.

15. Recently, we had someone from of Mice & Men come in—

16. From the— They're a rock band

17. that's pretty popular right now.

18. But other than that, you know...

19. So I paid John a visit to see if I could help.

20. Why are you wearing a touk?

21. A touk? What—

22. - This. - Oh.

23. What do you call it?

24. It's a beanie. So that's—

25. I'm from Canada. We call it a "touk."

26. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

27. - Yeah, I'm just cold right now.

28. That's why I'm wearing it.

29. Oh, okay.

30. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah.

31. - That's cool. - Yeah.

32. My mission was to attract more tourists to L.A. Fame.

33. If you're visiting Hollywood, there's nothing more exciting

34. than seeing the magic of the movies up close,

35. so if John redesigned his storefront

36. to make it look like a blockbuster movie

37. was always being shot there,

38. every tourist on the Strip would flock to L.A. Fame

39. to see the action up close.

40. Then all I need to do is offer each tourist

41. a part in the movie.

42. Their role?

43. A paying customer at a souvenir shop.

44. Okay. Okay.

45. - Tourists get very excited... - Yeah.

46. around celebrities and movie sets,

47. so they wouldn't think rationally.

48. Yeah.

49. Once you have the crowd here,

50. it becomes very easy to sell to them.

51. Yeah, maybe.

52. John was on board, so to make L.A. Fame

53. look as much like a real movie set as possible,

54. I rented some lights and equipment

55. and set them up outside of his shop.

56. Next, to make the movie truly exciting for tourists,

57. I hired professional Johnny Depp impersonator

58. Ronnie Rodriguez, who I hoped would convincingly pass

59. for the real Johnny from a distance.

60. I also hired a worse Johnny Depp impersonator

61. to act as a stand-in

62. and make Ronnie look better by comparison.

63. With everything in place,

64. the fake movie shoot began.

65. Action.

66. As I pretended to direct,

67. tourists slowly began to gather.

68. Cut.

69. Let's do another take of that.

70. That was really good, guys.

71. And excitement was building around our celebrity star.

72. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah.

73. And once we gave them a tiny peek of Johnny...

74. Whoo-hoo, Johnny.

75. they were putty in my hands,

76. and it was time to sell some souvenirs.

77. Hi, everyone.

78. So as you can see, we're filming a movie here.

79. It's called The Web.

80. It's about a hacker, played by Johnny Depp,

81. who has to hack into an asteroid

82. to stop it from hitting the Earth.

83. Okay.

84. So this is a little bit unorthodox,

85. but we need some extras to be in the scene.

86. I don't know— Is that okay? Is anyone interested?

87. Right here.

88. Really? Oh, wow.

89. With no shortage of volunteers,

90. I had them brought to set

91. one at a time to give them their direction.

92. Let me just explain to you what you have to do.

93. Okay.

94. Go into the store,

95. buy an item, and then leave.

96. Okay, cool.

97. Okay, so, on action. Ready?

98. - Yes. - Action.

99. You don't have to go so fast, sir.

100. - You can slow down. - Okay.

101. It might not have been an Oscar-worthy performance...

102. $6.53.

103. But our first customer of the day left happy.

104. - Thank you. - Okay, thank you.

105. Have a nice day.

106. I gave each extra some direction

107. and let them run with it.

108. So I need you to go in there,

109. pick out an item, buy it, and then leave.

110. - Okay. - Okay.

111. Okay, so I need you to go in there,

112. buy something, then leave.

113. - Okay. - Okay.

114. My plan was working beautifully,

115. as tourists were buying items in a steady stream.

116. The scene was fake, but these sales were real,

117. and customers were thrilled with their purchases.

118. Did you pay for that?

119. Yeah.

120. Okay, so it's yours then.

121. Oh.

122. But each transaction was just for a small amount,

123. so I took John's place to show him

124. how he could get customers to spend more.

125. Oh, hello, Officer Suzanne.

126. Hi.

127. How's the hacker investigation going?

128. Um— Wait, what do you want me to say?

129. Oh, just say, "No leads yet."

130. Okay.

131. Go ahead.

132. Oh, no leads yet at all, so...

133. - Okay. - Mm-mm.

134. Well, I have the stuff you asked me to put aside.

135. Mm-hmm.

136. That'll be $87, please.

137. Okay.

138. Here we are.

139. Oh, thank you.

140. You're very welcome.

141. Are you actually, like, charging it to my card?

142. - You're breaking character. - Okay.

143. - Just say, "Thank you." - Thank you.

144. Okay, yes.

145. $87 in a single transaction

146. was unprecedented for a souvenir shop,

147. but I soon discovered I wasn't in the clear yet.

148. So you had a question about something or...

149. Yeah, I mean, I don't want this stuff, but—

150. - Oh, do you want a refund? - Yeah.

151. I had anticipated that people might want their money back,

152. so I came up with a plan that would hopefully

153. make them reconsider.

154. - This movie stars Johnny Depp. - Yeah.

155. I don't know if you knew,

156. but he was watching the footage...

157. Yeah.

158. on the monitor view,

159. and he just thought you were,

160. like, the most natural actress.

161. - Have you acted before? - No, never.

162. - You've never? - Mm-mm.

163. If you want, I might be able to get you in there to meet him.

164. Yeah, if he doesn't mind, I mean...

165. Yeah, I mean...

166. Okay.

167. - Johnny? - Yes?

168. You decent?

169. Hey.

170. Johnny, this is Karter, the actress you just—

171. - Hi. - Oh, hi.

172. - How are you? - Nice to meet you.

173. - Nice to meet you too. - How you doing?

174. - I'm good. - Wow, so...

175. I heard you did a good job on the scene.

176. Oh, thank you.

177. Are you a— you're a fan of his, or...

178. - Of course. - Oh, really?

179. Of course I am.

180. Pirates of the Caribbean, come on.

181. Really?

182. - Good. - Good, it's a—

183. - Thank you very much. - Pleasure to meet you.

184. Do you want him to sign some stuff for you?

185. Like, in here?

186. Yeah.

187. I mean— Oh, wait.

188. You did— You wanted to return those?

189. Oh, really? Well—

190. If he signs them, we can't return them, so...

191. Yeah, well, if he signs one, can't you—

192. Can you, or no? No?

193. He usually likes to sign everything.

194. I can—

195. All right.

196. Let me see.

197. I can't say no to an autograph, I mean...

198. "To my favorite—" Rum should probably go in here.

199. It was a tense 15 minutes

200. as Ronnie signed everything in her basket.

201. So when is this movie supposed to be coming out?

202. Um...

203. But in the end, she kept all her souvenirs

204. and went home happy.

205. And as the day progressed, we got better and better

206. at getting customers to make big purchases.

207. Your character is a customer who loves to spend money.

208. He's rich, and he loves to just buy souvenirs.

209. So that's your motivation.

210. Action.

211. And people seemed to be

212. embracing their roles.

213. I'm gonna give myself an Oscar for being so rich.

214. - How's that? - All right.

215. Over the course of the day,

216. we sold a record number of souvenirs.

217. The total comes out to $170.92.

218. $170...

219. And even though the autographs may have been fake,

220. the memories these regular folks took home that day

221. would last a lifetime.

222. And at the end of the day, I wanted to see if John

223. planned to keep using my sales method.

224. Is this something you might want to keep doing?

225. Um...

226. No, I mean—

227. Maybe. Maybe, yeah.

228. Maybe? So— Okay.

229. - Yeah. - That's good.

230. Unfortunately, Ronnie, the Johnny Depp impersonator,

231. has limited availability outside of today.

232. Right.

233. So I found another impersonator

234. that could replace him, perhaps,

235. if you want to continue this.

236. Okay.

237. This is William.

238. He's a professional Bill Gates impersonator.

239. Okay.

240. Why don't you give him a little taste of Bill?

241. Yes, it's a pleasure to be here.

242. You know, when we started our computers,

243. um, back in the '80s,

244. it was huge.

245. And the business—

246. they were huge machines.

247. You know, we started— I started in a garage.

248. Okay, I think that— yeah, that's enough probably.

249. So, yeah,

250. you do this for a living, right?

251. - Yes, sir. - Okay.

252. Yeah, well, I'll leave you guys

253. to work out the details, I guess.

254. - Okay. - You can take it from here.

255. But, yeah, great to meet you.

256. - Great to meet you. - All right, see ya.

257. - Thank you. - Thank you.

258. Um, I mean...

259. Well, I hope everybody buys Microsoft—

260. continues— continue the business.

261. We can always use it,

262. and we're so grateful that—

263. what we have accomplished.

264. Okay.

265. What you—

266. Um...

267. +

268. I assume this goes without saying,

269. but in making this show,

270. I ensure that every idea I present to a business I help

271. is completely, 100% legal.

272. However, in the weeks since helping L.A. Fame,

273. I discovered that certain elements

274. of my marketing plan

275. may have actually constituted fraud.

276. And that's not good.

277. When I finished up with John,

278. I assumed my work with his business was done,

279. but then our production began receiving

280. several emails from souvenir shop customers

281. asking when The Web, my fake movie,

282. was coming out in theaters.

283. Not knowing how to respond to these emails,

284. I met with retired California state judge

285. the Honorable Anthony Filosa for some guidance.

286. It's fraud.

287. Theft, basically.

288. - Theft and fraud? - Yes.

289. What you did was a criminal offense.

290. It can be punished by a misdemeanor

291. or by a felony

292. depending on the amount of money involved.

293. You're admitting to me that—

294. No, I didn't admit anything.

295. Well, you said that you did not intend

296. to make a movie.

297. So how do I get out of this?

298. You have two options.

299. You could make an offer to refund the money.

300. That would be one way.

301. Or, of course, actually make the film.

302. So if The Web were a real movie,

303. then I would be covered?

304. Yes. Yes.

305. Judge Filosa had given me

306. a great way to beat a fraud charge.

307. I'd edit the footage we shot at L.A. Fame into a movie,

308. but this task proved to be difficult.

309. It was all just random scenes with customers, no story.

310. I knew this wouldn't hold up,

311. so I spend the night writing a script

312. that would weave the customer footage

313. into a clear narrative.

314. To make it more compelling,

315. I added a love story for my character

316. and cast an actress to play my girlfriend,

317. and later that week,

318. we officially began production on The Web.

319. Have you ever done an on-camera kiss before, or...

320. - I have, yeah. - Oh, yeah? Yeah.

321. - Have you? - What?

322. - Have you? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

323. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, cool.

324. It's not like we're kissing.

325. It's like our characters are kissing.

326. - Oh, sure, yeah. - Yeah, yeah.

327. So it's, like, you know,

328. it's not, like, a big deal or anything.

329. - No. - Yeah, yeah.

330. After some actor-to-actor talk,

331. We began the scene.

332. I love you so much, Richard.

333. I love you too, Allison.

334. Come here.

335. I don't know what I'm gonna do without you.

336. I know.

337. I haven't done this before.

338. It's okay.

339. It was a bit of a rocky start

340. as my nerves kept getting in the way.

341. And as the takes went on,

342. I was having trouble staying in character

343. because I was really enjoying the kisses.

344. But with time, our chemistry became very natural,

345. and after calling Ronnie back to shoot some additional scenes,

346. I felt like we had enough to make a somewhat logical film.

347. So I returned to Judge Filosa and showed him the entire movie

348. to see if we were in the clear.

349. So this is it?

350. It's a rough cut.

351. If this is your defense

352. and it's in front of a jury,

353. they'd laugh you out of the courtroom.

354. But this—

355. You said anything can be a movie.

356. No, but I—

357. I'm assuming a movie has to have some kind of a plot.

358. There's a plot.

359. What's the plot?

360. He would save the world through hacking.

361. Going into a store?

362. Judge Filosa's reaction

363. was beginning to worry me,

364. but then he offered a glimmer of hope.

365. If it was accepted by the showbiz community

366. as a movie and won an award, then I—

367. the court would have to take that

368. into consideration, wouldn't it?

369. He was right.

370. Winning an award was the perfect way

371. to make my movie somewhat credible.

372. So I sent copies of The Web to several film festivals

373. in the hope it would be accepted into competition.

374. But after getting nothing but rejection letters,

375. it seems like I only had one option left:

376. to start a film festival of my own.

377. So I came up with a name, logo, and entry form,

378. and then submitted The Web in the short film category.

379. But an award from my festival would mean nothing

380. without a respected name from the film industry involved,

381. So I made some calls...

382. Personally, I am a huge fan of your work.

383. And was able to land

384. the second unit script supervisor

385. from the Oscar-winning movie Bonnie and Clyde

386. to judge the film.

387. You know, I didn't see any continuity errors at all.

388. Thank you.

389. Is that what a script supervisor does?

390. All I needed now was at least one other film

391. that The Web would have a chance of beating,

392. and after a bit of searching, I found a contender—

393. a 90-second clip of nothing but a man farting.

394. And with a venue secured,

395. it was time for the festival to begin.

396. +

397. Turnout to my festival was slim,

398. with only a few people from the neighborhood

399. buying tickets,

400. but the only thing that mattered

401. was that our industry judge had arrived,

402. and with Crayton in his seat, it was time to start the show.

403. Welcome to the first annual

404. Eastern Los Angeles International Film Festival.

405. Today is the short film competition,

406. And I'm excited to announce

407. that judging our selection of shorts

408. is industry legend Crayton Smith,

409. who you might know from being the script supervisor

410. on Bonnie and Clyde.

411. So you know if he picks a film as the winner,

412. it's definitely a real film.

413. Come here a second.

414. Oh.

415. Bonnie and Clyde,

416. I was just the second unit, so...

417. Just second unit?

418. I had no credit or anything.

419. You're credited on imdb for Bonnie and Clyde.

420. Yeah, but on The Wild Bunch,

421. my credit is on the screen and...

422. Oh, okay, sure.

423. So The Wild Bunch you'd rather me say?

424. Yeah, that's fine.

425. So Crayton just informed me that actually

426. he was credited as a script supervisor

427. on The Wild Bunch, but—

428. did work on Bonnie and Clyde,

429. but was not credited.

430. Okay, first up, we have a sci-fi thriller

431. called The Web.

432. Please enjoy.

433. Coming in on weekends now, Kip?

434. I'm a hacker, Mel, not a slacker.

435. Cops are getting suspicious.

436. You should get your own office,

437. stop using my back room.

438. Whatever, grandma.

439. All right, it's hacking time.

440. Thank you.

441. Have a good day.

442. Hey, boss, did you see this?

443. Microsoft's been putting microchips into asteroids

444. to control them.

445. This can't be good.

446. You should tell Kip.

447. Right.

448. What are you up to, Mr. Gates?

449. Crap, the cops are here.

450. Let me distract them while you figure this out.

451. Okay, cool.

452. Oh, hello, Officer Suzanne.

453. Hi.

454. How's the hacker investigation going?

455. Go ahead.

456. Oh, no leads yet at all, so...

457. Okay. That'll be $87, please.

458. Danger.

459. Asteroid microchip malfunction.

460. Oh, no.

461. What have I done wrong?

462. I can't believe this.

463. I've worked so hard

464. to get this computer project going.

465. This is unheard of.

466. What's going on?

467. It looks like there are asteroids

468. on a straight trajectory towards Earth.

469. We'll all be dead in five minutes.

470. What are you talking about?

471. There's a microchip in there.

472. Can't you hack it?

473. I'll do my best.

474. Crap, I have a girlfriend.

475. Sorry I had to call you away from work.

476. This just might be our last chance

477. to say good-bye before the asteroid hits.

478. Oh, no.

479. I love you so much, Richard.

480. I love you too, Allison.

481. Come here.

482. I hacked faster than I've ever hacked before.

483. When word of the asteroid got out,

484. people were racing to get supplies.

485. Everyone wanted souvenirs

486. so they could remember the Earth.

487. And people were sad.

488. Oh.

489. Angry mobs formed on the street.

490. The odds of me stopping this asteroid were slim,

491. but I had to try.

492. Asteroid access granted.

493. Trajectory has been reprogrammed.

494. I did it.

495. You saved the world, Kip.

496. The Web went over as expected,

497. and now it was time to seal my fate

498. as the best film of the night.

499. Our next short is a documentary

500. called Me Farting on Command.

501. My hope was that the fart movie

502. served its purpose,

503. because now that the screening was over,

504. it was up to our judge to pick the best short,

505. and I nervously awaited his decision.

506. Okay, here you go.

507. All right.

508. Selected The Web.

509. I did.

510. All right.

511. Hand me this award...

512. - All right. - For best short film.

513. Hand it to you now?

514. - Oh, yeah. - Okay, uh, this—

515. You don't need a speech or anything, yeah.

516. - Good. - Thank you.

517. I did it,

518. and with the award in hand,

519. we now had proof

520. that my marketing plan for L.A. Fame

521. was 100% legal.

522. My work here was done,

523. but there was one more person

524. I wanted to share the good news with.

525. +

526. I was so proud of my movie's success,

527. and I couldn't wait to tell my costar, Jessee.

528. I don't know if you know, but the film we did

529. actually won an award.

530. - What? - Yeah.

531. What award?

532. Eastern Los Angeles International Film Festival.

533. All right, that's exciting.

534. It's exciting, yeah.

535. Pretty good.

536. Yeah, yeah.

537. Anyways, there was something

538. I wanted to actually talk to you about.

539. When we did that—

540. the kissing scene that we did,

541. and I told you I was in character,

542. but that might have been a lie.

543. Well, that's okay.

544. I feel like there might have been

545. some of me in there,

546. and I guess I was wondering

547. if when you did the kiss...

548. how much of that was your character

549. and how much of that was you?

550. Uh...

551. Meaning did I, like—

552. did I want to kiss you?

553. Me, Jessee?

554. Yeah.

555. Uh...

556. I mean,

557. It wasn't a big deal,

558. but I probably wouldn't grab you on the street

559. and just kiss you out of nowhere.

560. Good to know, I guess.

561. - Yeah. - Yeah.

562. In that moment, I felt sorry for Jessee.

563. To share a kiss with another human

564. and feel nothing is a horrible way to live.

565. As I drove home, I finally understood

566. what it felt like to be a tourist,

567. going somewhere with so much hope

568. and leaving with nothing but a souvenir.