Dan Nainan is a 35-year old who often speaks for the Millenials: he crops up in piece after piece as a secondary source, reinforcing whatever angle the story takes on this most endlessly fascinating of generations.
Ben Collins writes, however, that he's actually a corporate-gig comedian in his mid-fifties. Moreover, the spokesmillenial thing isn't some clever, media-trolling prankery: Nainan insists he's 35, even as public records says otherwise. He obviously wouldn't pass for his claimed age--even his pro headshots are tell-tale--but seems to be doing quite well for himself as retirement age approaches. Which leaves the rather unsettling question: why?
I get it, I told him. It’s time to tell the whole story, I said. Being in your 40s and leaving Intel to become a millionaire comedian is even more impressive than some guy in his 20s making it in comedy like everybody else, right?
So tell me, are you 35 or 55?
Then a pause.
“I’m 35,” he said. “The mistake is in my birth record.”
A few minutes later, he said he wanted to talk to his lawyer before he said anything else.
Discussion centers, fairly, on his representations to the media and our mindless complicity in publishing them. But there's also a some spiteful pleasure being had shaming him for his vanity. You know those guys who make a noble crusade of exposing underemployed actresses who won't admit to hitting 40, because they don't deserve the career they have? Why be that guy?
I don't know what Nainan's sexuality is, but gay men often felt they had to obscure their age in times past. The reasons for doing so are historical now, but were entirely rational then: it made it harder for people to find material to blackmail or expose you or otherwise screw with your professional life. But people who did this have now come into contact with an age of easily-checked public records, and Dan's experience resembles those of people who become too successful to manage old white lies upon which their professional self-image depends.
So while he might be a total dick on the internet, a little compassion will probably go a long way with Dan. Oh yes, and fact-checking too.
