Man plays dead more than 300 times on TikTok to win spot on CSI show

Film set light.
Photo credit Getty Images

Lights! Camera! Play… dead?

In five days, Josh Nalley, a TikToker who has perfected the art of “playing dead” in more than 300 videos posted on the app under the @living_dead_josh account, will see his dream of appearing on a TV show realized.

Nalley – who is a Kentucky resident and restaurant manager – told KSBW 8 Action News that he started the project out of boredom.

“I’m a dead body is what I am,” he said.

As one might imagine, Nalley has posed in a plethora of poses and in a variety of scenery. One video shows him with his eyes open, staring blankly. Another shows him in front of a beautiful body of water.

Recently Nalley also did a dead body pose with a pumpkin on his head and in the past, he posed as if he fell off of a ladder stringing Christmas lights. According to KSBW 8 Action News, one of his personal favorite poses included a trick that made him appear headless.

“I did it using a mirror to reflect the ground in front of me so I didn’t have a head,” he explained.

On Sept. 29, Nalley announced that he finally got a part on show, CBS’ “CSI: Vegas”, while posing as a dead body on Hollywood Boulevard. The show, a sequel to the original “CSI”, flew him out to film his appearance.

While he wasn’t paid for the five hours he spent on a metal gurney to portray a corpse in a morgue, Nalley’s performance got a rave review from executive producer Jason Tracey.

“When Josh lies perfectly still, he is every inch the equal of Sir Lawrence Olivier,” the producer said.

You can catch “CSI: Vegas” Thursdays at 9 p.m. CST.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Getty Images