PERFORMANCE: David Lee Nelson on 'The Elephant in My Closet'

How many stand-up comedian/Shakespearean actor/writer/Republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Or maybe a better question is how does a Republican Shakespearean actor/stand-up comedian/writer find his way to becoming a self-proclaimed liberal New York Democrat, trotting his personal struggles out onstage to self-effacing comedic effect? And how does said multi-titled Democrat break the news to his conservative Republican father?

David Lee Nelson is a New York-based actor, writer, and comedian whose third, self-penned one-man show, The Elephant in My Closet, will delve into these very questions when it makes its New York debut October 14th at the Kraine Theatre in NYC’s East Village.

Nelson joined us for a quick discussion of the timely election-year piece and his unique career path.

How did this project come to be and why did you feel like it was time to tell this particular story?

This was an idea that I had been kicking around for a while. See I used to be very, umm, what’s the word I’m looking for here…? Republican. Which, trust me, is not an easy way to get through acting school.

But I come from a line of Republicans. Serious Republicans. Like my dad hates two things: The Clemson Tigers and Democrats.  And as I got out of school and stopped using drugs, I had become a Democrat. The one thing my father hated.  It had been six years and I was still terrified to tell him.

As an artist these are the exact things I look for: seemingly insignificant things—telling your dad who you voted for—and then I explore their bigger ramifications.

Plus with the election coming, we figured the time for this piece was now.

What would you say is the “truth to embellished” ratio of the piece?

This show is 100% true. Well, I say that South Carolina elected Strom Thurmond 800 times. That isn’t true. It’s close, but technically not true.

This isn’t your first one-man outing. Can you tell us about your other pieces?

This is my third solo show, all created with my dear friend Adam Knight of Slant Theatre Project. Our first piece was a show called Silence of Lucky.  It was about a lot of things. Mainly about my love for things that fail.

Then we did our second piece, David Lee Nelson…Status Update. This was about a stand-up comic who quit drinking and his wife left him. Which also, coincidentally, happened to me. That piece kind of took off. It opened to great reviews at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. It ran at 59E59 in New York City, The WaterTower Theatre in Dallas, TX, where it was named Top Touring Show of the 2010-2011 Dallas/Fort Worth Theatre Season. Then we ran for a month at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

stated: Yours isn’t the most obvious career trajectory. You started as a Shakespearean actor, then standup comedy, then monologue pieces like this one, which falls somewhere in between. How did you find your way here?

I always hated the idea of having other people in control of whether or not I was working, so I’ve just created my own stuff. I went to graduate school at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and when I finished I moved to Los Angeles.  And I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but there are a lot of actors in LA. And there are a lot of really great actors who aren’t doing anything, and I get very depressed if I’m not working on something constantly, so… I decided to try stand up. The first few times I did it I killed, wound up moving to New York and I was hooked.

As far as how I got into solo shows—as a comedian, I write everyday. And after a few years, I had written a lot of stuff and I would look back over notebooks and read things that I thought were good, but not stand up. Like they were longer ideas or they were more serious thoughts, and I thought they deserved a home.  And then people liked them. We found that people would come to them not out of obligation. Which I think is how I measure success as an artist—how many people will come see me perform not out of obligation.

If you were forced to choose a label for your work, what would it be? Writer? Actor? Comedian?

D. All of the above. 

Are you taking the show to festivals?

This show premiered at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. I love doing festivals. Piccolo is great, we did the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. I really try to focus on one run at a time. Because #1- I’m crazy and love to micromanage my life, and #2- If we have a great run usually the next opportunity presents itself.

What’s next for you? Are your writing anything new?

I finished my first multi-character play. We will have that ready for next year. I have some spec scripts that I will start sending out. New stand-up material.
Next summer, Adam and I are doing a production of Hamlet. Which I guess brings me right back where I started.

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The Elephant in My Closet runs Sunday and Monday evenings at 8pm from October 14th-29th at the Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY. Directed by Adam Knight and presented by Slant Theatre Project in association with Roust Theatre Company. Tickets are $20 and are available by calling 1-800-838-3006 or online at brownpapertickets.com. 

Visit David Lee Nelson…
www.davidleenelson.com
@davidleenelson