Unorthodox even for its own genre of talk-show parodies, The Eric Andre Show is insane, exhilarating, surreal and chaotic.
And so is the process of creating it, from the frantic two-week writing period to the actual production which at times results in Eric André needing stitches in the emergency room. So, how does André, the show’s host and mastermind, deal with such anarchy?
“I used to be really hard on myself, like, ‘Oh, I should really only sleep four hours a day and work 18 hours a day, and skip lunch and all this stuff,’” Eric André recalls.
“I rarely would go to therapy, but in therapy I learned that I need to take care of myself. My human needs need to be met first.
Eight hours of sleep, three meals a day — don’t skip lunch — meditate twice a day, and exercise.
I’d rather have an eight-hour workday that’s very productive than a 12-hour workday where I’m tired, I’m anxious, I’m angry.”
To keep going in the middle of the extreme situations André’s go-to tool against stress is Transcendental Meditation (TM).
“I was having bad anxiety. High stress,” André recalls the times just before he started TM.
“It changed my life. I started booking auditions. I sold the show. I was going up onstage and performing,” he says.
“There’s a reason that all these [studies] come out that say, ‘What do the most successful CEOs and highest-paid moguls have in common?’
I think that life is stressful and it helps you cope with stress better than anything else I’ve tried,” André explains.
So, every day André retreats to his office on the set of his show, places a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign on the door and practices TM.
As a testimonial to the importance of Transcendental Meditation for him, André stopped his interview with Grantland, saying: “If I want to meditate, I have to go soon.”
Despite the increased balance and calm that TM brings, André’s work is just as disruptive of the status quo as ever, a paradox which brings to mind the words of David Lynch: “The thing about meditation is: you become more and more you.”
WATCH VIDEO: Eric André on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sources:
“An Agent of Chaos With Ranch on the Side. Eric André is the chillest un-chill person on TV,” Inverse
“The Peaceful Madness of Eric André,” Grantland
