Netflix(NEW YORK) — Professional prankster and comedian Eric Andre found the perfect team for his new Netflix hidden-camera comedy, Bad Trip.
Andre, who enlisted good friend Lil Rel and comedian Tiffany Haddish to help him pull pranks on unsuspecting bystanders, tells ABC Audio that there were definitely challenges in using their familiar faces. Thankfully, he explains, they “had a whole plan in place.”
“Rel wore his hair and his facial hair like he never wore before. We had a specific costume for him,” Andre says. “Tiffany Haddish — we had face tattoos and cornrows and we dressed her like a construction worker.”
“I cut my hair down,” he continues. “So like a haircut, glasses, face tattoos. Those little things would throw off a lot of people and shake them off the scent.”
While a good disguise helped Andre and his co-stars to fly under the radar, the jokester says it was also important to stay away from his audience.
“My demographic is all like dudes under 25 years old,” he says. “So as long as we prank aunties and… soccer moms, I knew I wasn’t going to get busted.”
“Like anybody over 45 years old does not recognize me in the street,” Andre laughs. “So… they’re not college kids, they’re not frat boys, they’re all like tired moms.”
So what happens when someone does get recognized? Andre says they used special “code words” to escort people away and even flat out lied if necessary.
“One time this woman was like, ‘Hey, you look like Lil Rel Howery,'” Andre recalls. “And Lil Rel went, ‘Yeah, I get that all the time man. That’s crazy… I liked him in Get Out. He was great.’ And she totally [believed it.] She was like, ‘Okay…'”
Bad Trip is now available on Netflix.
By Candice Williams
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