Clusterfest ‘Double Dare’ course gets visit from host Marc Summers as game show prepares for its return this month

Original “Double Dare” host Marc Summers recalled the first obstacle courses for the 1980s/1990s Nickelodeon game show being tested with grown-ups, not children.

When Summers saw the slime, chocolate sauce, feathers and other messiness, he was not optimistic for the show’s success.

“I stupidly said, ‘Do you think kids would want to do that?’ And guess what, they did,” he said. “That’s what kept us on the air all those years.”

On Friday, June 1, Summers was a guest at Comedy Central Presents Clusterfest at the “Double Dare” mini-obstacle course, presented by Mountain Dew Kickstart, set up in Civic Center Plaza across from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. The attractions is part of a promotional push for the reboot of the show, which returns to Nickelodeon on June 25, with Summers providing color commentary.

There was a heavy nostalgia vibe at Clusterfest, where the key original “Double Dare” demographic — now mostly in their 30s or early 40s — tried to make their way through a “Wringer” machine and the “Icy Trike” obstacle, which was actually a tricycle rolling over baby oil. After the first contestest hurt her nose badly enough to require first aid, others seemed able to pass through the course incident-free.

There were no sundae toppings or other messy fluids, but Nickelodeon did provide a booth to “slime” a contestant every hour.

Leaving the hosting to DJ Maxwell of Nick Radio this time, Summers watched from the sidelines and seemed to enjoy the chaos — which he says was the way things started.

“It was a bunch of misfits who got together, it was like being in a college dorm,” Summers said, recalling the early years of the show. “… I’m telling you, we would have done it for free. We were laughing all the time, we were having so much fun.”

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub