Students filed into the Center for the Arts (CFA) in packs beginning at 7 p.m. on Nov. 20, to see a comedian renowned for his surreal and unconventional comedy on “The Eric Andre Show.” Around 8 p.m., the show opened with a set from David Gborie, who some may recognize from his stand-up, or from his work as the voice used in Comedy Central commercials.
His set began with commentary about the current political climate; he then shocked the audience by informing them that Jack Daniel’s Whiskey was invented by an enslaved man, and then won the crowd over by making jokes about this being the reason for the drink’s low quality. Gborie then partook in some crowd work and discussed his own upcoming marriage, and how he has had to learn conflict resolution the hard way. Unfortunately, when Gborie got to a section about generational differences, the audience had arguably one of their most uproarious responses to a “6 7” reference, to Gborie’s dismay.
Then, the moment Gborie’s set ended, Eric Andre peaked out from behind a curtain, and the crowd erupted into applause. Starting off strong —and shouting— Andre purposefully knocked over the microphone stand and launched into rapidfire jokes about conception. Andre’s stand-up section began with jokes ranging from lewd to lewd, and he even made a comment alluding to the fact that he might be using old material. He then started doing a physical comedy bit about the television show “Cops,” and pointed out the inappropriate choice to have a jaunty reggae theme song for a show about police brutality.
After that, Andre began indulging in the prank comedy that made him famous. He asked audience members if he could message their moms, and then had multiple audience members hand him their unlocked phones so that he could do so. Using the autofill function, he sent cryptic texts to multiple students’ mothers, and would then pick up any phone calls that would follow these bizarre texts. Andre would not tell the mothers on the phone that they were being pranked, and the audience squirmed in their seats with laughter as they awaited the results.
The mom's responses ranged from cooperative to outraged; one mother teased her son as Andre made fun of the student, and another mother reacted with confusion and came to her daughters’ defense as Andre accused the student of being drunk. Then, one phone call turned sour, as a mother reacted with fear, and began swearing and threatened to call a “sergeant” on Andre, who, again, would not explain that this was all a prank. Through all of this awkwardness and discomfort, Andre would continue the phone call for as long as the person on the other end of the phone would remain on the line. His commitment to the bit was shocking, but audience members couldn’t help but laugh even as the calls might’ve gone too far.
Throughout the set, Andre would jump from stand-up jokes about past flings back to his prank calls to random mothers. Eventually, when the show came close to the end, Andre presented clips of past “street pranks” and allowed the audience to ask a few questions about his work. Of course, none of the audience members had relevant questions, and every question was a joke in itself.
Closing out the show, Andre asked for more volunteers, but this time for a challenge onstage. Pulling out three large bottles of ranch dressing, Andre asked his volunteers to chug the entire bottle of dressing. Audience members chanted “chug, chug, chug” and eventually a winner was declared when his bottle was turned upside down and not a drop came out. Thus concluded a lively night in the CFA.
Student reactions were positive as people filed out of the auditorium. One student, Hope Corrao, a junior majoring in communication, had nothing but positive things to say, even though she was one of the volunteers — or victims — during the prank call section. She even said that her favorite moment of the show was when Andre “took my phone and he texted my mom and he texted my sister as well.”
“He’s so funny, I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” she exclaimed.
Corrao’s reaction seemed to be representative of many smiling audience members’. Whether or not police were called, it’s safe to say that Eric Andre’s visit to UB was a success.
Nadia Brach is the senior features editor and can be reached at nadia.brach@ubspectrum.com
