Andy Kindler is Back

Andy’s back and bet­ter than ever. And we tru­ly mean that. He’s bet­ter than ever because he stayed home the entire­ty of the COVID lock­down. So much so that his role Mort on Bob’s Burg­ers was record­ed from a home stu­dio and his State of the Indus­try pre­sen­ta­tion at Just For Laughs Mon­tréal was deliv­ered (à la Tupac) by hologram.

We’re thrilled that Kinder is mak­ing his long-antic­i­pat­ed return to Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val. You’ll get plen­ty of chances to see him on show­cas­es dur­ing Club week­end of Moon­tow­er. He’s also plan­ning to pre­pare for the tap­ing of his sec­ond spe­cial, so you’ll still get your chance to watch him pre­pare the spe­cial at The Andy Kindler Hour. Final­ly, you’ll get to see the Andy Kindler Par­tic­u­lar Show, which he curates.

I’ve sat across a table with him for our orig­i­nal inter­view in 2018. I’ve watched in utter delight to him on Para­mount The­ater’s stage with his long-time friend Tig Notaro. I’ve chat­ted with him via Zoom for his return inter­view. I can say with­out ques­tion that Kindler’s fre­net­ic pace of think­ing is authen­tic. He’s noth­ing if not con­sis­tent when it comes to jump­ing from hap­haz­ard thought to hap­haz­ard thought. It’s charm­ing and also mild­ly alarm­ing, but he knows it’s a lit­tle bit of both. Kindler – appro­pri­ate­ly – shares ​“I have nev­er learned not to overshare”. 

Said over­shar­ing ten­den­cies are evi­denced by the shar­ing of names of comics and humans he’s not a fan of. I went so far as to ask his man­ag­er if I should edit those names out, and we both laughed because, after all, this is Kindler we’re talk­ing about. A com­ic, a leg­end, who spent years roast­ing fel­low comics as part of his JFL (RIP for now) State of the Indus­try isn’t about to stop roast­ing oth­ers after a career that spans near­ly 40 years. I was­n’t going to do the math because as evi­denced by this inter­view, Kindler does­n’t take too kind­ly to math, either. Noth­ing is sacred.

Kindler had orig­i­nal­ly planned to record his 2^nd spe­cial as part of the 2024 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val, but decid­ed he’d sim­ply prac­tice and take it easy for his return to Austin. He plans to record the spe­cial lat­er this year and we can’t wait. Hence the Humor, his debut spe­cial released 29 years into his career is an incred­i­ble time cap­sule of Kindler’s. His pac­ing is rapid-fire, the direc­tion, well, it’s a bit all over the place (but that’s what you expect), and you sim­ply can­not tell if some­thing is a bit, or if he is tru­ly caught off guard by ele­ments in the room. No spoil­ers (but head over to our review of the album).

Lest you think that Andy only thinks about Andy, he was charm­ing dur­ing our Zoom chat. Ask­ing for my take about the Austin com­e­dy scene, and going so far as to sug­gest I start a new spin­off pod­cast called ​“Math and Cof­fee” (lis­ten to the episode for con­text). I’m not sure if that will work with my usu­al com­e­dy audi­ence targets.

If you’re weren’t mak­ing plans to watch him at Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val, it’s time to revamp your sched­ule. For all the big things Kindler does (Bob’s Burg­ers, Tosh.0, Com­ing to the Stage, Last Com­ic Stand­ing, etc), Kindler is per­son­able, charm­ing, and nev­er flouts just how much of a big deal he is. Which is exact­ly why we can nev­er get enough of him. 

Fol­low Andy

• Web­site — andykindler​.com
• Twit­ter — @andykindler
  
• Insta­gram — @andykindlersuperstar

Andy can be seen and heard:

• Andy’s 2024 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val Shows (sub­ject to change)
• Bob’s Burg­ers — voice of Mort
• Tosh.0
• Com­ing to the Stage — Hulu, Sea­sons 4 and 5
• Last Com­ic Stand­ing — NBC Sea­son 7
• Com­e­dy Cen­tral Presents — specials
• Hence the Humor — 2020 Com­e­dy Special
• Thought Spi­ral Podcast