Three quarters of the way into his show — a debauched performance in which he reminded the audience of their parents’ sex lives and reveled in President Trump’s “Mario starpower” — comedian Eric Andre needed a phone.

He wanted to play a game where he’d text the mother of a student using only options on the iPhone’s predictive text keyboard settings, and responding to any incoming messages in kind.

Communication freshman Jacqui Touchet volunteered to help.

“All my friends were like, ‘Do it,’ because I’d been texting my mom before the show so I knew she would be awake,” Touchet said. “My mom’s pretty chill so I knew she wouldn’t freak out or anything.”

She subsequently watched her mother respond to Andre’s repeated incoherent messages and then appear on FaceTime in front of a sold out crowd at Cahn Auditorium.

“She loves that kind of stuff,” Touchet said. “She thinks it’s funny being the mom that my friends like or whatever so I’m sure she ate that up. She was very into it.”

At the A&O Productions’ Fall Speaker Event, Andre entertained the sold out crowd in his own way, with a range of personal anecdotes like getting high with his mother. The comedian, famous for his work in “2 Broke Girls” and the self-titled “The Eric Andre Show,” has long been known for his eccentric comedic style.

A&O speakers chair Syd Monroe said Andre’s wacky style made him an interesting person to bring to campus. The Weinberg senior said Northwestern’s student body is a good fit for any comedic voice.

“Northwestern’s got a really great sense of humor,” Monroe said. “Eric Andre isn’t your classic vanilla standup. It says a lot about Northwestern that the show sold out because he’s kind of a niche comedian. The people that love his work love his work. I don’t think it’s gonna be basic standup.”

Andre started his routine with anecdotes about seeing Tupac’s hologram at Coachella and taking MDMA. From there, he moved on to topics of greater substance, like his views on the War on Drugs.

“The war on drugs is bulls–t, man,” Andre said. “It’s a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. It allows cops to arrest black kids four times as much as they do suburban white kids. It’s old racist, Nixon-era bulls–t.”

Andre was sincere about his past experiences, and said some of them inform his views on social policy today. He pointed to the “civil disobedience” he practiced in Amsterdam to support his view that prostitution should be legalized.

Among the show’s standout moments was a monologue by self-described bit-person Mary Hardy, who shared a story on when she walked in on her parents. The Weinberg junior and Andre spoke in front of the crowd for five minutes, riffing off of one another.

“I love him,” Hardy said. “I think he’s the funniest person in the world. He’s just f–king with everyone so I enjoy it.”

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