ANIDOM BEYOND EXCLUSIVE Interview: Host Andy Richter On What It's Like Hosting From Home

Fans of the animated comedies that air in the Sunday night Animation Domination television line-up on Fox who haven't been watching Anidom Beyond are missing out. Dedicated to discussing the new programming of Animation Domination, it is the ulimate recap show for fans of series like The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, and Duncanville.

The first episode was about the newest Fox animated comedy, Duncanville, which was created by Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) alongside married producers Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully (The Simpsons). Both Mike and Julie were featured in the episode and answered questions that the audience sent in during the live show.

Hosting the series is Conan veteran Andy Richter. We had the amazing opportunity to chat with Andy last week and he had a lot to say about his new show. He broke down both the difficulties and the advantages of hosting from home and much more. Check out his comments for yourself below!

Joe: It's my understanding that you host the show from your kitchen?

Andy Richter: I only got approached for the show a week and a half ago. It was something that they had in mind but I don’t know if they realized we can still do it over Zune like everything else is being done. So they asked me if I would be interested and then yeah, I did it from my living room.

I would have done it from my desk, but I only had so long of an ethernet cable and wi-fi wasn’t good enough. I had to be actually hard-wired into my router. And it was funny too because for the last few weeks the internet has been garbage. And in fact my neighbor is an editor for Family Guy. He’s been working from home and so he had to get beefed up internet because he’s sending and receiving these huge files because he’s cutting pictures at home. And then my internet just started to go out.

And then I talked to Spectrum and they said well don’t reboot because there’s too much demand so stay plugged in and be patient. And sometimes that meant four or five hours and I’m broadcasting Sunday nights so I had to pay for boosted internet too and it’s not nearly as boosted as they promise but it definitely is better. They sent over a couple of lights and as a fallback they sent over a mobile hotspot for me just in case my internet did go out.

So we had all kinds of contingency plans. I had a couple lights I lit myself. I had an ipad going because a feature of the show is audience activity so the producer and director were going through the audience questions and sending them up to me because I can’t watch the chat at the same time. So I’ve got an ipad with questions from the audience that they want me to ask. I’ve got another computer going that has the feed of the show and then on my laptop I’ve got a Zune meeting that is the interview and also my script because I’m my own technical director. So it's all very homemade, this show.

Joe: Have you done anything like this before?

Andy Richter: Well I mean I’ve been taping things for Conan at home. And I have a podcast but there’s an engineer for the podcast. It’s been a long time since I DIY’d it this much.

Joe: What’s your podcast?

Andy Richter: It’s called The Three Questions, and its through Team Coco and Yearwolf, and Midroll. In fact I just finished up 45 and I think I’ve got three left of the first season of them and it's been going really well. Its an interview podcast.

For years people had been saying to me that I should do a podcast but they’re not native to me. I’ve listened to some but I was never a big consumer and a lot of my friends did them and I would have felt like an ass. Like these friends of mine that have been there since the very beginning of podcasting and then I sauder in like “I think I’m gonna do one too!” so I resisted that for a long time and then I finally said what the hell. I mean if Conan’s gonna do one, I can do one.

And basically, if I was going to do this I wanted to do it having conversations with people that I wanted to talk to and having conversations I wanted to have is not a stretch for me. I think with that kind of programming and that kind of content so I wanted to do something that was interesting to me and something I didn’t have to force.

Joe: Yeah, I totally understand because I also had an interview podcast and I realized too that if it's something that the person is interested in then it's going to have longer legs and be more successful.

Andy Richter: Yes, you know it's my philosophy with the Conan Show. If he and I are having a good time, that’s 90 percent of it. People don’t tune in to see somebody sweat with a show like that. They want to see two people having fun and hanging out and being funny and that’s a lot easier when you’re actually enjoying yourself.

Joe: Did you have a favorite guest on Conan?

Andy Richter: Well my favorite guests are always friends. Its like when you have friends come visit you at work. It's like Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Andy Daly, and people like that who I actually know.

Joe: Is there anything else you would like to share with your fans about the show or any of your other projects?

Andy Richter: I just hope people check it out if they are a fan of Animation Domination. Right after the shows are done at 7 pm PST and 10 pm EST. Get on Caffiene.tv and learn a little bit more about what went into the shows. If you care about animation and are interested then it will be a worthwhile conversation for you to eavesdrop on and actually participate in.

What do you think of Richter's comments? Let us know if you'll be checking out Anidom Beyond in the comments!