In Eric Andre Live Near Broadway, a new Adult Swim comedy special that debuts tonight, the veteran comedy maniac incorporates various liquids, visual aids, guests, and set pieces while playing to a raucous live audience that seems to super charge the proceedings. It’s the perfect proof point for why Andre’s show has endured, showing an audience clamoring for and being rewarded with something real. Because, while some parts of Andre’s show are, of course, scripted and expertly planned out, the show (both the classic version and this live edition) just feels like a primal comedy scream, born from pent up anxiety and boundless creativity manifested through on-the-spot inventiveness and comedy guts of steel. Not quite anarchy, but something quite close and quite real.
As we do when Andre has a new project set to hit screens, Uproxx spoke with him, checking in on this new special, performance anxiety, crafting the exact right kind of jizz cannon, shocking the hell out of guests, taking to the high seas, and his earliest pranks.
We’re both fellow anxiety sufferers. Is doing this in front of an audience helpful to your anxiety or is it just a speed-run through chaos internally?
I think more the latter. I get more comfortable doing the show as the show goes on. My anxiety isn’t totally logical. I definitely have dealt with performance anxiety stage fright for years, which is normal, but my anxiety manifests at weird parts of the day that aren’t totally based on logic or external stimulus. Anxiety is a fiction. Anxiety is a fiction and anxiety is just a sensation, but it’s not totally logical. It’s misplaced. It’s a distraction.
How much does the live audience aspect feed the improvisational aspect of these shows?
A good amount. It’s prank-based, so you’re relying on whoever you bring up on stage. If they’re a great guest, you got a great show. If they’re so-so, especially at the end where I’m FaceTiming their ex, it’s in their hands more than it’s in my hands. We’ve had a couple shows where it was a total bust, and it’s really stressful and frustrating. But it’s worth the risk because when I do pull it off, it works really well and the crowd erupts. It’s a high wire act a little bit, especially that stuff. But I lucked out completely with the New York show because Billy Porter was so engaging and he was so reactive to each and every twist and turn. And also the guy, the audience member at the end, that guy Ryan and his ex-girlfriend were so perfect, without spoiling anything.
Yeah, Billy seemed to be completely surprised by everything that was going on.
He was baffled. He had never seen me or the show. He had no idea what he was getting into. People always ask, “Why do people do the show if they don’t know what they’re getting into?” And I say, anytime I’ve done any talk show or any press, “I have no idea what I’m getting into.” And you want to promote whatever you’re working on. We like attention.
I’m sure there’s an aspect of the unknown that’s appealing to someone coming on the show as well.
Billy Porter knew nothing. He really had no idea. I really caught him off guard. He was perfect. He was a perfect guest.
How did he feel after the show? Do you check in after the show to see how someone is?
He was gone after the show by the time I got off-stage. No. I think he had a good time. I gave him a hug and a kiss.
Can you take me through the construction of the ejaculate canon?
That’s mule semen. No, I couldn’t tell you. It’s Joe Holiday, Gizmo Joe, the guy that builds our props. He built that rig and he has some jizz-like substance that he’s created. And he also uses some, I don’t know, he has a crazy contraption. He’s brilliant. He’s a genius prop master. He’s like Christopher Lloyd in Back To The Future. He has a TikTok that’s really famous for crazy gizmos and contraptions that he makes. He’s awesome.
What was behind the choice of the Simpsons porn in the background? Why not Family Guy?
That was a last minute decision. We only did that for that show. On the road, we were having rappers on the show and stuff and we would have people drink the hot sauce and beer and Red Bull and all this stuff and do dizzy bat, and then rap. Some people would handle that actually well, so in the last few shows leading up, we were like, “Why don’t we go further?” In the Philly show the night before, we had a dog pooping backwards and nobody cared. It looked cool. So then we were like, “Why don’t we show cartoon porn or something?” So that was a last minute. We weren’t sure if that was going to work or not. It worked really well.
Aside from the special, you’re going on a comedy cruise coming up in the next couple weeks. What is Eric Andre’s show in international waters going to be like?
Completely lawless. The law books don’t apply.
How big is the waiver that people have to sign to go onto this thing?
It’s giant. It looks like butcher paper.
I have not had a chance to read Dumb Ideas yet, but looking forward to that. What was that process like writing the book?
We (Andre and Dan Curry, The Eric Andre Show head writer and exec producer) were trying to make a prank cookbook at first. It was like pranks you could do at home and a prank kit and all this stuff. I don’t know, it didn’t have enough meat on the bones, so we just started writing stories and behind the scenes tales of the trials and tribulations of the show and the movie and everything else, and then we hit our stride.
What was the first prank that you did, or what inspired the first prank that you did when you were younger?
That’s a good question. The first prank, I don’t know, they’re all crude. I’m trying to think of from when I was a little kid. My buddy got expelled from high school for pooping in the history textbooks, but I can’t claim that one. I remember one time I bashed my head through a fire hose glass enclosure in the English building. It was 11th grade. Everybody was walking to class in the hallways. I bashed my head through the glass, I pulled my head back, and the glass sliced my forehead and my hands up, but it was coming out of the center of my hands, the blood. I didn’t mean to do that, I was just trying to make a big loud noise. I didn’t think the glass would break. I wasn’t really thinking it through, I was fucking crazy. I bash my head through the thing and I lean back and blood was coming out of my forehead and my hands and I was like, “Stigmata!” And I bled all the way to the other building. They made me go to the hospital.
You got the laugh?
No, my friend was like, “Jesus Christ.”
Mortified.
Mortified.
You’ve been in this obviously for a while, are you having to train yourself in any different ways? Are you having to guard against certain injuries more than not?
Yeah, I still get injured. I try not to. Getting injured sucks now. I’m in my forties. You always make mistakes.
I’m assuming it’s not the Johnny Knoxville getting tossed around by a bull to the point of near comatose level?
No, he goes really fucking hard. He’s gotten 16 concussions.
You’ve worked with him obviously over a couple of projects. Is there a competitive streak to you when you’re in the same room with him?
No, not at all. He’s like my big brother. I look up to him and look at him in awe. I don’t feel competitive at all. I feel like I’m trying to learn from him.
Yeah, it feels like I don’t think anybody could really match him. It feels like that’s probably flirting with death if one tried to match him at this point.
I can’t believe he’s alive.
‘Eric Andre Live Near Broadway’ premieres tonight at midnight on Adult Swim
