How to Party with Andrew W.K.

Yesterday I was able to attend the first taping of Andrew WK’s upcoming TV show, How to Party with Andrew WK, set to air on Adult Swim. I’ve been a fan of Andrew’s for a while, I’ve seen him speak at NYU in 2006 and invited him to speak at Northeastern in Boston this past summer, so I am familiar with his supremely positive outlook on life. I was also a fan of his old show on MTV2, Your Friend Andrew WK, so it’s good to see that he’s getting his positive outlook back to the TV masses again.

Upon walking into the venue that he co-owns, Santo’s Party House, I admit I was somewhat giddy and had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that his show was to be a talk show but without “celebrities” and “advertisers” and I guess stripped down to be more “real.” So we get seated onstage and the first thing they did was announce Andrew WK and had him do his introduction. Of course being the intro to the show, we had to go wild clapping and yelling for Andrew. This got exhausting by the third or fourth take, but it was still fun and it’s always interesting to see someone improvising and then finally seeing what is used in the final version that airs.

Me all the way on the right

After getting the intro down, it was on to the interviews. Indeed he didn’t interview celebrities, since the first guest was someone from The Wire, a show I have never seen nor know much about. Apparently the guy plays Bubbles, a crack addict. The next guest was Dan Deacon. Definitely not a celebrity, but he’s pretty well known if you like to read indie music blogs, and I enjoyed his interview. He included some audience participation at the end of his interview which was fun, integrating something that he does at his shows. The next three interviews were just with regular people. A cool idea, except these people were pretty boring, odd (not in a good way), and not really that excited to be there. Seriously, had they picked me I would’ve had the best conversations with Andrew ranging from partying ’til I puked to telling Andrew what it’s like to be a girl (something he asked the NYU student being interviewed). So producers, if you’re looking for more INTERESTING people to interview, send me an email, I’m available at any time! After the interviews, Andrew played a quick song or two for us on the keyboard which was fun, and then came around and shook everyone’s hands and thanked them for being there. As we were getting our coats he came out and took pictures with people which was nice, so I got to talk to him for a minute, and (insert fan moment) he remembered me from when I booked him at Northeastern (“I thought you looked familiar!”), so that was cool.

I’m excited to see the show air on Adult Swim, whenever that may be. Perhaps the first taping was off to a rocky start, but it can only get better from here! Once I know more info I shall definitely post again!

(All photos but the last one from Stereogum.)