‘Man Seeking Woman’ Star Eric Andre On Improvisation And Channeling ‘D-bags’

Eric Andre is one of the stars of the FXX series Man Seeking Woman, a quirky comedy about an awkward, 20-something guy named Josh trying to find Miss Right in all the wrong places. What makes Man Seeking Woman a bit different from other shows with a similar theme are the surreal elements, such as going on a blind date with a troll. That’s literally a troll, not a troll in the metaphorical sense. And finding out your ex-girlfriend is dating Adolph Hitler. Literally Adolph Hitler.

Andre, who plays Josh’s buddy Mike, sat down to a media conference call to answer some questions about Man Seeking Woman and his character, starting with how one can describe the show to those who haven’t seen it.

“It’s not easy. I say cartoon come to life. I say John Cusack rom-com mixed with a Salvador Dali painting. I say the Meg Ryan movie You’ve Got Mail on Peyote. It’s a psychedelic rom-com.”

So far Mike acts as a sort of the devil on Josh’s shoulder, giving him somewhat questionable advice. Will his character ever get on track and help his friend find true love, or will Josh forever be a Man Seeking Woman?

“I think so, with time. In the last episode, we saw some softer sides of Mike. Towards the end of the season, the subtle nuances of Mike’s character will come out where he’s a bit of a walking contradiction. He has a softer; or he’s in touch with his feminine side more than we think, eventually.”

Given his character’s somewhat questionable dating advice on Man Seeking Woman, Andre was asked what Josh sees in having Mike for a friend, as he even describes his character as a “cocky chauvinist sociopath.”

“That’s a good question. What do I think Mike sees in Josh that most people don’t? I think there’s an inner playboy in Josh that Mike is trying to channel. They have a Mr. Miyagi – Ralph Macchio kind of relationship sometimes there I think he’s trying to change. He sees potential. He thinks Josh is like the young grasshopper, and his flower is waiting to blossom like a Georgia O’Keeffe painting.”

Andre, who also stars in The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim, says he does a lot of improvisation on Man Seeking Woman, mostly from personal experiences with less than likable characters from his past.

“I improvise a lot, and they actually end up using some of the stuff I improvise. The character I take from all of the biggest douchebags I grew up with in Florida and I channel them and put them into Mike… I think it’s just pure id, and I’m just pulling from all the kids I hated in high school.”

Man Seeking Woman airs Wednesday nights on FXX at 10:30 p.m. ET.

[Photo by Michael Gibson/FXX]