"Ladies and gentlemen the Eric Andre Show…"
Comedian and actor Eric André is the host, creator, and chief visionary behind the barely
controlled chaos that is Adult Swim's The Eric André Show.
Combining elements of other reality-bending talk-, prank-, and comedy shows, André and
cohost Hannibal Buress routinely bewilder and upset their celebrity guests, along with
the victims of his real-world pranks.
Here's a look at comedian Eric André and his surreal talk show.
"Time for some Ranch!"
Exclusive education
André didn't go to college to become a boundary-pushing comedian.
But while he graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in 2005 with a degree
in playing the bass, he also used college as a testing ground for his guerrilla comedy.
He told Grantland that he'd post fliers around the school announcing that major bands were
playing secret gigs in the school cafeteria… all at the same time.
People who showed up would only arrive to find disappointment.
Andre recalled,
"Different walks of life came to the cafeteria at the same time, and when they got here,
it was me, 11 bass players, two drummers, and a cellist, just making a bunch of noise."
The GEICO Cavemen
André created The Eric André Show as a vehicle for himself when he couldn't find enough work
to pay the bills, and was living on unemployment with only $200 to his name.
His main gig right before his show got picked up by Adult Swim was as a GEICO Caveman.
No, not one of the ones from the commercials, or even one from the short-lived ABC sitcom
based on those commercials.
André was a promotional mascot, representing the insurance giant at various events, including
Lollapalooza and Yankee games.
And at least once, he made a spontaneous appearance on Washington Post Live.
"Wizards?
Oh Wizards!
I love baseball, man!"
"different ball. No… bigger ball."
So if you had your picture taken with a GEICO Caveman at a hockey game or the Super Bowl,
it just might have been Eric André in a few layers of heavy makeup.
The pitch
André skipped the usual TV show pitching process and didn't bother writing a script
to pass around to networks.
He knew his idea for an absurdist, chaotic, stream-of-consciousness talk show wouldn't
really come through in written form, so he filmed a sample episode on his own dime.
He told Spin,
"We rented out this little semi-abandoned, semi-illegal bodega in the middle of Brooklyn."
"It had crap and piles of broken glass everywhere and it was super nasty and we just cleaned
it up a little bit, threw up curtains."
Over the course of a year, André taught himself how to edit video and put the show together
as a pitch, which he brought to a bunch of networks who weren't interested... except
for Adult Swim, because really, if there was ever a project tailor-made for Adult Swim,
it's The Eric André Show.
"Cheers, I'll drink to that!"
ABC's secret
While The Eric André Show has run for four seasons and counting, it's still a cult hit
that runs in the middle of the night on a cable network.
That means more people have probably seen André in his role as lovelorn barista Mark
on ABC's Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23, even though it was canceled after two short seasons.
Executives at Disney-owned ABC weren't cool enough to dig The Eric André Show, and weren't
too happy with his Adult Swim enterprise, either.
He told Huffington Post,
"Sometimes for press releases it was like, 'Hannibal from SNL and 30 Rock and Eric André
from Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 are doing a new show on Adult Swim.'
And then like 14 people from ABC flew in on helicopters, were like, 'Don't mention us
in the Adult Swim show!'"
Oddly enough, they didn't have a problem with his ABC costars guesting on The Eric André
Show.
Suffering for his craft
Andre puts himself in constant danger for his show, but some of the problems his comedy
has caused have had lasting repercussions.
For one of the show's real-world pranks, André crashed a city council meeting in Rancho Cucamonga,
California.
"Hey guys vote for me for class president I'll put beer in all the water coolers and
cameras in the girls locker rooms.
Woo!
Go bobcats!"
He was removed from the meeting hall, where he then claimed his name was John Coltrane.
André spent the night in jail.
"Don't taze me, bro."
But legal trouble isn't even the worst of it.
Andre has hurt himself a lot over the course of filming his show, including putting a hole
in his butt cheek, tearing his back trying to pick up a heavy chair, and possibly permanently
messing up his knees while crouching in a garbage can.
"I have hepatitis!"
Talk show from hell
Guests on The Eric André Show often seem very uncomfortable.
And while André might be playing a character named "Eric André" that isn't quite his real
self, the guests aren't necessarily faking it.
"It's time for darkness!"
"darkness?"
"What's happening right now?"
André told Splitsider that it was fun to see celebrities, quote, "out of their comfort
zones", which he accomplishes through a variety of maddening methods, including mild electrocution,
water dripping from above, and worst of all, rotten clams underneath the guest's chair
to produce a noxious, undeniable stench.
And some of it has been enough to drive guests to their breaking point.
"You invite people here and yea, make a list.
F------ every other person who doesn't come on your show because it's f------ stupid."
The Hills star Lauren Conrad didn't really "get it" when she appeared on the show.
After André put Conrad through a unique version of hell, she walked off the show.
"Nope."
"Nope!"
André said Conrad's publicity agency got revenge by canceling nearly all its other
clients scheduled to appear on the show.
Rapper T.I. also walked off when the show's rampant nudity became a bit too much to handle.
However, he later expressed regrets, posting a video of the show on Instagram, calling
it hilarious.
And TV's Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno , was an almost-walkout.
"So what, uh," "don't get closer to me . Okay?"
"If he gets closer, I'm gonna leave."
Eric & Rosario
On Valentine's Day 2017, André took to various forms of social media to declare actress Rosario
Dawson his "Valentine" as well as, quote, "the undisputed most gorgeous being on the
planet."
A lot of people thought it was a ruse, including Chance the Rapper, who texted Dawson for confirmation.
In response, André posted a photos of himself and Dawson together, proving that the comedian
and the actress are the real deal.
A couple months later on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dawson said that after she
had emergency surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst, André was there for her.
"He took care of me in an adult diaper.
that's love."
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