Since 2012, “The Eric Andre Show” can best be described as a cacophony of chaos. Each 11-minute episode is a wild spin on the traditional late-night format, hosted by a terrifyingly heightened version of comedian Eric Andre. It always begins with him destroying his set in increasingly ludicrous ways, only to have it quickly replaced as he’s panting for breath, while the off-kilter studio band is playing something distressing.
When celebrities stop by, they face a litany of challenging situations, such as worms being thrown on them, skyrocketing studio temperatures, Andre’s outfit getting completely ripped off or snakes slithering out of the coffee cup on his desk. Non-professional actors wander in and out of the segments, sometimes nailing their lines and sometimes blowing them, causing the whole affair to feel like a hyperactive David Lynch film.
If the nightmare talk show-meets-“Pee-wee’s Playhouse” premise doesn’t sound like the kind of show that picks up a pair of Emmy nominations, Andre is the first to agree.
“I felt completely outside of the scope,” Andre, also an executive producer on the show, says. “I didn’t even feel like I was on the map or in the conversation, so to even get those two nominations is mind-blowing to me. I’m so happy, though. After a little over a decade, we got that acknowledgment, and I’m appreciative of it.”
The nods — for Andre as outstanding short form performer in a short form comedy or drama series and the show overall for outstanding short form comedy, drama or variety series — are a welcome acknowledgment for such an offbeat project. Kitao Sakurai, Andre’s longtime collaborator and an executive producer on the show, who has also directed the bulk of the episodes since the beginning, says the series’ insular world allows for a unique type of creativity.
“It’s almost like giving the world an external psychedelic experience,” he says. “There’s a balance there between the main voice of it and how it really does take a village to make it happen. There are so many other amazing voices and collaborators and friends and family that have made the show its own kind of universe. We still collaborate with a lot of those same people, and there’s consistency and trust. That also gives the show its voice and specificity.”
One element that adds to the unique experience is the bold and head-spinning editing of the show’s disparate segments, which Andre says builds the foundation of its visual language.
“Editing is everything,” he says. “They say television is a writer’s medium and movies are a director’s medium. I think ‘The Eric Andre Show’ is an editor’s medium. So much of the comedic impact of the written jokes comes from the editing, the tone, the aesthetic. Everything comes from our completely dysfunctional editing.”
Even though the humor is still as wild as ever, making it a surreal centerpiece on Adult Swim, Sakurai — who also directed more traditional episodes of television in 2023 on shows like “Dave” and “Twisted Metal” — says making “Eric Andre” has become more refined as the team drills down on concepts and humor.
“Having done ‘The Eric Andre Show’ is like a crucible,” he says. “You go through hell producing the show, and despite the incredible stress and lack of resources, you really have to be on point [asking], ‘What is the clarity behind this bit?’ ‘What is this trying to say?’ The bedrock comedic and narrative concepts still have to exist.”
The challenges extend beyond the staff, as “The Eric Andre Show” is notorious for torturing celebrity guests with unexpected, uncomfortable situations. Some of this season’s most surreal celeb moments included an angry leprechaun blowing marijuana smoke in Donald Glover’s face, Jon Hamm being uncomfortably grilled about Kevin Spacey during their time shooting “Baby Driver” together and Jaden Smith’s chair giving birth during his interview.
Although Andre is famous enough to have some flashy names in his cell phone, he never gives guests any indication of what they will be going through on the show to keep their reactions genuine.
“I don’t tell them anything,” he says. “I can’t help if they’ve watched the show, but we go to great lengths to keep things secret. In the case of Donald Glover and Jon Hamm, they know me from personal life. But when you’re in the chair, once cockroaches start exploding out of the desk, it doesn’t matter if you know me like a brother. You’re still going to have a genuine reaction.”
The sixth season also dovetailed with Andre’s heightened stature in the prank comedy world, having collaborated with TruTV staples “Impractical Jokers,” appearing in 2022’s “Jackass Forever” and co-hosting the ABC series “The Prank Panel.” During that time, he also developed a collaboration with “Jackass” co-creator and director Jeff Tremaine, who was instrumental in helping Andre and Sakurai on their 2021 comedy film “Bad Trip.”
Tremaine was also able to help direct some of the “street bits” on the sixth season of “The Eric Andre Show.”
Andre says Tremaine’s experience helped him look at stunts, pranks and comedy in a different way. “He taught us a lot about prank production,” he says. “It’s not just hiding cameras and stuff that we figured out on our own, but how to lure somebody into the prank and keep them engaged. Before, the pranks were very crude. I would just bash through a window and fall down, and you’d see somebody go, ‘Whoa!’ And that would be it. Jeff said, ‘That’s the beginning of the prank. You just got them on the hook. After you bash through the window or whatever, continue talking to them — and they’re the stars of the show more than you. You’re set up.’ It’s funny. Comedy is a bunch of smart people trying to come up with really dumb jokes.”
From Variety US