When he first heard about the opportunity to appear on Dancing With the Stars, Andy Richter was not thrilled.
“In April I got an email about doing it. I was home at the time. It was in the morning,” Richter, 58, shared on SiriusXM’s “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” on Wednesday, September 24. “Honest to God, my first reaction was, ‘Turn it down and don’t tell anyone.’ Don’t let anyone know that I’ve been asked. Because they’d be like, ‘Why wouldn’t you do it? It’s because crabby baby does not want to be pushed out of his comfort zone, basically, is the long and short of it.”
The comedian, who is best known as the longtime sidekick of Conan O’Brien, eventually accepted the offer to star on season 34 of DWTS with pro dancer Emma Slater.
“The week before I met my partner, I was having stress dreams,” Richter explained to O’Brien, 62. “I was just dreading it and just felt like crap for the whole week before, just like, kind of crabby to my family and stuff.”
Richter pushed himself to go because he “signed up for it” even though he was “terrified” of getting injured or not being able to remember his choreography.
“I’m not going to be able to remember all that. I’m not going to,” he said. “And then I would have to pull out and be embarrassed.”
Despite his hesitation, Richter performed his week 1 cha-cha dance to “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Sam and Dave, which earned a 9/20. His week 2 tango to “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls on Tuesday, September 24, went on to receive a 16/30, securing his spot in week 3.
“I kind of feel like I’m remaining very hopeful that I’ll stick around for a little bit,” Richter said on Wednesday, noting he is “relying on Emma’s online presence” to get votes. “I think I’ll stick around because I do kind of feel like it is a TV show and the question isn’t like, ‘Who is the dancer?’ It’s like, ‘Who do you want to see in the TV show?’”
Richter added that one of the executive producers of DWTS told him, “‘They’re asking you to vote for your favorite dancer, not the best dancer, the favorite dancer.’”
While Richter was nervous about joining the dancing competition at first, Slater, 36, was “so happy” when she found out she was paired with the comedian.
“We have the same kind of energy, like, we love to chat, love to talk and I love to hear about all that [he has] done,” she told Luxury Handbag Shopping in a September 4 interview. “It was really, really nice for me to get to know [him].”
