TRANSCRIPT Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: Eric Andre

[00:00:00] Music: Gentle, trilling music with a steady drumbeat plays under the dialogue.

[00:00:01] Promo: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

[00:00:13] Music: “Huddle Formation” from the album Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team—a fast, upbeat, peppy song. Music plays as Jesse speaks, then fades out.

[00:00:21] Jesse Thorn: It’s Bullseye. I’m Jesse Thorn. At this point in his career, Eric Andre is almost a household name. He was in that last Jackass movie. He made a prank movie of his own, called Bad Trip. If you haven’t seen that, it is hilarious. He even played Azizi the hyena, in The Lion King. He is also the host of The Eric Andre Show. It was his first big project, starting in 2012, and it’s coming back in June on Adult Swim. The Eric Andre Show is a talk show, but it is almost a reverse talk show. By which I mean this: usually the point of a talk show is to make guests comfortable. Eric Andre’s greatest pleasure seems to be to make those guests squirm or make the audience squirm.

Great talk show hosts are always in control, and Eric Andre always seems to be veering off a cliff. I talked to Eric Andre a decade ago when The Eric Andre Show was brand new. At the top of every episode, there’s a montage of Andre literally deconstructing his set, destroying it with his body. Also eating glass, spitting blood, just sort of freaking the heck out while a jazz combo plays the show’s opening theme song.

[00:01:46] Sound Effect: Music swells then fades.

[00:01:47] Clip:

Announcer (The Eric Andre Show): Ladies and gentlemen, The Eric Andre Show!

(Cheers and applause.)

Music: The band kicks in with a rousing, brassy, upbeat number.

(Eric Andre screams nonstop as he tears the set violently to pieces. The band plays on, unphased. Crashing and smashing sounds punctuate Eric’s screams.)

Eric: FIRE HANDS! AAAAH! (Screams, animal growling, and smashing.)

[00:02:23] Sound Effect: Music swells then fades.

(They laugh.)

[00:02:27] Jesse Thorn: Okay, Eric Andre, welcome to Bullseye. It’s great to have you on the show.

[00:02:29] Eric Andre: Heeey, thanks for having me.

[00:02:31] Jesse Thorn: So, this is like a defining characteristic of your television program—you flinging yourself into things and physically hurting yourself and destroying… everything around you. (Chuckles.)

[00:02:42] Eric Andre: Sacrificing my body for comedy. Laying it out on the line.

[00:02:51] Jesse Thorn: Where did this—where did this part of the show come from?

[00:02:55] Eric Andre: I don’t know. I think—I don’t know what like the spark of inspiration was. I was like a big—I was a big GG Allin fan in high school and like I was into Jackass and the CKY videos that those guys made beforehand. And I was into Bad Brains and just like going to punk shows and stuff like that. So maybe from that? I don’t know.

[00:03:20] Jesse Thorn: Had you ever done it on stage before you did it for the pilot of the show?

[00:03:24] Eric Andre: Yeah, I did the show live. The first time I did this show, my friend had—a comedian friend of mine had a residency at this place in Tribeca, in New York, called—I think it was called The Tank. And for February—he’s black and he did like a Black History Month comedy residency for the month. And that was one of the—all Black performers. So, he had like a—I got to debut the show, the live show there in 2008. And everybody there was just kinda doing standup and doing their thing. And then I came out and destroyed the whole stage and poured ketchup and mustard down—I had like a bikini bottom on. I poured ketchup and mustard down my pants,

[00:04:10] Jesse Thorn: (Laughs.) Ketchup and mustard are also big characters on the television show!

[00:04:14] Eric Andre: Yeah. There’s this performance artist, Paul McCarthy, who does a lot of stuff with ketchup and mustard. And there’s like a lot of homages to him throughout the series. He’s awesome. If you can ever find any of his videos.

[00:04:28] Jesse Thorn: I mean, when you do this on—when you did this on stage—for television, I presume you have—you know, this isn’t a huge-budgeted television program, but you’ve probably got a prop master or whatever that’s called.

(Eric confirms.)

A guy who’s in charge of like sawing a little notch into the table so it breaks particular—or it breaks in a particular way.

[00:04:47] Eric Andre: Yeah. Yeah. Our art department’s awesome. They’re the best.

[00:04:52] Jesse Thorn: When you’re on stage at a comedy theater in Tribeca, there’s probably just regular stuff on the stage.

[00:04:58] Eric Andre: Oooh, yeah. I like sliced the bottom of my foot open at the beginning of the show, and I had no idea. I had like so much adrenaline going, I had no idea ‘til way after the show. I looked down. And like all this (chuckling) blood was in my shoe, and I was like, “Oh my God, when did I—? I don’t even remember doing that or when I did that.” But there was no—when I was doing it in those days, there was no—it was just me. So, I was just like, you know, shopping at Kmart the day of, buying all like the ketchup and mustard and all the props and stuff. And nobody at the venue knew what I was gonna—I didn’t wanna tell anybody at any venue what I was gonna do, ‘cause they would say no. So.

[00:05:44] Jesse Thorn: (Laughs.) I mean, what it feels like when—and you can tell me if this is—if this is actually true. What it feels like when you do that on the television show is your character on the show is so uncomfortable, so nervous, doing such a terrible job overall that it feels like a—it feels like an expression of stage fright. Like it feels like something that is—

[00:06:13] Eric Andre: Yeah. It is. Totally. It’s all nervous energy. People ask, like—I did Jimmy Fallon, and I was like jumping all over the place, and somebody tweeted like, “Did this guy do a mountain of cocaine before he went out onstage?”

And I was like, “No, I’m just so nervous until—” I like hyperventilate my way through life. I just have kind of—it’s just like life is just moments between panic attacks. So, it’s just coping with my nerves. That’s why my standup’s really high energy and I’m really loud and stuff like that, ‘cause I’m just terrified. (Chuckles.)

[00:06:44] Jesse Thorn: Have you always—have you always been that way?

[00:06:47] Eric Andre: Yeah. Always. I slept in my parents’ bed ‘til I was 10 years old. I was just nervous. I thought aliens were gonna zap—beam themselves into my closet and abduct me, ‘cause I saw Fire in the Sky when I was like a little kid, and it like affected me. I couldn’t watch Chucky or Friday the 13^th. Plus, in the ’80s, there was just like a slew of horror movies. Horror movies just like got in a groove, and my friends were constantly watching them. And I’d watch like five minutes of them, and I’d just be a nervous wreck.

[00:07:14] Jesse Thorn: Where did you grow up?

[00:07:15] Eric Andre: Boca Raton, Florida.

[00:07:00] Jesse Thorn: Oh, Boca Raton. I’ve been to Boca Raton! Beautiful country. (Chuckles.)

[00:07:19] Eric Andre: Yeah. Yeah. Where old people go to die. It’s God’s waiting room.

[00:07:25] Jesse Thorn: How did you feel about living in Boca Raton when you were a kid?

[00:07:28] Eric Andre: Uh, you know, when you’re a kid, you’ll live anywhere. You don’t—you’re kinda like oblivious. I mean, once you—once I became a teenager, I realized that it’s like the most lame, boring place on earth. I had no idea why my parents chose to live there.

My mom’s from New York, and I was just like itching to get out of there. But I don’t—I think it made me appreciate like cities and places with culture more, because I was such—like, I was in such a bland, homogenized town.

[00:08:00] Jesse Thorn: Did it make you appreciate madness and destruction more?

[00:08:06] Eric Andre: Uh, maybe, ‘cause I was so bored. My friend—my buddy, Devin, used to do vandalism night with his friends.

(Jesse laughs.)

Every Thursday they’d go out and knock over mailboxes. And like graffiti schools and stuff like that.

[00:08:20] Jesse Thorn: When I think of, um—when I think of, you know, junior punk rockers—people that grew up loving GG Allin, I don’t necessarily think of—you know—city kids that go to galleries with their parents or whatever. I think of kids who are just so stultified that they gotta just explode on something.

[00:08:41] Eric Andre: Yeah. I think that’s what it is. Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe if I grew up in New York, I’d be like a boring dork. Which I am now. (Chuckles.)

[00:08:51] Jesse Thorn: One of the great parts of The Eric Andre Show is your interplay with Hannibal Buress, who is your sidekick. And you are, as we described, as nervous and active, and yell-y as a person on television can be. Probably more than a person on television can be.

(Eric laughs.)

Hannibal, just as he is in his day-to-day life—at least when I’ve interacted with him—his scale of activeness/intensity goes from about—goes from zero to maybe three out of ten.

[00:09:28] Eric Andre: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that’s why he’s the best co-host. It’s like the perfect odd couple relationship. And I knew—he’s been part of the show since the very beginning, since I like was doodling sketches of the show, you know, on my laptop. He’s always been a part of it—years ago, for five years I think I’ve had the idea.

So, I just knew he was perfect because he’s just like on the—he’s very creative and on the same wavelength as me, creatively. He is kind of out there, and he had his own point of view and personality, but he’s just like polar opposite in energy. So, I thought he’d be perfect. He’d ground the whole show. I could be even crazier, because he’s there, and he’s like the voice of reality and speaking for the audience, and he’s just perfect.

[00:10:17] Jesse Thorn: It’s Bullseye. I’m Jesse Thorn. My guest, Eric Andre, is the host of The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim. Here’s a bit from this show. It’s in the mode of the traditional, crazy newspaper headline segment of a late-night TV talk show, but it’s a little bit different as Eric shows a variety of newspaper headlines, including one that that looks like it might be in Arabic.

[00:10:39] Sound Effect: Music swells then fades.

[00:10:40] Clip:

Eric: It’s time for some wacky newspaper articles!

Music: The band breaks out into bright, exciting horns, then finish.

Eric: Okay, what have we got? (Clears throat.) Killer’s maps lead to victim’s remains. What are we, on a scavenger hunt, folks?!

(Sad trombone sound effect.)

Hannibal: It’s a dark story, man. And you know what? I don’t know if you should talk about it like that.

Eric: Look at this one. Pastor’s daughter struck as gun accidentally goes off. Hey, guys, at least we can leave church a little early and catch the rest of the football game, am I right, fellas?

(Rimshot.)

Hannibal: I don’t know if I like being associated with this.

Eric: Ooh! What do we got here? (Makes nonsense noises.) I can’t understand a word of it!

(Applause, rimshot.)

It’s like hire a proof-reader, guys! Come on. Let’s be a little professional. (Laughs.) Just riffing.

Hannibal: We should be writing instead of riffing.

Music: Thoughtful acoustic guitar continues under the dialogue.

Eric: This show?

Hannibal: All of it.

Eric: What do you mean?

Hannibal: This is pretty lowbrow.

Eric: Oh, is that what it is?

Hannibal: Yeah.

Eric: Hey, remember when I did those jokes before?

Hannibal: Yeah.

Eric: (Censor beep) tight, right?

Hannibal: No, I just told you that I didn’t like that.

[00:11:50] Sound Effect: Music swells then fades.

(They laugh.)

[00:11:57] Jesse Thorn: I almost get scared for you when you do something on the show that’s very wrong and then Hannibal describes that it is wrong.

[00:12:09] Eric Andre: Yeah. That’s why we can get away with it. ‘Cause he’s the—he’s the voice of reason.

[00:12:14] Jesse Thorn: It’s an intense—it’s an intense situation. When he says—when he says, “That’s a dark story.”

[00:12:19] Eric Andre: (Laughing.) Yeah. He, uh—can’t do the show without him.

[00:12:27] Jesse Thorn: We’ve got much more to get into with Eric Andre, stay with us. It’s Bullseye from MaximumFun.org and NPR.

[00:12:34] Music: Thumpy rock music with a syncopated beat.

[00:12:38] Jesse Thorn: Welcome back to Bullseye. I’m Jesse Thorn. My guest is Eric Andre. He is a comedian and actor who has starred in Bad Trip, The Righteous Gemstones, and Man Seeking Woman. He’s also the genius behind the sketch comedy talk show, The Eric Andre Show. That program kicks off its sixth season on June 4^th. You can catch it on Adult Swim. Let’s get back into our conversation.

Tell me about how you brainstorm the ideas for these sort of uncomfortable deconstructions of what happens on a talk show.

[00:13:15] Eric Andre: We had a week of where we hired some creative consultants, some fantastic writers. We got Tommy Blacha, the creator for Metalocalypse. We got Derrick Beckles, who made—have you ever seen TV Carnage?

(Jesse denies.)

This guy made a—there’s like five or six volumes now of a mixtape of the worst television ever. It’s like a masterpiece. It’s amazing. And he’s got a new show coming out on Adult Swim. Um, Dan Curry’s my old writing partner, Lizzy Cooperman, very funny comedian, Josh Fadem. Eric Moneypenny. Ellie, who worked at Abso Lutely. She was a writer’s assistant. And Hannibal, obviously. Yeah. All comedians, comedic writers. And we—I had a bunch—I had this idea for so long. I had like a million ideas too, but I wanted to flesh out the ideas I had and come up with new stuff.

So, I think this is definitely the bit—what we just played is definitely one we came up in with in the writer’s room. But they were the best. They were like the best group of people to brainstorm with.

[00:14:32] Jesse Thorn: Let’s talk about your process of creating this show.

[00:14:34] Eric Andre: Yeah. I don’t know where the first—where the first idea was. Maybe it was six years ago. I remember the first time I pitched it to somebody was December of ’06. I, uh—

[00:14:47] Jesse Thorn: What were you pitching then?

[00:14:48] Eric Andre: I—it was the ramblings of a madman. I had like an 11-page—maybe like a 10-page script. No, I don’t even think it was a script at that point. Maybe. I can’t—actually, maybe—I pitched it to my manager first, and she was like, “Okay, you need to flesh it out more.”

So, I wrote it, and I sent it to her. And she still didn’t quite get it. And then, that’s when I knew I needed to film it. And then I pitched it to this woman, Damona Resnick, who was the head of the NBC Standup for Diversity program. It’s a—I don’t wanna say a competition, but um, you know, you go all the way to the finals in your city, then you go to the national finals in Los Angeles. And they flew me out. I went all the way to the national finals in Los Angeles. They flew me out. And it was me and eight other comics, and we performed for industry—it was like—it becomes—it turns into a—it’s an industry showcase, essentially. So, I pitched it to her, and she told me kind of what I was already thinking, like, “You know, you’re gonna have to do this live or shoot it on your own.”

And so, I started doing commercials and saving up some money from the commercials I was doing. And I got a couple friends of mine, and we rented out this little, abandoned bodega. And we shot like a seven-minute demo reel, in 2009. And I had to teach myself how to edit and Final Cut, which took me like a year of playing around with it.

[00:16:14] Jesse Thorn: So, what did you—what did you care about—? Why did you care about this particular thing enough to not just pay for, you know, making a little pilot presentation with your own money, but also to not wanna have just a guy you know, who knows how to edit video edit it for you?

[00:16:30] Eric Andre: I would’ve loved to! I ran out of money shooting the—shooting the thing. Like, I had to pay for the bodega we rented out, all the props, the equipment. I paid for all of it. So, I would’ve happily paid an editor, but I was just broke. I capsized my—I capsized my bank account paying for production. So, I was like—plus there was such like a mass—just like this blob of footage. And like barely anything was like written out.

Like I knew like if I gave it to an editor, it would’ve been a frustrating process. They wouldn’t have known what to—like what I quite wanted. And it was like very specific and nuanced. So, I was like I have to do this on my own. I have to just man up and do it on my own. So.

[00:17:18] Jesse Thorn: What did you want? What was your vision?

[00:17:21] Eric Andre: Uh, it’s pretty close to the original demo. I mean, like the only thing we had in the—yeah, what you’re seeing now is pretty much my vision. What got cut, we had sketches originally, just sketches completely out of character. It became—it was way more variety show than talk show, and the network really wanted a talk show. They haven’t had a talk show since Space Ghost. I think they just did sketch with Tim and Eric, so they were just like—they really wanted to get away from sketch and get back into talk show. They were—they were excited about that. So, that was the only thing that got ditched.

And how I played my character—I was a little more cartoony and more of a caricature in the demo reel. And the network wanted me to dial that back and kind of ground the show and be a little bit more myself. Which in the long run is great, because I think the show would’ve been too crazy. I look at the old demo reel and cringe at some of my performance.

[00:18:27] Jesse Thorn: I mean—I have a hard time imagining you dialing something back into what you have now.

[00:18:31] Eric Andre: Well, dialing back by just the way I would perform. Before, it was—I can be as crazy as I want, as long as it looks like I’m genuinely crazy, and it’s coming from a real place. Before, it was like sketch comedy and a little cartoony and mugging and winking at the camera. It’s like a subtle—it was just that—that’s the difference. I can be crazy just as long as it’s like it’s coming from a real crazy place. Uh, yeah. I completely forgot what I was gonna say. Did I answer your question? I don’t even remember what the question was. (Snorts.)

[00:19:12] Jesse Thorn: You have guests on the show, including both real celebrities.

(Eric agrees and clears his throat.)

And occasionally—I was just watching an episode in which you introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it was Bruce Vilanch, the comedy writer, famous for writing jokes for all of the entertainment—the Hollywood Award shows—riding in on one of those scooters.

[00:19:45] Eric Andre: Rascal.

[00:19:46] Jesse Thorn: (Chuckling.) A Rascal scooter and just yelling, and then running you over with the Rascal scooter. So, tell me about—when you decided to make this a talk show, you have all these crazy off the wall elements, but then there are parts that are a talk show. So, how do you gauge what works in that context of you sitting at a desk and someone sitting in a chair, even when you’re feeding it to the audience in 90-second/two-and-a-half-minute chunks?

[00:20:18] Eric Andre: How do we gauge what?

[00:20:21] Jesse Thorn: What that is gonna be.

[00:20:23] Eric Andre: We don’t know. It’s all experimentation. I mean, you never know. And some of the—some of the bits you’re most excited about are total duds and some of the bits that you’re like, “Yeah, we can do this bit last minute real quick,” those turn out to be the best bit.

Like we got a bit called Touch a Stranger’s Hand Day, where I just sit at a bus stop and I put my hand lightly on a stranger’s hands, and they react. And I wrote that bit on a cocktail napkin and cran, you know what I mean? That was such like a last—not a last-minute bit, but just like, “Uh, yeah, let’s crap this out in the morning, and then move on and shoot six other things.” And that bit got such a huge response.

Anyway, circle back to your question. You don’t know. Uh, it’s all experimentation. We shoot each one of those interviews for like 45 minutes, and we whittle it down to 90 seconds. So, you’re seeing the best selects out of a 45-minute marathon interview.

[00:21:21] Jesse Thorn: We’ll finish up with Eric Andre after a quick break. When we return: how uncomfortable can a talk show be? Well, Eric Andre has spent the last decade searching for the answer. He’s a bold innovator with an uncompromising vision, and the set of his show is very, very stinky. He will give us his stink tips in just a minute. It’s Bullseye for MaximumFun.org and NPR.

[00:21:48] Music:

Music: Cheerful rock music.

Jordan Crucchiola: I’m Jordan Crucchiola, the host of Feeling Seen, where we talk about the movie characters that make us feel seen.

Marissa Flaxbart: And I’m the show’s producer, Marissa. Jordan, you’ve interviewed so many directors, actors, writers, film critics. And I like to play this little game where I take a sip of coffee every time someone says, “That’s such a great question.”

Speaker 1: That’s such a fabulous question.

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Speaker 2: I think that you are rather brilliant.

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Jordan & Marissa: (In unison.) When they cry unexpectedly.

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Jordan: Feeling Seen comes out every Thursday on MaximumFun.org. Listen already. What are you waiting for?!

Marissa: Jordan, that’s such a great question.

(Jordan laughs and the music fades out.)

[00:22:32] Music: Thumpy rock music with a syncopated beat.

[00:22:37] Jesse Thorn: I’m Jesse Thorn. My guest is comedian and actor Eric Andre. He’s the creator and host of The Eric Andre Show. It returns for its sixth season, June 4^th.

What’s it like when you have, you know, a person who is a—you know, genuine celebrity? I was just watching Tatyana Ali onstage with you, and you are acting like a crazy person.

(Eric agrees with a laugh.)

Do you prep them? What, how—to what extent do you prep them?

[00:23:10] Eric Andre: We prep them as little as possible. Like we gotta be diplomatic about it. We can’t have people running back to their publicists. But we want like genuine fear and genuine confusion coursing through people. ‘Cause we don’t want—

[00:23:25] Jesse Thorn: That’s what every talk show host wants, isn’t it?

(They chuckle.)

[00:23:27] Eric Andre: Yeah, we want like the opposite of a comfortable experience, and we want them to be genuinely uncomfortable so that they’re not playing along or mugging for the camera. Because then it will just turn into sketch comedy, and nothing will be at risk, and it won’t feel dangerous. We want them to be—we, like—we had this thing called the hot seat. We had this hidden heat duct that linked up to the back of Hannibal’s chair, and we had carpeting over it so you couldn’t see it. And when the guest would sit down, we would turn it—for certain guests, we would turn it on so that they’d be sweltering, so that they’d just be like really hot and like slowly heat was like pumping into the—into the chair.

We also had—we also did the meat seat where we would put like old clams underneath the chair so that it would just start reeking. We’d have the art department like sneak—like throw old clams underneath the chair during the interview while the guest wasn’t paying attention, so that it would just like stink in the—in the studio and it would just be like unexplained. So, we wanted, like palpable—

[00:24:29] Jesse Thorn: Those are things that you can’t, necessarily—you can’t see directly on television. I mean, I like that you have meat seat as a name, as though it’s a bit that you’re doing on the show. But it’s not! (Laughs.)

[00:24:38] Eric Andre: Yeah. No, no. We had a lot of things—we had a lot of—

[00:24:42] Jesse Thorn: That’s just a weird thing that you thought of to torture a celebrity.

[00:24:45] Eric Andre: Yeah. No, yeah, we were just torturing people. It was really sadistic. We, um—

[00:24:49] Jesse Thorn: Celebrities who, by the way, are generally being quite sweet about the whole thing.

[00:24:52] Eric Andre: (Chuckling.) Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, we thank everybody afterwards; we send them flowers—which maybe that might be even more psychological torture, but—to be really nice and send people flowers afterwards. But that was like the only way to get like—that was maybe not the only way, but the best way to get a genuine performance out of people, just to make—just to ensure that they wouldn’t play along or mug for the camera or, you know. And it was just more fun that way. With the George Clooney impersonator, we had wardrobe put thermals on under his turtleneck, so he’d be sweltering. And we were pumping the heat seat, and we made him do the coffee challenge, where he slams like an entire Big Gulp of coffee.

And then right after that—which got cut, which didn’t make the edit—he slams a tall boy of Red Bull right after that. So, he was like jacked, and in the interview it’s like played out of order, but like he did all that stuff at the top. And then we made—he doesn’t do standup. We made him do standup right at the top, which is one of the most nerve-wracking things for a performer. So, we just wanted him to like be completely in full panic attack mode, which is my homage to panic attacks in general. So, yeah. So.

[00:26:09] Jesse Thorn: What I wonder is if you are trying to take off—I mean, the George Clooney impersonator, a less professional performer, but still a professional performer. But you know, Tatyana Ali is a slick lady, and you are trying to recreate in them some something that you are feeling.

(They chuckle.)

[00:26:27] Eric Andre: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. You know what? We told her—at the beginning I was like—I was like, “You know, I play like this insane, rude, inappropriate talk show host. The show kind of exists in its own universe. I’m just playing a madman.” That’s pretty much—that’s the speech that we give people in the green room. And then I’m just like, “And do whatever you want.” Um—

[00:26:56] Jesse Thorn: No mention of the clams under their seat, though.

[00:26:58] Eric Andre: No mention of the clams under the seat. We also don’t mention to people—she told me afterwards that the thing that made her most uncomfortable—they think it’s like happening in real time, like a real talk show.

So, they think the interview’s five to ten minutes, max. You know, not even. Eight minutes, max. So—but the interview just goes on endlessly. It’s like one giant 45-minute take. So, that also makes the guest really uncomfortable, ‘cause they’re just like—they see no end in sight. It’s just like this endless barrage of madness. So, yeah. We try to tell every guest very little, because we want all the—we want everything to be a surprise. You know what I mean? So, you know.

[00:27:40] Jesse Thorn: Here’s the thing. Your show is—your show is in part produced by  the folks who make the Tim and Eric show.

[00:27:46] Eric Andre: Yeah. It’s their production company. Absolutely.

[00:27:49] Jesse Thorn: Tim and Eric’s show is—you know, they’re very popular comedians with a show called Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job, among others. And their comedy always feels to me like it is one step—it is discomfort as portrayed from one step back. You know? That it is—it’s that kind of discomfort that you get when you watch an industrial film that’s poorly acted or—you know, you see something that just seems a little weird and wrong.

[00:28:19] Eric Andre: Totally.

[00:28:20] Jesse Thorn: Your show has plenty of discomfort, but it feels like it’s coming from inside you.

[00:28:26] Eric Andre: Yeah, no, it is. That’s a good observation. It absolutely is.

[00:28:31] Jesse Thorn: And it also feels like you’re trying to impose it on everyone around you.

[00:28:35] Eric Andre: Yeah, yep! Totally. It’s just a—just a cloud of discomfort emanating from my (with a New York accent) core. Um, but Tim and Eric were great. Working with that crew is the best, because they had all these tricks that they learned from Awesome Show. There’s a trick—I actually shouldn’t say what the code—we have a codeword for when we roll cameras on people when they don’t know, when they think we’re just setting up some lighting or stuff like that. And we’ll use a lot of that footage, because you will get people just sitting in the chair. Like, we got one guy like notice his fly was down, and he’s like zipping it up. Or like kind of subtly picking their nose. Stuff like that where they don’t think the camera’s on. I’ll like use those as a like a response. We’ll like work in editing later. (Laughs.) So, uh—or we’d film rehearsals and use that as the take because people are not in their performing mode. They’re like sitting in a chair looking at the sides. So, we learned a lot of stuff in them.

[00:29:36] Jesse Thorn: So, why—when you do all of these things, why are you not a terrible person? (Chuckles.)

[00:29:40] Eric Andre: Oh, I am a terrible person. I’m going straight to hell after the show.

(Jesse laughs.)

But I will sacrifice my afterlife for this show.

[00:29:50] Jesse Thorn: Well Eric, thanks for joining us on Bullseye. It was great to have you.

[00:29:52] Eric Andre: Thanks so much for having me. Was I just like the boring—most boring guest you ever had? I don’t know. I’m so—

[00:29:58] Jesse Thorn: It’s gonna be delightful.

[00:29:59] Eric Andre: I’m really dialed down today. I don’t know if I should have been hamming it up or shutting—

[00:30:04] Jesse Thorn: We edit this all down to 90 seconds.

[00:30:05] Eric Andre: (Laughing.) Okay, great! There’s, uh, clams, rotten clams under my chair. Perfect.

[00:30:11] Music: Bright, chiming synth with a syncopated beat.

[00:30:19] Jesse Thorn: My conversation with Eric Andre, recorded in 2012. The sixth season of The Eric Andre Show is on Adult Swim on June 4^th. If you’ve never seen The Eric Andre Show, you owe it to yourself. It’s really something special.

(Music fades out.)

[00:30:40] Music: Upbeat, fun synth plays under the dialogue.

[00:30:42] Jesse Thorn: That’s the end of another episode of Bullseye. Bullseye is created from the homes of me and the staff of Maximum Fun, in and around greater Los Angeles, California. Here at my house, the big news is I just found a nice dentist who takes my insurance, and he’s only one neighborhood away. Which is basically a flawless victory.

The show is produced by speaking into microphones. Our senior producer is Kevin Ferguson, our producers, our Jesus Ambrosio, and Richard Robey. Our production fellow at Maximum Fun is Bryanna Paz. We get booking help from Mara Davis. Our interstitial music is by DJW, also known as Dan Wally. Our theme song is “Huddle Formation”, written and recorded by The Go! Team. Thanks to The Go! Team. Thanks to Memphis Industries, their label.

Bullseye is on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. You can follow us in any of those places. And I think that’s about it. Just remember, all great radio hosts have a signature signoff.

[00:31:38] Promo: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

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