The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Eric Andre

Episode Date: April 6, 2021

Comedian and actor Eric Andre talks with Andy about his early comedy career “toiling in obscurity,” subverting the talk show format, and his post-vaccine plans. Plus, Eric explains why his new movie “Bad Trip” took 7 years to make.

well america i hope you're ready for this because i'm talking to eric andre today on the three questions i love him i love you i should look at you and tell you that. I should stop talking to America and start focusing on you. Yes. Yes. How are you? Am I here? Is that my entrance? Yeah.

Or do I still? That's the Eric Andre theme song. I don't know if you knew that. Wow. Here he is. Here he is, folks. Oh, my God. Put some pants on.

That's a huge dick. And two vaginas. Oh, my God. Put some pants on. That's a huge dick. And two vaginas. Oh, my God. Huge dick and two vaginas. You must never leave the house. Is one of the vaginas your favorite? Don't tell the other one. Now, you're calling me from a Pier 1 import.

I am. I am. No, this is, those are my plantation shutters, which they still call them that, even to this day, the wooden shutters. I'm deeply uncomfortable with those shutters. Well, I'm deeply uncomfortable with your honky plants behind you. Hey, listen, your big movie comes out today, right? Or drops, as they say. It's out.

I noticed that with something, because I was telling my daughter about it, because she's very excited to see it, and I don't know if she was aware of it. In fact, just before I got on with you, I was texting her, hey, Eric's movie is officially watchable. And I realized, like, I could have said Eric's movie drops. But, like, I just didn't have the nerve to say that to my daughter.

Like, I just. You sound like a cool hip-hop dad. Just, yeah. But, hey, man, that drops. It's still one of those things I can't say unironically, you know? I think you can. You're like a Gen Z hip-hop artist. The new birth of Gen Z hip-hop artists.

The new Gen Z me has just dropped. Like a baby into a birth canal, ready to be shit out into the world. Well, now this is exciting. I'm really looking forward to the movie. Cause it's kind of an interesting amalgam of, of pranks and story and mania. I haven't seen it yet.

Can I just interject for a second? I love when you curse. I grew up watching you and i am just on like whenever you say shit or fuck 13 year old me goes oh shit you split that one past the sensors yeah no i mean it's funny because i don't you know i probably swear too much my mother definitely says i you know like in tweets and on the podcast My mother definitely says, I, you know, like in tweets and on the podcast, she's like, you say fuck all the time, even though my mother swears like a truck driver. So she really does.

She was, I mean, like I used to call, like when I was in college I would call home and I have a younger brother and sister who are nine years younger and she'd be on the phone. She'd be like, yeah. Uh-huh. So I told your uncle, Bill, hold on a second. Will you kids shut the fuck up yeah anyway so i told your uncle like that was that was our that was our every day in our house shut the fuck up i'm trying to fucking talk on the phone jesus oh boy now um you where'd you grow up? I can't remember. I had research on you. I grew up in suburban Florida, Boca, Whitone, Florida. And I resent my parents to this day for dragging me there. But I was three years old. I had no say in the decision.

Yeah, Boca was always, whenever I got on a plane to go from Newark to Florida, Boca seemed to be where the people in matching like the middle-aged people in matching track suits were going you know like lots of it's more like elderly swingers in hawaiian really is it truly swingers it's a golf golf it's like old long island and new jersey people retire retirees how did your family end up there? My mom is a Jew from New York. My dad is from Haiti. My dad escaped Haiti in 1969, 70, because there was a dictatorship going on.

It was a bad scene. Yeah. Went to New York, married my mom. They had my sister. Then he went to, my dad's a psychiatrist, went to med school in the Caribbean, finished his residency in Miami. As you think of their house broken into a couple of times in Miami, it was the 80s. Oh,

wow. Yeah. I like, he escaped the dictatorship. New York in the seventies was crime ridden. Miami in the eighties was crime ridden. And he just asked the doctors, he's like,

can I just go to like a boring suburban? Where's the boat? Like, I want to like be like close to a metropolitan area, but get me to the suburbs. And one of his doctor student colleagues was like,

I hear Boca is nice. And he's like, sold, as long as my house doesn't get broken into. I want to avoid crime. But for me, like a spastic mixed kid in this environment and just being like add and uh everything else i was very bored and i felt very out of place and i resent i bet and were you were you born there or were you born in miami

i was born in miami and then I was three, they moved up there. So really, I grew up there, but that I, I got the hell out of. So it was like, as soon as I turned 18, I went to college in Boston. Then moved here.

Oh, what? I mean, where did you get in trouble a lot? I mean, where are you? And also too, I mean,

is it, is it a racist place? I mean, as a, as a mixed get Florida. No, no, I mean, it varies from town to town. You know what I mean? Of course mixed get Florida. No, no.

I mean, it varies from town to town. You know what I mean? Of course, Florida is racist. I know. I know. Yeah. Yes. A lot of races, a lot of casual racism, just like hard R and bombs dropped casually in conversation. And you're like, well, you have Come again. You have to be like, is that normal?

But here's how it works. Yes. There's plenty of racism. The farther you went North in my County, the more, the more you stretch towards central Florida, the more Confederate flags and over racism, uh,

uh, you would see. So I moved to Boston for college. college i was like i'm sick of this racism i'm going i'm going to a place where there's not a single racist boston massachusetts let me meet a nice red socks fan that's it that is pretty funny like like well it, well, it probably did, you know, it was different, but it still made you feel like you were home. You know, it was like, there was just enough racism to make you comfy.

That's right. So, and you, it was, it was, it was, and it was very like, it's very segregated. It's very segregated by race and class. And I never felt like I fit in. Did your dad like it? Or was he just happy to not have his car broken into? I think he liked it. My dad has PTSD from Haiti.

And I think he liked being in this safe and predictable and boring. I think he just, he liked being in this like a safe and predictable and boring. I think he liked the board. He was like, this is like, he like grew up in chaos. This is, this is really kind of dark. When he,

when he moved to New York and he married my mom and they had a, um, and they had my sister, they were in Queens. And my mom got like strangled in an elevator by some psychopath. Oh my God. You didn't tell me this till later. This is kind of dark.

Sorry. This is like not off tone for you. It's okay. But, and my mom tells it very casually. She was like, it's New York. I grew up in New York.

Whatever. I went on the elevator. This guy comes in, he strangles me till I pass out. He just stole my purse. No big deal. They took me to the hospital, but nothing was wrong. You know, she shrugs everything off.

She's like, I've been mugged 50 times, whatever. So, but I think like my dad was like, I finally escaped Haiti. And then he turns around and his wife is being strangled. So he's like, fuck, I got to get out of here. So they like, and then he went to med school in the Dominican Republic, which isn't the safest place on earth. He's like, I got to get out of here. Then he and then he went to med school in the dominican republic which isn't the safest place on earth he's like i gotta get out of here then he went to miami in the 80s and it was like yeah and he's like i gotta get the fuck out of here like why can't i just find a place where there's not like my wife's not being strangled like there's not bullets

flying everywhere my house isn't getting broken into i think he was just like i need like i want a boring place get me the fuck i'm just like my dad's like very like bashed like quiet bookworm nerdy guy and he just doesn't like i think he never felt like he belonged in any of these places you got to give him that slack because it is like okay yeah all right that's yeah we get it because i i mean i have that i have that desire to live somewhere boring but that's just because i'm old now you know what i mean it's like as you get older you do just kind of be like what if yeah fancy restaurant seen it you know like can i how easy is it to park like that kind of shit becomes like okay all right yeah that's fine that'll do i feel like that now i'm turning 38 next week and i feel like that's about when it starts yeah where you're just

like yeah i'm like partied out yeah also hangovers last really long like remember when you were in your 20s and a hangover would just like last just the morning and you would get a coffee and a sausage, egg and cheese and you'd be back at the bar the next night. It's all hangovers and all day affair. It's like I have to plan the next day. I I went a couple of times. I went to work still tripping just a little bit. Like and I mean, moving furniture, you know, I mean, which is like not bad if you're tripping because you little bit like and i mean moving furniture you know i mean which is like not bad if you're tripping because you don't have to oh i thought you meant like oh no no no no no no

i was like i fucking knew it man no i don't want to know who's steve beshemi i found early on that um and i i mean i would never i would never trip and do a show, but I found out just from doing improv shows in Chicago, like a beer or a drink, okay. But like just even a little bit of weed fucking throws a wrench into all the works because all it does is make me question every word that's coming out of my mouth, you know? Yeah, no, it gets you in your head and the last's coming out of my mouth. Yeah, no. It gets you in your head and the last place you want to be when you're on stage. Yeah, and the worst part is it's a waste of weed. That's the thing. It's like, fuck, I could have saved this weed for after the show and enjoyed it rather than have it stress me out.

But yeah, that's the same thing. All that stuff, hangovers. that's that's the same thing all all that stuff hangovers like you know like just like now i don't even drink enough now to where i get a hangover because i just i can't like to wake up the next day and have a headache for six hours i'm like i'm furious at myself like you know no way yeah yeah and yeah you just age out of that yeah yeah and it's like i don't. Yeah. Yeah. You just age out of that shit. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, I don't want to, but my body's just like, oh, fuck you. Why did you poison me? Well, now, what do you think?

I mean, your mom and dad sound like, well, like opposites in many ways. I mean, aside from just the sort of like physicality of them, but just also it sounds like your mom's personality is not shy and bookish. Oh, man. How do I describe my parents? My mom looks like Fran Lebowitz. My dad looks like Arthur Ashe or like a dark skinned Colin Powell. And just to get a visual.

Now I'm picturing them doing it. I have video actually that I want to send you. And they've been divorced for 25 years. So it was really hard. Yeah. Yeah. They're married for 25 years. They've been divorced for about 25 years,

but they're still friends and they're both like very kind of nerdy and bookwormy and then that's kind of all they have in common they love politics and they love reading and then that's it and they're both they're both a little bit spectrumy or just kind of like the social interaction dial is like not totally like yeah right it's a little bit like oh yeah you know like a little bit too like left brain lopsided kind of like they're not completely in tune with the human language like just the sort of the entirety of the language of human interaction is that what you mean like out in public i mean i don't mean like to their children even so but

just like i i think it's i mean i'm diagnosing them and i'm not um a psychiatrist or psychologist some sprinkling of like Asperger's or a lot of Glazer told me a new term called neurodivergence. They barely understand, but they might have a little bit of like neurodivergent going on, but then both super academic. I don't know. They're strange to me. I'm still figuring out my parents they're kind of like mysterious was the divorce made easier by their kind of

lack of emotionality between the two of them or no i was actually i was blindsided by divorce they were just like they never fought they're very like uh conflictverse, but so much so that they don't like deal with their emotions in a healthy way. They just kind of like suppress them and they're quiet about them. And they just like, especially my dad, just like keeps it under the surface. And then one day he's like, I'm divorcing your mom. Bye. And I was like, what? You know,

I was 12. I'm turning 38. 26 years later, I still kind of have whiplash. Really? Wow. Yeah. So they are confusing to me. Yeah. They're confusing. I think my

dad kind of grew up in a very chaotic country and had to suppress a lot of stuff out of like a survival tactic, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. And probably I imagine when you go through that kind of childhood that he did, giving your,

giving your well-fed well-housed kid a soft landing because you're like it's just not in his makeup to be like i better make this easy on the kids because he's like well hey the kids aren't getting shot at it's you know yeah exactly i mean and also like my dad was very like aloof with me my sister wasn't like very involved he never like came to high school functions or like anything like that but that and we've confronted him about it over and over again but like he's like compared to his father he's like his dad like didn't even know he existed until he was like 20 and he had like big catholic family so he had like 70 siblings. I have like 10 million cousins and aunts and aunties and uncles. And just like, there's no condoms in the first half of the 20th century.

Yeah. No condom. Right. The Pope would kill us. Well, do you think, do you think you get part, like where, from out of that union, where does your sense of humor, like how do they produce somebody that, you know, whose sense of humor is as unique as yours, you know? I grew up kind of glued to television. And I didn't, I felt kind of out of of place but i was also very hyperactive and growing up in the 80s all that we ate for breakfast and lunch was sugar all they gave it was like

frosted flakes ninja turtle cereal apple juice orange juice capri sun orange slices this is like the first half of the day. It's just sugar. I'm not getting any nutrients. I'm bouncing off the wall. Then you got to school and school lunch was pizza and soda and chocolate. Yeah. Sugar, sugar, sugar.

Finally, when I got home from school and then we had dinner, I would have a salad like some food and that was like my only real nutrients of the day so i think like just my diet was all sugar i was hyperactive i felt out of place and i was just like glued to the television all the time and just like emulating every cartoon and every comedy show i was just obsessed with comedy yeah you know i went to music school obsessed with comedy and um just like trying to make my friends crack up at school.

I don't know. Now you did, you went to Berkeley in Boston, the School of Music. So you obviously were pretty, because that's hard. That's a hard place to get into. Used to be. I think back in like the 40s, 50s, 60s, when it when it was this elite jazz program, because it was one of the earliest jazz schools. And then I think in the 90s, they figured out, why are we elite if we just let any schmucky 18-year-old in who's got the cash? Let the floodgates open. Let's make some dollars, baby.

It was like a 75% acceptance rating. All I did was write an essay, get a couple of letters of recommendation from some high school teachers, and do a cool jazz solo on my bass. And they're like, yeah, come on in. And I was like, oh, man, I got in. And then when I got there, half the people there couldn't even read music. And they just like, most of my friends were not good musicians. They just grabbed the gas and come on in. They're just like suckering

18-year-olds into a dream of being a rock star. Then four years later, after your hacky sacks all exploded and you come out of a fog of weed in Jägermeister, you're like I just wasted $120,000

on jazz. On jazz! Mom, I spent all my money on jazz. A form of music that hasn't been relevant for like 100 years. And you're fucking 18 when you make that decision.

You don't know. And then you go to the workforce at 21, 22, and you're like, jazz was a bad choice. Oh, well. My resume just said doobie doobie doobie. Doobie doobie doobie. through the whole thing are you thinking like i'm going to be a jazz bassist or i mean you because you started doing some comedy stuff right the thing though yeah towards the end the whole experience was very like like a i i always called

it my quarter life crisis it was a it was a uh existential dilemma the whole all four years of college i was i was like in a band i think we by the time we finally got on our feet we played like three shitty open mics and never got anywhere but as i was doing these open mics i would see flyers for like you know open mic comedy night come on down to tell jokes and i i just like like i just had that spark i was like should i try it it seems terrifying yeah and until this day i'm still terrified of comedy every time i perform you've seen me on conan just flop sweating every time every day i could go on an audition for a non-union regional ham commercial and still be like oh fuck man did i fuck that up yeah yeah i'm just like i'm an anxious guy so but but i just tried it i just started doing stand-up towards the end of college you know boston is a very boston and

chicago they're both very like comedies comedy towns like like a lot of toronto chicago boston i feel like a lot yeah the early conan show is pretty much 50 50 chicago boston yeah in terms of the writing staff you know a few a few you know other geographies thrown in, but really Chicago, Boston. That makes sense. I think Boston, Chicago might have this too. It's like, I'm sure your writing staff was like that perfect tornado of neurotic,ive jews and irish catholics that just suppress and suppress yeah pretty close drink and suppress but that's what comedy comes from that that like catholic suppression and jewish neurosis combined too is like beautiful in a

writer's room it's like like bouquets of flowers you know that's my comedic metaphor right now that i'm abandoning as i'm saying like come out of that uh those two psychological uh dispositions but back to my story yes i just started doing um stand up towards the end of college and i fell in love with it. And I started filming prank videos around other colleges. Cause there's so many college. I would go to Boston university and do pranks there and go to BC and do pranks there. And,

uh, I just realized as I was graduating, like I should pivot and make comedy. I felt like if you were a great musician, a virtuoso guitar player or a brilliant songwriter, you would still potentially see a life of poverty. There was no rhyme or reason to the music industry. But if you were really good at comedy, you would find a job somewhere. You might not be a movie star, but you'll get like a decent gig somewhere if you're really funny.

So I felt like comedy made more sense. Yes, that was your fallback from jazz was comedy. Yeah, I literally, I go, dad, you know, as I'm like wasting all my parents' money on jazz school. I'm like, dad, you know, I'm finishing school. I got my degree in music, but I already quit. I'm getting into, and he's like, please say law school or med school. And I go, I'm getting into comedy. And my dad was like, holy cow.

He actually, when I first moved to New York as I graduated school, he talked me into taking the LSATs, and he paid for a tutor. He was like, I'm going to find you a tutor. You're going to take the LSATs. And I studied for six months for the LSAT. And I got to the test and I looked down at the Scantron and the doctor was like, if anybody has any other last questions before we get started, ask them now. And I just looked down at that Scantron and I broke my pencil in half and I got up and I just left. And I was like,

comedy for life. I went right to the tattoo parlor. I got that on my gums. Comedy for life. And then I was just like flat broke for a decade. You know what? I feel proud that I, because like right when I graduated, my mom, my dad were like,

pushed all my student loan debt to me. They were like, good luck. They just like took it over to me. And then finally, when I sold the Eric Andre show and I did season one of the show, I proudly called Sally Mae and I was like, here's your whatever $50, here's your whatever. 50,000 bucks back, lady.

I'm not a lady, sir. I proudly paid off my student loans and I felt like so. Yeah. I did it, man. I did it my way. Now, when you start doing stand-up, I mean, is there like, because so much of what you do, well, I mean, you know, you have people walk off your show because they don't know what the fuck is going on. And was that kind of aspect of making an audience say, wait, what is this?

Is this guy serious? What am I watching here? Was that? No, the audience i want on my side when i'm pranking somebody on my show the audience which is not like actually there we don't really have a live studio audience and for the air gandry show but you know the television viewer at home is on my side. I'm like, I'm lighting up the guests for their laughs. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not pushing the audience away in this weird, like, German avant-garde theater.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Andy Kaufman shit. I'm the opposite. I'm, like, begging the audience to like me. Yeah, yeah. I'm much less cool, much more pathetic. Yeah, but well, the things you do, you know, I mean, just a lot of the, you know, desk smashing and, you know, I mean, it's pretty confrontational stuff. So it's like, did you did you reach a point where you knew your audience would be with you?

Like, you obviously have to have some kind of trust in your audience and some faith and and you know and like some of the stuff that you do or do you just like are you doing what you think is funny and you know there's just enough people that share your sensibility i didn't know if anybody was gonna get it when we did the first season of the show. Yeah. And when we had that first episode, episode one Oh one up on its feet, I showed my buddy Zach. He was very like, he like doesn't bite his tongue.

I kind of showed him on purpose. Cause he'll, he'll tell me if something sucks. Yeah. And I'm really looked up from that 11 and a half minute episode. And he goes, the kids are going gonna love this one man and I was like oh that's a good sign and then I so I started feeling good and showing more and more people and then when we went on that first tour for the Eric Andre show I

remember telling myself like it's okay if you don't like sell out these venues like you're getting your start and I just read this article about like the first time this band at the drive-in played new york city like they were like we finally made it to new york man and they went in the venue and like they played for one they just played for the bartender like it was a completely yeah um so i was like there might be some shows like that but the first eric andre show tour we weren't playing the biggest venues ever we're playing these like punk rock, more intimate venues, but the whole, we did like probably 10 cities and they were all sold out, like lying around the line around the block.

That's great. And they were like, it was like my first real fan. Yeah. You know? So I was like, okay, I think I might be on something.

Like I think this is, and then, and then, you know, slowly but surely you start getting recognized at the bar and the restaurant. You become an egomaniac. You start being a maniac. Pushing the people closest to you furthest away. You know, I do want to go.

I want to go back because, like you said, you had that decade of being broke. And I don't people that aren't sort of, you know, that aren't in show business or aren't in comedy, you know, they, they hear people say that and, and, but I don't know if they re like, just, they realize like how, how it's like, it's one thing to be young and starting your career and broke, but it's like, I think there's something about show business because there's so few opportunities. Like it's, there's's it's such a seller's market when it comes to jobs that yeah it's it's kind of crazy like for a decade you waited and and what went through your mind i mean were there doubts you know there had to be i i just was full of piss and vinegar

and there's something about being in your twenties in New York city where you're just resilient. You can like survive off like four hours of sleep and drinking bourbon till 4. A.M. And like, like, like I said,

like the, the, the Dunkin' Donuts, sausage, egg and cheese can just like keep you going for like 12 hours. Like I, I was just like, I was determined. um i just i worked shitty day

jobs in cubicles and i tempt and i just like and i just would look around those offices and just be like i was like this can't be my life i won't allow it like a life life has to be enjoyed i have to do something i enjoy so i think i was just determined but i was fucking broke like i would go me and my buddy julio who also moved he was my high school friend we moved to new york at the same time i like rented out my i rented like i rented this apartment for six months with these other, like with the other high school buddy. And then like Julio came to town and I was like,

I'll give you my apartment. If you pay me, like pay me back the rent and I'll live off that money. And I'll just like couch hop. And I like, I slept outside in the park a couple nights, which was terrifying. And like, I would like do open mics and And I like, I slept outside in the park a couple nights, which was terrifying. And like,

I would like do open mics and ask the audience if I could sleep over after the thing, after the show and shit like that. I would like sleep over at people's houses that I barely knew. And we would like go, there was this place called Punjabi deli on first and first in the Lower East side. And they sold $2 microwave Indian food.

It was the cheapest meal you could get in New York. I lived off that. They would microwave it in the styrofoam. I definitely ate melted plastic in the styrofoam. This is pre-Uber. This is pre-smartphone. All the New York City taxi drivers

would eat there. It was just me and my friend, Julio, and 19 taxi drivers. And we would just be all eating this, the shittiest, like, like definitely. It was like eating like pollution from the ocean. Like fill your stomach.

And it was cheap. And I would get to like $2 falafels. I was broke. I was so broke. And I had like my shitty bike bicycle and i bike all sweat i was just like sweaty and like oozing toxins in your in your sort of moments of doubt i know i had them like this isn't gonna work i gotta do something else you know yeah i just sort of confront with like the death of my dreams and me having to be a

grown-up and i mean did you go through that and and what did what did you see your life being if because i also heavily relate to the i gotta have fun i can't sit in an office the few times that i had a job that was kind of an office environment i just was like i'm gonna fucking die in here i'm gonna be yeah i'm gonna like be addicted to every substance and be 600 pounds if i stay here you know what did you think you were gonna do with yourself if comedy didn't work out i i you know have to shamefully go back to jazz with your tail between your legs With my saxophone between my legs. I don't know.

I was like doing, I really enjoyed the standup comedy scene in New York and like the camaraderie that I had with my like circle of friends in the comedy community. So I think that kept me going. And I felt like good about my standup. Like my standup was, I felt like it was getting better and I was getting more comfortable on stage so I did feel like growth so that kept me going and then I did this like this um live stand-up comedy competition called NBC stand-up for diversity where they'd have all like the the people of color you know like up and coming POC comedians would like compete against each other for like a

chance to go to LA and perform in front of agents. That's what the man always wants. He wants to pit colored people against each other. That's what he's always doing. So I did that. And like, I got an agent that didn't do a goddamn thing for me for another 10 years. But,

and then I went back to New York and there was like, there was a little bit of forward momentum each year that kept me going. It wasn't like I was making any money, but like I felt like I was honing my craft. and then I made like a really the poor man's version sizzle reel of the Eric Andre show on my own dime when I was like 26,

27, and then sold it to Adult Swim by 28. So then I had a job, but that was like, I was just nearing like 10 years. Right, right. I would have like waves where I'd have like some I was just nearing like 10 years. Right, right. I would have like waves where I'd have like some money and then I'd like kind of go through it and then be broke. And then I'd get like a, whatever, I'd get like a, some fucking corporate gig or something.

I did a wireless, you know, or like, you know, allergy medicine commercial or something. And that would like give me my like 19,000 bucks that I would live off of for the year. Yeah, yeah. Plus temp jobs and stuff like that. So there was little fits and starts where I would see like a glimmer of some kind of career. Yeah. And I think that's very important. And for people that like are thinking about like, about doing this, you know, young people listening to this thinking that is, you know, there is the difference between toiling and obscurity and

toiling and obscurity with gradual progress that you can be honest with yourself and really truly see now what did your stand-up have the the pranks aspects of it or was that just that that was just kind of a side thing that you did when you started to do the do the tv show uh i was always doing pranks even back in the early days like as i was finishing school in boston i would film like crude hidden camera pranks that like were the kind of primordial ooze of the pranks that that went on the show um i don't even know if i have them anymore they might be on like a VHSC which is like a micro VHS

tape in my mom's garage somewhere but stand up no I was definitely like same point of view and that absurdist almost that like kind of chaotic 70s robin williams like just bouncing off the walls you know eve martin absurdity you know where i would i would i might

do things where i would like go out into the audience or like drag the audience outside and of like uh kaufman-esque um anarchy but uh not like pranks on stage yeah yeah yeah it's it ultimately i'm thinking is a dumb question because of course you can't prank people who are coming i was insulted when you asked me i was so sorry that was um uh bullshit actually i am so sorry well i do want to know i do want to know because there is you know you talked about the same sort of comic ethos is that that was in your stand-up that's in the show and there and a lot of what you do especially like in the beginning, it seemed like you, you, you know, you, you, you know, you sat out like you were doing your talk show. And the, like, it seemed like the first step you did was like to take an ax and chop away

at the very idea of a talk show, you know, like blowing up the desk every once in a while, being rude, being nude, being, you know, subdued subdued yeah yeah i thought you were rapping for a second only a second i can only do it for a second you are a gen z hip-hop i can only rap for a second and then i get real tired and fall down um but is that like where does that come from like is that is it a love of the form? Is it that the form is so I mean, played out? Because I know in 93, when we started doing a talk show, there was a lot of like, well, shows it wasn't like it's a amount of anger it actually came out of my love of mock talk shows i love face ghost i love um jiminy glick martin short when he did jimmy i loved ollie g show i loved it was like my show was like a derivative of a derivative not like watching i

wasn't watching uh steve allen or johnny carson like fuck them like you know what i mean like although that's not that that can be a very valid point to take but anyway yeah it came more out of like my influence of i just loved how bizarre and absurd space ghost was and how like the guests didn't even matter it was so like space ghost was like like self-absorbed and like arguing with uh zorak and like like i love that, the guests would just sit there and wait for them to be responded to. And it was so, so same with the Martin Short and Ali G show. It was like, I was more just like a sum of my influences than, than like speaking out against Jay Leno. You know what I mean?

It didn't come from that. But it's the oldest, it's one of the oldest television formats so it's like it's um a perfect template to subvert from yeah uh i think that like you know the news and the steve allen and and the tonight show are like just like in the American, like, they're just like in our bones, they're in our DNA. So it's like an easy, it's an easy structure to put my absurdity. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it also too, it is like, you know, when you look back on it and you, especially when you think about how you know, when you look back on it and you, especially when you think about how important it used to be,

like, you know, Johnny Carson would talk to Gina Lola, Brigida for three acts, you know, like, and that show was an hour and a half, I think like every night.

Uh, yeah, it's like hot. It's like high, high stats. So it's like perfect high status, uh, show, like perfect high status uh show uh high status construct to uh put me which is this like anarchic caveman into absolutely no it's like it's like the fancy party that you get to go like you know fall into the cake basically, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. And cause, and that is like, cause you know, having been on a talk show for a million years and I, you know, uh, having been around, you know, it's like lots of like paying homage to Johnny Carson. And I always am like, I don don't I didn't care about Johnny that was like what my grandma watched and even then not that much and I mean for me it was always David Letterman and the thing I like Dave about about David Letterman is like his bottom line was like look at how stupid this all is like look at how like this all of this means nothing you know and I so I you know what you're doing is saying like it more than means nothing i mean it's like it's from a different planet and it means nothing yeah

so yes um when this shows has have you ever been contacted by anybody to do like have they ever said like well do you want to do like a real interview kind of thing? Like, has anyone ever? Like a real talk show? Yeah, yeah. No, but I always like, I look at Colbert. And it's funny because he did a mock talk show in a sense, like Colbert Report. In character. Yeah, he was like, he was this bizarro Bill O'Reilly character that he created. And then he like, got David Letterman's job.

that he created and then he like got david lederman's job and he he had to like there was a moment where he had to like recalibrate like that first year he was like i can't do the fake bill o'reilly persona because that's yeah sense and i like saw how he like struggled and had to figure out like what is my new kind of like pov that's more me and i kind of like have fantasized about that i would be like how funny and ironic would it be that like later in life i was actually offered like a real talk show job yeah how would i cope with that what would i what would i do but maybe it would might not be that much different in a weird way. Like I wouldn't want to be balls to the wall. I mean,

like my show is like the, my pure id, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It wouldn't be that, but no, no one has offered,

but like something nice about having a consistent job rather than going out with like different acting jobs I like envy you and Conan and Letterman and Colbert like you just yeah no you don't have to worry about it like oh fuck I gotta memorize my lines for this thing

and it's a new movie and it's like oh I gotta like audition for that and it's like all over the place like there's something like your Oh, I got to like audition for that. And it's like all over the place. Like there's something like, like your body likes, I just read a short guide to a long life. Your body likes consistency. Yep. And like going to bed at the same time every night.

And like, I think that's what we evolved to do. So like part of me, I think would like take the job. Not, not that I'm being offered the tonight show or anything like when i did it i thought that thought has crossed my mind before and i was like i actually would take it especially if it was like later down the road i would like

i'm tired yeah 38 and i'm like exhausted so i can't imagine yeah yeah if i would i would want to like be bouncing all around i'm like flying out to south carolina to film something soon like i think i'd want to just like same time every day like i'd enjoy that can't you tell my loves are growing well now uh the movie you said it took four years to make. Seven. Seven. Seven years to make. Were you shooting those whole seven years?

Yeah, I would say the first three years kind of don't count. So, like, four years from when we, like, had a story that was more or less the story that stayed in the movie and went off the market and pitched it and got a bag of money from a company to make it that that was four years but it was three years of developing the idea yeah added to the before the four years that make it a full seven years but what was your question sorry i don't know i've never done i've never done press for a movie before i feel like run over by and i and it's been seven years so i've been i've had ins press for a movie before. I feel like run over by, and I, and it's been seven years. So I've been, I've had insomnia for a month leading up to today.

Like I cannot sleep. It's just, cause it comes out today. Yeah. It's coming out. Yes. I'm not right now. So like my brain is just like,

my organs are like grinding and just like, yeah, I feel like, um, and I've been drinking a little bit more in quarantine. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. All right.

Finally, you know, this is an intervention. Your mom's on the line too. Yeah. No, it's doing presses is it's the one thing that like, you don't even think about,

like you might fantasize about like giving interviews but then the actual reality of it is something nobody ever signed up for saying the same shit all day every day and i i i feel this pressure to be on you know and it's like it's like doing you're selling yeah it's like it's like doing a 12 hour stand-up comedy set every day for like yeah months like i'm just like i was like in bed and i was just like i couldn't sleep and i was just like i was making these weird like car noises like are you all right and i was just like yeah oh and i just like i was in pain that i couldn't describe and i was like am i getting sick and i? And I checked my temperature and I was like, I'm not getting sick. And I like smelling garlic to make sure I don't have COVID.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm just like, I hurt. Everything hurts. Yeah. It's the pressure of like the, just the anxiety of like, I've been waiting seven years. And you know, we're supposed to premiere at South by Southwest last year. So this was the, this was the depressing part of it. Supposed to finally

after six years last year, we're going to premiere at South by Southwest. We had the headlining. No, before that, we were supposed to premiere October 2019 at the Toronto Film Festival. We got in to TIFF. Hell yeah. Then the studio pushed it,

pushed the movie to Februarybruary because they saw some other movie that we weren't even fucking competing with that's i'll tell another day pushed it to february and then we go no we'll push to april so that we can get into south by southwest got into south by southwest headliner whatever like friday night like the prime time time spot we had a big prank plan for the red carpet a global pandemic after six years a global pandemic shuts down south by south i mean i was like five days away from flying to austin texas and happening like finally having this red carpet and like south by southwest that's the best audience yeah yeah yeah those like texan hipsters just fucking love comedy and music and like they're just they would have been the perfect audience to just been like howling at the movie

and just having that moment finally after like five seasons of eric andreus show and building up towards this movie and a global pandemic yeah shuts it down five days before i fly to Austin. And then the movie's nowhere. And then the theaters get shut down. It was supposed to be theatrically released. It wasn't at Netflix. Then theaters get shut down. And then the pandemic was supposed to be two weeks or whatever at first. And then it's like, did we say two weeks?

We meant two years, probably. So I was just... And then finally we sold it to Netflix. Cause it was like, it was in the graveyard for a second. Right. Of course. Yeah. We sold it to Netflix,

which is like the best venue in town, especially right now for quarantine. Right. And then, but Netflix, then Netflix was never giving us a date. And I was like, is this movie going to come out in 2023?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm used to Eric Andre show, which is an instant gratification, like late night or night show, but much quicker than seven years. Sure, sure. I'm like, I'm not even sure if I stand by some of these jokes and these pranks anymore. Like, comedy evolves every year.

Yeah, yeah. And the world is in a different place every year. Like, I shot this like four years ago. I don't even remember. I haven't seen the lock cut since we delivered it two years ago. So I'm like, wow. Wow. First time in a long time.

Yeah. So it's been an emotional whirlwind. Well, I think we found the greatest tragedy of the pandemic. I can't complain. I know, I know. It's the same thing. It's like, I can't, like, wait a minute. You got to stay home and you still did your TV show

and got paid for your TV show, mostly staying home. And then when you got really bored with staying home, you did your TV show from a theater that you've been going to for 20 years who you know and love everyone there like i have no room to complain it's been kind of like a nice break from just almost all responsibilities no but i mean but i'm i'm kidding but yeah that really sucks and i it mainly sucks because the movie and and I haven't seen it yet. I went to bed too early. I was like, I was going to watch it at midnight.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. But I was, but I was like, nah, I'll watch it later. Because I want to, I also, I want to watch it with my daughter because she's going to love it. Yes. I hope she's not seven years old because it is hard. No, she's 15. Okay.

It's hard R. It's hard R. And I mean, and probably one of the things jackass movies is probably like one of our like just it's like can't think of anything just put on jackass you're just watching all the jackass movies primal gut busting laughter yeah it's the funniest stuff in the world and they're hot too somebody goes you know what else jackass works i'd fuck every single one of those guys yeah when yeah it's always kind of like i my daughter asked once like why why do they always have their shirts off and i'm like because they look like that it's like if i look

like that i did my shirt off all the time too for fuck's sake if i look like bam margera i've been drinking so much i i have like pickled tits and jelly belt it's just like oh i know it's like a suckling pig i lost i lost 40 pounds 2019 yeah it was started out being stress pounds that i then sort of like turned lemons into lemonade and lost weight and then the pandemic hit and i was like i'm gonna climb into a loaf of bread and live here yeah uh and so i did and uh all that 40 pounds i found it again yeah it's impossible it's like that jerry steinfeld joke he's like you realize when you're an adult like i can go to the store and buy as many cookies as i want yeah and it's like terrifying like yeah you can buy as many cookies as you want and eat as many cookies as i want yeah and it's like terrifying like yeah you can buy as many cookies as you want and eat as many cookies as you want no one will stop you that's like yeah

like we're we're primates we don't have that much self-control yeah no no not at all nobody's gonna see me eating another two pieces of pizza yeah no one's gonna notice that i have i'm so bad with self-control i can't and it's so hard not to beat yourself up about it but sugar tastes so good i have a sweet tooth yeah i mean and uh it's a global it's a once in a lifetime global pandemic i think we have to my therapist is like i think we have to give ourselves a little bit of a break during a once in a lifetime global pandemic. Yes. I should say hopefully once in a lifetime, but like,

this isn't a normal thing. So crawl into a loaf of bread. Be kind to yourself. Yeah, be kind to yourself. You can't beat yourself up during this nightmare of Twilight Zone episode. Right. Well, where,

uh, what do you think, what do you think going forward? What's, you know, that this is the three questions. What do you think going forward for you? Did,

I mean, is it just, are you kind of holding your breath to see how the movie goes? And that's kind of, yeah. I mean, the movie coming out today, it's out,

uh, definitely want to see how the, the definitely depending on see how the, the definitely depending on how that goes, we'll, we'll shape a lot of things. Yeah. Um, in any direction.

So, uh, want to see this like wave of it throughout the next month, throughout April. Um, and kind of make that decision. I have a bunch of ideas. I have some hidden camera prank ideas, television ideas,

film ideas, scripted ideas, and I'm filming something over the summer. So after I'm done filming and also seeing how the movie did throughout the spring and summer, then I'll the movie did throughout the spring and summer. Then I'll, I'll kind of pick my head up and figure out the next steps. Is there, forgive me. I have a couple of things,

but I'm, I'm weirdly superstitious. I'm the most superstitious atheist I've ever met. I'm like, God. Yeah. Right. And then I'm like,

Oh, black cat. Run away. Magic lives. don't walk through that ladder well do you what about like in your personal life are you you know did you see yourself staying in la i mean are your kids in the picture no me me and my lady are talking about going to Mexico City post-vaccination. Oh, nice. Once we're

all shot up. She works in food and agriculture, so she's got half the spice in her. She's getting the other... Yeah, yeah. My friend's a big David Lynch's Dune fan, so he keeps calling him the spice. The spice. He just got the spice. The spice.

The spice. He just got the spice. But yeah, once we are free to move about the world, we're itching to get out. Yeah. I got my first dose this week. You know, it was like a weird thing where Gavin Newsom called production entertainment workers essential personnel, this week you know it was like a weird thing where gavin newsom called production entertainment workers essential personnel but they weren't really included in any of the official sort of

vaccine releases but then it just i mean i was getting it through production channels through ad saying you know there's a there there's enough vaccine out there now that people are getting back production people are getting vaccinated because they are technically essential personnel, like similar to, you know, Ralph's workers, you know, grocery store workers. So I saw, you know, I got tipped off and there's like a place, you know, like a chain of health clinics that was given it to production people. And so I went downtown and I found a bunch of syringes on the sidewalk. And I go, there's the freaking vaccine. This must be it. Wins not, want not.

Well, I've been taking your time. I've been taking your valuable promotional time that you could have been spending on entertainment tonight or something. No, I love talking to you genuinely. Oh, thank you. Me too. I was very excited that we were going to do this, so I'm very happy we got to. Yes. It's like, I mean, the majority of people I talk to are these like like Mario Lopez type guys you know what I mean so

yeah yeah so nice like chatting with you good is like you're so smart and comedic and I uh I value our friendship and I always run into you at restaurants yes that's right let's get to the third question what's the point of the Eric Andre saga what's it all mean what have you learned the saga of my life the saga of my life well you know just like what do you what do you think what do you think the point of what you've been through is you know i'm coming around to this i've been so work obsessed for the past 20 years trying to like make a name for myself to make a name for myself and make a career and get this movie out and get the show out and da-da-da-da-da. Everything's been work, work, work, work, work.

Now I'm in that existential crossroads where I'm coming up to my 40s and I'm like, I think I need more of a work-life balance. Because life is not all about work. Life is about life. Enjoying life. And I'm at a place now where I need to just go for a walk.

Or start an herb garden. Maybe that sounds a little like corny and pedestrian and maybe i'm letting my fans down because they want me to be this like hyperactive caveman 24 hours but uh i i'm i'm too work obsessed i'm like a a version of my dad my dad was a workaholic so like i need to um find the balance more yeah well that's a good yeah that's i mean you know and being a work in progress is always is always important you know i mean it's you know you you know that the time that it takes to bake your cake should be for the time from you're born to the time that you die you, it shouldn't like just be done and then you're done and like, well, no more growth, you know. So and aging does. I mean, I'm 54.

Aging makes you're just a different person. And in many ways, I think a better person, just calmer. Shit doesn't ruffle your feathers like it used to. There's a lot of stuff that seemed real important that you realize is not important at all and it's like a fucking delight to be able to say forget that bullshit you know um so yeah no that's that's it is really important inner youth yeah push push push and and you know and try and be famous try and be rich but then at a certain point that that just is like that just gives you a cushion so that you can discover yourself later i think so that you

can get to the important stuff later so well i'm i can't wait to see this movie i'm gonna watch it tonight and uh and i love you and i love what you do and I'm so glad I got to talk to you. Likewise. All right, everyone out there, watch Bad Trip, and come back next week, because I'll be talking to somebody else here on The Three Questions. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

I've got a big, big love for you. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco and Earwolf production. It is produced by Lane Gerbig, engineered by Marina Pice, and talent produced by Galitza Hayek. The associate producer is Jen Samples, supervising producer Aaron Blair, and executive producers Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf. Make sure to rate and review The Three Questions that Andy Richter on Apple Podcasts. Can't you tell my love's

a-growing? This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.