ERIC ANDRE
Eric Andre
At the Republican National Convention in July, Comedian Eric Andre strolled into a pro-Donny Trump rally, camera crew in tow, to interrupt a fiery speech by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones, who espouses a theory that the U.S. government was responsible for destroying the World Trade Center, spotted the wavy-haired troll easily: Andre was competing for the crowd’s attention by tapping audience members in the face with his microphone. Jones took the bait and invited the comic onstage. He called Andre a Democrat. “I’m a nihilist,” Andre corrected, and brandished his hotel key. “I want you to have sex with my wife,” he told Jones. Before security dragged him offstage, he screamed to no one in particular, “Who put the bombs in Tower 7?!”
“Nihilist” doesn’t quite describe Andre’s streak of anarchism, which can be found on his cult TV series “The Eric Andre Show,” premiering its fourth season Aug. 5 on Adult Swim. Andre’s stunt at the convention, of course, is part of the new season. Accompanied by deadpan sidekick Hannibal Buress, Andre plays the clueless maniac host of a public-access, late-night program, a bizarre alternate dimension where he strips down naked and smashes his own set. He chats with D-listers (Sinbad, muscular has-been Dolph Lundgren) and A-listers (Amy Poehler, muscleless weed-smoker Seth Rogen), all of whom he inevitably manages to offend. In other street pranks, Andre lunges at pedestrians while wearing a green bodysuit. He punches focus groups critiquing his own show. It’s a seat-of-your-pants skewering of talk-show conventions, a “Between Two Ferns” with a healthier budget.
When Andre brings his Florida Tour to Respectable Street on Aug. 3 and Gramps on Aug. 4, it will be a homecoming of sorts for Andre, a Boca Raton native who graduated from Addison Mizner Elementary School and Dreyfoos School of the Arts. Longtime fans will notice his standup is no less bizarre, with routines that tackle the use of Jamaican music on the TV series “Cops” and feeling sick after watching the film “Precious” in 3D.
Eric Andre will perform at 10:30 pm Aug. 3 at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach, and 9 and 11pm Aug. 4 at Gramps bar, 176 NW 24th St., Miami. EricAndre.com.
~ Phillip Valys
