Eric André makes a big mess at his St. Paul show

Anyone brave enough to stand near the stage for an Eric André performance is advised to bring a poncho — and a strong stomach. He opened his Saturday show at St. Paul's Palace Theatre by hurling debris at the audience, turning over a trash can in the pit area and squirting anyone in the first seven rows with a watergun.

That was the mild stuff. At one point, he tossed items from the McDonald's menu into a blender and then dumped the brown "shake" over the heads of a couple spectators in front.

They ate it up.

As he does in his Adult Swim series, "The Eric André Show," André is all about seeing how much of a frenzy he can create with the silliest of setups.

André's act is not about carefully crafted jokes or clever observations. When he opened the show by saying he had no prepared material, he was sort of telling the truth.

He lets his audience do the heavy lifting. A large chunk of the evening was dedicated to volunteers who allowed André to text nonsense message to ex-lovers. Two fans squared off in a ranch dressing chug-a-lug. The highlight of the evening: Neither of them vomited.

The antics didn't last long. André's act clocked in at roughly an hour, and that included a number of taped bits.

The only two comics who came fully prepared were opening act DJ Douggpound, who punctuated one-liners with sound effects and music snippets, and special guest Fancy Ray McCloney.

McCloney ignored most of André's attempts to rope him into silly stunts and forged ahead with his standard stand-up act, eventually winning over youngsters who weren't previously familiar with one of local comedy's elder statesmen.

André didn't seem to mind. It meant less work for him.