Comedian Eric André might be infamous for torturing celebrities to appease his audience but really he’s a romantic at heart.

“[Valentine’s] is a way for Hallmark to sell cards and flower shops to sell flowers,” André told Double J’s Tim Shiel while on holiday in South Korea.

“But you gotta lean into the corniness and cheesiness of holidays. Yeah, I make eggnog on Christmas morning.

“Suffering is when you resist what is. So I say lean into it.”

Unexpected words of wisdom from a guy who once vomited on his desk and then ate it in order to get a rise out of The Hill’s Lauren Conrad.

But that’s part and parcel with André, the physical embodiment of the duality of man.

Who one day is posting a possibly postcoital snap with one of the biggest supermodels on the planet and the next is starring in Trolls Band Together as John Dory, the former leader of Brozone.

Like André says, just lean into it.

Chaos on a massive scale

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of watching an episode of The Eric André Show, imagine being spun around in a hall of mirrors that also doubles as a haunted house. That’s pretty close.

For six seasons on Adult Swim André has tortured guests like Seth Rogan, Demi Levato, and Jack Black for even daring to appear on his warped version of a talk show.

André has toured Australia before, as a part of a solo comedy tour but now he’s bringing the whole Eric Andre Show down under (no reports yet on how many desks he plans to break while he’s here.)

But how do you bring some of the show’s more minute jokes and visual gags to an arena environment? According to Andre, you go bigger than ever before.

“The larger the venue, the more you have to fill the space. The stage is like a wide shot. So everything has to exist, you have to play for the back of the theatre,” André says.

“I’m trying to bring the same chaos and anarchy of the television show but to a live experience. And it can’t be the subtler jokes, it has to be the jokes that work in a wide shot, like big, bombastic jokes.”

And in bad news to anyone that bought tickets in the front few rows, “It’s a lot more audience interaction,” André laughs.

A music fan from way back

It might not be obvious from his oeuvre but before André turned to the world of comedy, he was a musician.

Andre studied upright bass at Boston’s revered Berklee School of Music and his love of music, particularly live music, has influenced his own shows.

“Kendrick Lamar’s show was very fleshed out…very 21st century and each song had its own aesthetic and set of rules and choreographed dances and visuals,” André says.

“He has like probably 100 times the budget I will ever have access to but yeah, he blew me away. I was on a good amount of ecstasy at the time too. I was shelving pingers, as you say in your country.”

Andre also divulged a love of Australian artists like King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and rapper Briggs — just don’t ask him to give you his favourite album.

“With Spotify, and anything else online. I couldn’t name a single song title or album title. No matter how much I love the band,” André laughs.

“You could hold me at gunpoint and I wouldn’t be able to tell you the title of any of my favourite songs.”

The Eric André Show Live hits Melbourne tonight before moving onto Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth next week.