NICK SCOULLAR, 15, Host of TV's Anti-Gravity Room
When he was just 12 years old and hooked on comic books, Nick Scoullar was plucked—like the heroes of Wayne's World—from a weekly public-access TV show to cohost of The Anti-Gravity Room on cable's Sci-Fi channel. Back then "I was kind of a dorky kid," says Scoullar, who helped create Anti-Gravity, a weekly hyperkinetic half-hour TV report on the latest in comic books, video games, movies and music. Now that Scoullar is a 15-year-old high school freshman and will soon be at work on his show's fourth season, he says he "appreciates comics on many different levels. They're not just for illiterates. They're a form of art...and that's cool."
Fantasy: "I really want to have telekinesis," says Scoullar. "You know, lifting stuff with your mind. If you could do that, you could do anything. You could fly. You could throw people around the room and stuff."
Reality: Born in New York City with just one, minor superpower: "People don't believe me when I tell them, but he started talking at about 4 months old," says mother Linda, 45, a secretary (father John, 45, is a waiter and playwright). As an only child "I got attention 24-seven from my parents," says Scoullar. "That's how I got on TV. I thought, 'Hey, I could get attention from other people too.' "
Trip: Scoullar bought his first comic (X-Men) at 9 and was hooked. Two years later he and a friend rented a studio for $30 a week and produced their own cable-access show, Talk Comics, with reviews, interviews and live phone-ins. After six months he was spotted by TV producer Josh Braun, who promptly signed him up. Now he fits filming around his schoolwork—mostly on weekends.
First impressions: Braun was amazed by the way Scoullar dealt with crank callers on Talk Comics: "He was funny and streetwise enough to handle the worst of New York's vast community of psychos."
Sign of obsession: Scoullar's 8,000 comic books reside on his bed while he camps out on the couch of his family's Manhattan apartment.
About the hair: From brown to red to white to orange to black—and now to blue—all in the space of six months. After all that: "It's Brillo," he says.
On the gen-gap: "It's obsolete, really. We're all going to get to the same point anyhow. Thirty hits, and you're making waffles for the family."
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