Eric André Live Near Broadway (2024)

Starring: Eric André, Billy Porter, and Juelz Santana
Grade: A-

Did you know they’re remaking 9/11 with an all-female cast?

Summary

After a quick intro where fans at each stop of his tour talk about how excited they are in seeing Eric André live, the show begins just as it would in any episode of The Eric André Show, with Eric running out to destroy the set. At the same time, he splashes the crowd with unknown substances and throws stuff at them. As you would expect, the audience loves every minute of it. As The Fridge Keeper appears onstage (a guest host introduced in the final episode of Season Six of The Eric André Show), Eric runs into the crowd and sprays a water gun at them. After he crowd surfs, he does his classic “I don’t have anything else planned for the show” joke before the guy he has play Reese Witherspoon shows up onstage to thunderous applause. Next is the monologue, and he gives the crowd cue cards so he can read the jokes from there. It’s a great bit, and the jokes are so cheesy, it’s hilarious. Following this, Witherspoon suggests Eric do something sexy, so he invites a random audience member onstage with him. They tie the guy up and André feels him up, caresses him, motorboats him, whips him with a belt, feigns peeing on him with a realistic prop, humps him with his pants off, and finishes the bit by asking the crowd if they want to see the guest ejaculate. As the audience cheers, they put a curtain in front of the two to cover their lower halves, Eric acts as if he’s jerking the guy off, and they have a stage prop shoot a semen-like substance into the crowd. Naturally, they’re loving it as only Eric André fans could.

New York’s own Billy Porter is the first guest. Once Eric goes through made-up Tweets of Porter’s to get a rise out of him, they get him a beer to chug, and he fails. Then, Eric gives him hot sauce to take a shot of, but he spits it back up because of his acid reflux. As this happens, we cut to footage of a crowd member doing the shot of hot sauce and most of it gets in his eyes. Next, they give Porter coffee mixed with wine to drink. He drinks it but won’t stop complaining. The two take turns playing dizzy bat, and out of nowhere Eric leads them all into singing “Silent Night” while a video of Homer Simpson fucking Marge shows up on the screen behind them. Eventually, they move back to their seats and have playful conversation before Eric makes a joke that they’ve been putting ketamine in their assholes backstage, prompting Porter to admit that he’s got ketamine in his pocket at that very moment, and he shows it to the crowd to prove it. A security guard pukes onstage (Eric passes this off as him hiring the security from AstroWorld) and tries to hug Porter, but he refuses. Then, Eric uses another classic bit from his show by asking his guest to set up the video for everyone that he’s apparently a part of, but it’s actually just a video of a cow giving birth. It’s funny every time. Following this, he gives the Grim Reaper a rim job and shows off the brown smudges on his face to the crowd. Using this as a good transition, Eric asks Porter to meet him halfway for this and kiss the Fridge Keeper. Porter leans in, but the Fridge Keeper spits an unknown substance all over him.

The final guest of the show is an audience member who is chosen, Ryan. Eric initiates the conversation by cutting his table with a chainsaw and when they talk about Ryan’s software engineering degree, Eric leads everyone to laugh and scream manically as a response. Following a joke about Ozempic, Eric gives Ryan and some of the nearby audience members hand sanitizer before revealing it’s glue. Showing how he doesn’t give a fuck, he pours it into his mouth and washes it down with hydrogen peroxide. After he baits Ryan into saying he’d fuck his own mom, he does a whip-it and then holds a Kiss Cam for the crowd. Then, he does a Calculus Cam, but the girl can’t solve it when she’s given a notebook, so Eric pukes and everyone goes nuts. Naturally, this transitions into Eric asking if Ryan has an ex-girlfriend. Her name is Emma, and they broke up over him basically being broke. Believing in second chances, Eric asks to text Emma from Ryan’s phone, and he agrees.

Big mistake.

Eric rambles in the texts by picking anything that shows up on the predictive texts, and it turns into him saying his dad is in a hospital and he needs a picture of Emma’s hair. Funnily enough, she responds in seconds out of concern, sending a picture of her hair after asking if he’s okay. He has Ryan bob into chocolate pudding and subsequently accuses him of donning blackface before telling him to sit his “black ass” down. Following this, Eric facetimes Emma from Ryan’s phone, explains how Ryan is apologizing for how he treated her, and how he is asking for a second chance on his behalf. To the shock of everyone, she shows that she’s with another guy at that very moment. Pivoting, Eric asks if Ryan can instead jack off while watching them have sex, and she agrees to this. Everyone cheers as this was practically a marriage proposal, and Eric closes the show by bringing Juelz Santana onstage for no reason. The last few shots are of random audience members destroying more of the set, and Ryan in a post-show interview taking his “L” in stride and saying, “Fuck it”.

My Thoughts:

To say the least, watching this comedy show live and in person must have been loads of fun.

The enigmatic comedian furthers his case for being the quintessential comedian of Generation Z with his one-of-a-kind brand of cartoon chaos, nihilistic approach to entertainment, and welcoming the bizarre in all of its forms. If you love the anarchy and unpredictability of The Eric André Show, you will love Eric André Live Near Broadway. I don’t mean this specifically because Eric continues his specific brand of humor for this stage show. I say this because this special is essentially a live production of an episode of The Eric André Show. The progression of the show is set up in the exact same way with the intro, monologue, random people and interruptions thrown in-between two guests, and an out-of-nowhere finish all following one after the other. If you’ve seen every episode of the Adult Swim talk show, you’ll even notice Eric repeating some jokes and bits, though the live crowd appreciates this regardless as if he’s already become a legacy act like Jerry Seinfeld. In some ways, he kind of has with this generation. Even though some of these bits I remember vividly, I still found myself laughing at the same stuff like when Eric calls My Big Fat Greek Wedding “My Plus-Sized Mediterranean Civil Union. Going along with this, the tour seemed to promote Season Six specifically. He’s wearing the same clothes he wore throughout the season, the Fridge Keeper character is there, and the energy fits exactly what the last two seasons were molded out of.

The crowd interaction was top notch. Clearly, they are well aware and appreciate the comedic stylings of Eric André and they react exactly how he wants them to. From screaming their heads off like he announced his presidency when he throws the mic stand down after saying “Vladimir Pooping” instead of Putin, to uproariously cheering in unison when he asks the crowd directly, “Who wants to see this guy ejaculate?”, the fans are in on the joke and are a huge part of making Eric André Live Near Broadway as funny as it was. It made the surprise finish with Facetiming Ryan’s ex-girlfriend a hysterical climax to the show.

Though I understand wanting some sort of celebrity guest, Billy Porter was awful chemistry-wise. He was too comfortable and kept talking over Eric when he was trying to get a reaction to his punchlines. It’s as if Porter was trying to steal the show, and it got annoying quick. Despite being some random guy in the crowd, Ryan was an infinitely better guest than the veteran actor. Being the experienced performer he is, Porter should know when to read a room. Unfortunately, he didn’t even attempt to and tried to upstage Eric and doing so in the most unfunny ways possible. Thankfully, Eric is a master and is able to rope everything back together with his nonstop bits throwing Porter off.

The fake Tweet about Porter saying he would do the exact same thing as R. Kelly if he was in his shoes was absolute gold too.

Eric André Live Near Broadway is fucking hilarious. Though I’m a huge fan of the comedian, this isn’t me being bias. Genuinely, this is a laugh-out-loud special that is a great representation of the star and why his brand of comedy is so much fun to watch unfold. In addition, his ability to control a live crowd while keeping the show moving at a good pace and making sure the energy matches it is very impressive. Admittedly, heavy-duty editing helps the pacing of the special just like how his talk show is, but even if we don’t know the exact minute-by-minute details, Eric André is still a very funny host who gives you your money’s worth as a headliner. Eric André Live Near Broadway is a small sample size of how much fun he is, but I assure casual fans that you will find something to laugh at because of how outlandish and creative this special and his humor can be. There’s nothing like it.