COOPER & COHEN: CLASSY CLOWNS
TV personalities share laughs onstage, chicken backstage
Aconversation with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen goes pretty much the way you’d want it to — like a night out with two of your smartest and funniest friends.
The superstar TV personalities and close friends finish each other’s thoughts. They playfully snap at each other. And when someone eventually brings up the “Real Housewives” franchise it’s worth hearing the response. It’s a constant back and forth, punctuated by fits of laughter.
At one point Cooper, for what he considers an interview faux pas, chastises Cohen.
Cooper: Are you eating while you’re talking, by the way? Cohen: I’m eating jellybeans. Is that a problem? I’m not eating,
like, a burger.
Cooper: As an interviewer, it smacks of disinterest. I believe in being fully focused. But you go ahead.
Cohen: Well, guess what? As an interviewer, to me, it seems like engagement. Like, “Oh, look, Andy sat down with some Jelly Bellies, and he’s having a little kiki right now.” Anyway, you’re not interviewing me, are you? Cooper: No, that’s true. Well, I’m just speaking up for Joey.
The pair, who have been friends for several years, bring that complex relationship to the stage Saturday for “AC2: Deep Talk and Shallow Tales” at the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land. The two men were set up on a blind date years ago but decided it wouldn’t work after an initial phone call. Friendship suited them better.
Cooper and Cohen promise no serious stuff in their appearances.
And no politics. Just a conversational, interactive night of stories and drinking. Lots of drinking.
“Usually, people, and we certainly encourage this, are making this a night. They oftentimes go out for dinner beforehand. Often it’s a liquid dinner. Often they’ve had a lot of pinot grigio or cocktails. We encourage people to have cocktails during the show as well,” Cooper says. “We’ve had some very exuberant people, some of whom have had to be removed by security personnel.”
In many ways, Cooper and Cohen are polar opposites. Cooper, of course, is the silver-haired CNN anchor and “60 Minutes” newsman who has interviewed presidents and visited war-torn countries. Cohen, the “Real Housewives” wrangler, dishes nightly with celebrities on the Bravo talk show “Watch What Happens Live,” hosts Fox’s “Love Connection” reboot and has a SiriusXM channel, Radio Andy. They’re like two sides of the same perfectly coiffed coin.
At one point during our call, they debate who might be the most highmaintenance on the road.
Cooper: Andy is the only one who thought to have a specific request in the contract, which is to have some chicken backstage. It would never have occurred to me to ask for
food backstage.
Cohen: Anderson thinks it’s wasteful to have chicken and vegetables backstage in case we wanna eat something before we go out there.
Cooper: We travel very differently. Andy is much more a spectacle when he travels. I’m much more low-key.
Cohen: Oh, God. Listen, Katniss Everdeen with your hair on fire. You ain’t so low-key walking through an airport.
It’s clear amid the ribbing that these two are great friends. And what they share, among other things, is a love of Houston. Cooper has visited “eight or nine times” to cover stories and eventually made friends in the city.
“I cannot tell you how excited I am. I’m such a huge fan of Houston. I know that sounds like I’m just pandering, but I actually love Houston,” Cooper says. “There are some places, in other cities — I won’t say where — that are kind of snooty.”
Not one to be outdone, Cohen quickly chimes in with his own take on the Bayou City.
Cohen: I would like an opportunity to express my love of Houston. I was celebrity grand marshal
for the gay pride parade (in 2010). Anderson, have you ever taken part in that?
Cooper: Had I known that, I would have absolutely come down there ’cause I’ve had a gay old time in Houston.
Cohen: It was very fun, and I have to say, they have a very thriving gay community in Houston.
Cooper: Absolutely. There was all those bars in that one area (Montrose). I remember going out. They were tons of fun.
Cohen: I took a lover in Houston.
Cooper: Oh, God. Really? We’re really going down this road? What does that even mean? “I took a lover.” Who are you, Yves St. Laurent? He’s gonna have that printed on T-shirts for our show.
Cohen: It’s not insignificant. We’re still very much in touch.
Cooper: That could be, like, a country song by the way.
Cohen: I think that terminology could be more like a torch song, like a cabaret song.
Cooper and Cohen began touring with “AC2” in 2015, and audiences quickly took to the off-the-cuff format. The show has since evolved but steers clear of any serious territory. The friends interview each other and take questions from the audience, which they say is made up of mostly women.
Cohen enjoys making Cooper squirm and says the CNN anchor is “way funnier than I am onstage.”
“I’m normally very introverted. It’s not a night of politics. It’s not a night of current events — although, if by current events you mean what’s happening with Dorinda (from ‘Real Housewives of New York City’), then there are lots of current events,” Cooper says.
Cohen, of course, can’t resist a jab.
“You don’t even know — he says that word (Dorinda) phonetically. He doesn’t know what it means. I taught him how to say that word,” Cohen says. “It’s like going out to a bar with us, basically.”
After the show, the dynamic duo will likely, and literally, pop up at a local bar for an after-show cocktail. Lady Gaga, who is friends with both men, is in town this weekend for a Sunday show at Toyota Center. And her Saturday night is clear. Watch what happens.
“Andy likes to suss it out, he says, a few days in advance, so sometimes he tries to arrive several days in advance,” Cooper says. “It’s nice to be able to travel around the country to great cities and meet people and do it with someone you’re really friends with and be able to go out afterward and just have a really fun weekend. There’s no point in doing this if it’s not fun for the audience and if it’s not fun for us.”