For Marc Summers, 'It Doesn't Get Much Better' Than His One-Man Show at 72: 'Hard Time Retiring' (Exclusive)

The former host of Nickelodeon's 'Double Dare' series has been enjoying life Off-Broadway with his show 'The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers'

Marc Summers has always loved the stage.

His whole career has been as simple — and as complicated — as that. The 72-year-old started out as a magician at children's parties when he was just a kid himself in Indianapolis, doing anything, anywhere — weddings, bar mitzvahs, dog shows, wakes, whatever, he says — just so he could be in front of a live audience.

Fast forward nearly 40 years after Nickelodeon's primetime hit Double Dare first premiered with Summers as the host, and the inherent people person is still doing what he loves: performing for them.

“Doing Double Dare obviously changed my life. But I've had a weird career,” Summers tells PEOPLE exclusively. “You couldn't have planned it any way that I did it. I just kept falling into things, which led to what I'm doing now.”

Present day, Summers finds himself on stage every night from Friday through Monday, starring in his one-man show The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers at New World Stages in New York City through June 2 — a feat he calls “the most fun I've ever had in my life.”

“I just love doing the show. It takes a hell of a lot out of me. It's exhausting and emotional every night, but I'm just loving the experience,” he says.

As for what makes the septuagenarian want to keep working?

“Well, I have a hard time retiring. I tried to stop about five years ago, and the idea, I mean, I walk a lot and I have lunch with friends, but I was just too bored,” admits Summers, who has had a love of Broadway since he was 13 years old.

“A hundred years ago — 1964 — first time I came to New York, I saw Fiddler on the Roof. When I got back to Indy, I started in local theater, and always had this desire to do Broadway in the back of my head," he says. "But then I became a professional magician, and then I became a regular at the Comedy Store in 1976. I was doing warmups on TV shows and I got sidetracked doing things like Double Dare and What Would You Do? and 20 years at Food Network.”

Related: 'Double Dare' 's Marc Summers — Who Battles OCD & Escaped Death Twice — Reflects on His Career

One thing always seems to lead to the next for Summers, who has now been asked to audition for a few Broadway shows. Those auditions wouldn’t be possible if not for the Off-Broadway show that he’s doing now, and the Off-Broadway show (so cemented in the themes of Double Dare as it's part game show, part memoir) wouldn’t exist without the hosting gig that changed his life on Nickelodeon.

Still, all of the fame and fortune doesn’t come without a cost, says Summers, who was also balancing life with a wife and two young kids at home while he was on the road constantly. Double Dare ran on Nickelodeon from 1986 to 1993, and then for years later in syndication.

“One night, I was packing my little suitcase, and my daughter collapsed on the staircase. I’ll never forget it. 'Dad, don't go again,’ she said. And my son said to me — it still gets to me. 'How come every weekend you're with everybody else's kids, but you're not with us?’ So I went in the next day and quit,” he says. "And look, it had been a great run. But the question you got to ask yourself, I think in any line of work, but especially in entertainment, is how much are you willing to sacrifice?”

The same is true now, even as Summers’ children are grown. The TV personality is grateful to be celebrating 50 years of marriage to his wife, Alice, this year, but as he’s recently become a grandfather again for the third time, he still inevitably finds himself away from his family.

“I'm sitting in a hotel room in New York City, and it is a bit of a sacrifice. Every night when I'll say, ‘Wow, I'm really tired and I miss you guys. I want to come home,' my wife goes, ‘But you're doing what you've always wanted to do,' " Summers says. "And that’s true. I can't complain. But it's not easy. And is it fun being on stage for 90 minutes? I love it, but it's the other 22 and a half hours you got to worry about.”

As if the twists and turns of his career itself weren’t enough to keep Summers on his toes, his health, both physical and mental, also proved to be a challenge. Summers was diagnosed with OCD in 1995, and later survived three bouts of cancer. Then, in 2012, he smashed every bone in his face in a car accident when the taxi driver of a cab he was in lost control while the former game show host wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Now, Summers is relieved to have his good health. He’s a cancer survivor, has “tools” that he uses to help keep his OCD in check and he always makes sure to buckle up on the road.

“I've figured out a way to be happy. And my way to be happy is to walk,” says Summers, who netted some 365,000 steps in the month of April. “It really does put me in a great state of mind.”

Summers' story is ultimately one of perseverance, and he knows it. He’s grateful to be doing what he’s always dreamed of — and loving it, every step of the way.

“Gary Collins said to me once, ‘Unless you're the most unlucky human on the planet, if you just hang in there long enough, chances are it's going to work.’ And I was 34 before I got Double Dare, but it was worth the wait,” Summers says.

He hopes that the audiences who come grace the seats of his show will learn the one thing he says his life has been a lesson in: taking responsibility for your own happiness.

“Obstacles are put in front of all of us, and we're all responsible for our own happiness. And I always feel sorry for the people who go to work every day and hate their lives and hate their jobs,” he says. “My feeling is at 72, I've never worked a day in my life.”

The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers continues its run at New World Stages in New York City through June 2.

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