Lance Reddick, famed for his work in The Wire, John Wick and Fringe died “suddenly” on Friday, March 17, according to his publicist. He was 60 years old.


Yet nearly a decade before his untimely passing, Reddick went where no star dared before, expertly matching Eric Andre’s bizarre humor during a 2013 appearance on the comedian’s surrealist TV program, The Eric Andre Show.


Consisting of the actor slamming down on a visibly-shaken Andre’s desk before re-emerging shirtless moments later with a monologue about how he wished he was Star Trek legend LeVar Burton, his skit was largely heralded as one of the greatest moments in the history of the program (sorry, Dojo pizza ball).



Reddick recounted the history of his iconic bit, crediting it as being “all Eric’s idea” during a 2019 episode of The “Jim and Sam Show” podcast.


Reddick, who said he had never heard of Andre’s show prior to his appearance, explained that though he and Andre had discussed “some ideas” of what, exactly was going to go down over the phone roughly “three weeks before” taping, all of their concepts went “out the window” as soon as he arrived on set.



“Literally in the dressing room like 15-20 minutes before I‘m supposed to go out there, he pitches me this LeVar Burton thing,” he recounted of how the Star Trek sketch came to be. “He hands me some stuff, he said ‘kinda say this stuff but you can ad-lib too.’”


And it seems Reddick took Andre’s advice to heart. Alongside ad-libbing the end of his explosive monologue — “I was in it and it just came up at the end,” he remembered — his initial exit was also off the cuff.


“The getting angry thing, he said “on the next take, just get pissed off and walk away,” Reddick recalled, adding that “the slam of the desk that was just spontaneous.”


Despite being outside of his comfort zone, the John Wick star thought fondly of his now-legendary sketch. “I am a bit of a clown so I love that kind of stuff,” Reddick said of his Burton bit.


“My background is traditional theater and not sketch comedy so I’m always a little nervous about being asked spontaneously to improvise,” he continued. “If part of me just says “fuck it,” and just kinda jump off I’m fine.