South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
The friendship of Cooper, Cohen
Cohen, Cooper coming to Broward Center
Emmy-winning TV showman Andy Cohen, the man who gave us “Real Housewives” and “Watch What Happens Live,” and Emmy-winning CNN and “60 Minutes” newsman Anderson Cooper, up to his ears in impeachment coverage, will step away from all that drama when they bring a new edition of their tequila-propelled conversation titled “AC2” to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 2.
Cohen and Cooper understand their names come with certain expectations, but you don’t have to be a fan of Bravo TV or CNN to have a good time.
“We really try to go after the husbands or boyfriends who have been dragged to the show, who maybe don’t watch the ‘Housewives’ or don’t necessarily want to be there,” Cooper says.
“For us the marker is watching them through the show and making them laugh. That’s the mark of success. We want someone who doesn’t even know us to find it really funny.”
Cohen and Cooper have been friends for more than 25 years, and in separate phone calls their answers to parallel questions were so similar that they seemed spliced from a single conversation. Here we stitch their responses into a single profile in friendship, beginning with why the idea for them to first meet on a blind date was so wrong.
Your first interaction was being set up on a blind date that, according to your bio, “did not happen.” What does that mean?
Cohen: We spoke on the phone …
I knew within 45 seconds of talking to him that I would never go on a date with Andy Cohen.
He says that I broke his cardinal rule, which is that I brought up his mom very early in the call.
It was two things. One, he just seemed very enthusiastic on the phone, and I didn’t know him at all — this was long before he was on television — so, yeah, I sort of imagined him wearing, like, a Bluetooth headset and walking around his office. It just didn’t seem, I don’t know … And then he also violated my cardinal rule which is he asked me about my mom within the first 45 seconds. Which is usually a good tell about where somebody is coming from.
And I didn’t even have a question. I was just, like, “Wow, so your mom’s Gloria Vanderbilt.” And he was like, “Uh, I’m done.” … But it turned out that we did have some mutual friends who traveled together, and we’ve traveled the globe, actually, for 25 years. … So even though the blind date didn’t take, we became very close friends and have gotten closer every year. He’s a great guy.
This tour you are bringing to the Broward Center is based on a radical premise, male friendship. In this day and age, why do people want to watch two guys getting along?
Cohen: We’re really different, yet it just totally works. We’re kind of Goofus and Gallant, or Felix and Oscar. It’s like two friends that shouldn’t be friends but are. Listen, it’s not “Kumbaya,” we’re not Oprah and Gayle. But Oprah and Gayle are very entertaining, too, I might add.
We don’t always get along, but we have an interesting chemistry. It’s basically the us that we are when we’re not doing our public jobs. It’s a window into not only our friendship but also a peek behind the curtain of pop culture and reality TV and the “Housewives” mishegas and wild events and wherever the conversation goes. … It’s not a night of politics. It’s not divisive in that way. It’s a night of funny stories and drinking and hanging out with friends. … A lot of people come not knowing what to expect, and we like that. It’s kind of a nice leap of faith that people take.
Without you, Andy, there would be no “Real Housewives” of Anywhere. Will you, right now, apologize to the men of America?
Cohen: For entertaining their wives? No.
Of course he’s going to refuse. He believes he’s a fluffer for straight guys. His argument is that [“Real Housewives” and “Watch What Happens Live”] get their wives and girlfriends all riled up, and then at 11:30 he’s off the air and, you know, they’re still all riled up.
I have brought your wives a lot of happiness. You get your ESPN and they get their Bravo. Everything’s equal. And, by the way, there are a lot of guys who watch “Real Housewives.”
Onstage, between you, there’s a table with booze on it. In pictures, I see Don Julio. What is your must-have on that table?
Cohen: Tequila and Fresca. And a lot of ice.
I don’t really drink much, but during the show Andy likes to have somebody drinking with him, so he pours me a Fresquila, as he calls it.
It’s kind of a low-rent, bootleg version of a Paloma. And I am constantly kind of refreshing my drink and his drink.
I didn’t even know Fresca still existed. Apparently, he’s keeping them in business.
Andy, looking at pictures of past performances of the show, I notice that Anderson likes to wear short sleeves a lot. What’s he doing there?
Cooper: I know exactly what his answer is. I’m guessing he’ll say I’m trying to show off my biceps?
First of all, he’s got big biceps. Second of all, he basically wears a suit so much, and so do I, that the idea of being able to wear a T-shirt onstage is just fun for him. It’s a small act of rebellion. Every time I go on vacation, I grow a beard. And I grow it because I can.
I started out wearing suits in the show and then I realized people see me in suits all the time, so I’ll just wear what I normally wear every day.
Clearly you work out. No shame in showing it off.
Cooper: I’m no Chris Cuomo, but I try. [Laughs] I aspire to be that someday.
Andy, do you have a sense that people coming to the show feel like they know you, while Anderson is a little more inscrutable?
Cohen: On the other hand, he’s written two very personal memoirs [“The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son Talk About Life, Love, and
Loss” and “Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival”]. He and his mom made a very personal documentary about their lives together [“Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper”]. He’s lived a very public life.
But I think people will be very surprised by how loose and funny and comedic he is onstage. … He’ll go for the laugh, which is great. It’s what we should be doing. He’s pretty courageous up there, which is really cool. He does some kind of physical stuff, which is great.
For me that’s the fun part of doing it, [showing] that I can be funny and the personality I have that doesn’t come out on a nightly newscast. The audience seems to get a kick out of this. All of a sudden they see me in a different way, and they see what my friends see and how I am in casual environments.
“AC2: An Intimate Evening With Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen” is at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. Tickets start at $68.22 (plus fees). Call 954-462-0222 or visit BrowardCenter.org.