The Emmy-nominated comedian shares the injuries he’s sustained on ‘The Eric Andre Show,’ his hopes for the Adult Swim series and what he’s really like in a conversation with PEOPLE
For Eric André, getting injured is all in a day’s work.
Over the course of six seasons of The Eric Andre Show, the comedian, 41, has sustained a number of injuries.
“It’s pretty common,” Andre tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, recalling a season 5 episode where John Cena hurled him through a shelf.
“I got through the shelf okay, but we forgot to sandbag the shelf — the frame of the shelf — so the metal frame tipped over and knocked me in the head. I got a concussion and went to the hospital.”
Another time, Andre accidentally thrust his hand through a window while filming a prank in Brooklyn.
“I was trying to hammer the window, but my whole hands went through,” he says. “It sliced me up, and I had to get stitches. I had to go to the hospital for that.”
Entertaining as his pranks are, they’re just part of what makes The Eric Andre Show one of the wildest, most entertaining shows on TV.
The Adult Swim comedy, which satirizes the decades-long talk show format, has hosted dozens of celebrity guests, including Jon Hamm, Jimmy Kimmel, Natasha Lyonne and Tinashe. Andre’s jokes can at times veer into NC-17 territory, but the comic insists that even now, his guests “have no idea what they’re getting into.”
“Even if they did thorough research, they watch every episode, they’re super fans, once you sit in that chair, and explosives are being detonated, and flying African hissing cockroaches are coming out of my coffee mug? It doesn’t matter how prepared you are,” he says.
“We’ve gotten it to the point where it doesn’t matter how prepared you are,” the comic continues. “Once the torture begins, everybody’s going to react in a genuine way. We don’t ever want people playing along.”
Andre’s special brand of comedy has earned him two Emmy nominations this year, one for outstanding performer in a short form comedy or drama series and another for outstanding short form comedy, drama of variety series. When he received the news from a Comedy Central employee, Andre tells PEOPLE he was “over the moon.”
“We’ve been doing the show for over 10 years, so to even just get the acknowledgement of the nomination [is amazing],” he says. “But I get a little superstitious about this stuff. I’ll celebrate if I get one of those trophies in my hand.”
Whether or not Andre snags the statues at the 2024 Emmy Awards on Sept. 15, he still has high hopes for the show’s future — and would love to one day have Ghislaine Maxwell on as a guest. “She’s got stories to tell, man,” he explains.
Elsewhere, Andre also aspires to do an entire episode “underwater,” stating, “I think it’d be majestic and surreal.”
When he’s not working on his show or performing stand-up comedy, the entertainer leads a balanced life that seems like a far cry from his frenetic onstage and onscreen persona.
For one, Andre prioritizes his mental health by journaling, exercising every day, getting 6 to 8 hours of sleep and going to therapy “multiple times” a week. He also has a passion for interior design.
“I think people just think I’m nuts,” he admits, adding, “People come over to my apartment, and they expect a junk pile, but I’m a total neat freak.”
Andre also brings attention to serious topics from time to time. On Aug. 20, he uploaded an Instagram post with a video discussing a troubling stopover at Melbourne Airport in Australia, where he said he was racially profiled. In addition to requesting a security escort through Melbourne Airport, Andre asked his social media followers for leads on discrimination lawyers.
“I don’t want to cut my hair and wear a three-piece suit so that I’m treated like a first-class citizen,” he said in the video. “I shouldn’t be made to feel that I am unaccepted by entering a country.”
