Connor Wooden, a comic, podcaster, and social media persona who rose to fame with jokes about being unemployed in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, loves watching TV present. Broad Metropolis, Curb Your Enthusiasm, It is All the time Sunny in Philadelphia, Seinfeld, and Veep make the highest of his listing. So, naturally, after we met up in New York Metropolis’s West Village one Might morning, he can not help however inform me about his life prefer it’s a TV present.
Every story is remarkably episodic: There’s the one I might title “The Gang Will get a Pig,” through which Wooden and his sister purchased a pig with out their mother and father’ permission and hid it of their rooms in Texas. “The One The place Connor Broke His Arm” is an episode about Wooden faking a damaged arm for the eye (celebrities, they’re identical to us!) a number of occasions earlier than his arm broke for actual. “The Cowboy Trials” is when he discovers that, regardless of his biggest makes an attempt, he doesn’t need to be a cowboy. After which there’s “Connor Will get Placed on a Watch Listing,” through which all of us uncover Wooden was born on 9/11.
Connor Wooden: Man of the Folks
Credit score: Joseph Maldonado
Shortly after Wooden moved to the West Village in February, The Reduce revealed a narrative highlighting how the It women of the West Village spend their time. It went comparatively viral, as a bit from The Reduce does. After I carry it up, Wooden acknowledges that his new residence may very well be thought-about the influencer capital of NYC. However, he says, he did not select the Village due to its proximity to influencer tradition — a tradition he does not essentially determine with — however as a result of he was in a rush to discover a place and his new house has “wonderful mild” which permits him to “movie all day” and in addition not “fall right into a deep, deep void.”
We meet at a restaurant owned by a man who privately asks me, earlier than even setting eyes on Wooden, to not carry out cameras as a result of he “fucking hates that TikTok shit.” Wooden brings his personal espresso, which he shortly finishes and discards so he can order an iced espresso from the store as a substitute. We sit on the bar and chat. I ask him about how, within the half a decade since he has been creating content material, he has amassed a couple of million followers throughout TikTok and Instagram. On-line, he predominantly posts his comedy or clips from his podcast, Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, which he co-hosts alongside his inventive associate, Brooke Averick, identified on-line as @ladyefron. If the web had its means, they’d be co-starring in a romantic comedy, too. Followers obsess over their chemistry, delivery them with the depth solely parasocial relationships can gas.
Connor Wooden: Large Tchotchke Man
Credit score: Joseph Maldonado
“That stage of friendship is the muse of a wedding,” one individual wrote in a subreddit devoted to the duo. “I believe it’s potential Brooke may have had emotions for Connor at one level, however they’re actually not one another’s varieties in any respect,” a separate fan wrote. “I believe they’re strictly associates who’ve most likely made out whereas drunk,” one other posted. To be clear: It does not seem to be any of those posters have ever truly met both Wooden or Averick.
So when Wooden insists it’s strictly platonic, saying they each discover the fan theories “actually humorous,” it is clear he is being sincere. “We giggle at it,” he stated. “Folks have a whole lot of time.”
Leaving the espresso store, we embark on Wooden’s objective for the morning: purchase some tchotchkes for his new house. We wander into a unusual West Village store, the place Wooden is taken by a collection of artwork prints depicting well-known individuals as sandwiches. Then, Wooden’s press individual, who’s tagging alongside, will get yelled at for touching a type of prayer candles with a celeb on it. We shortly go away.
Loads of followers have identified that whereas Wooden and Averick could be bodily affectionate, that may simply be a means they hang around. And that notion goes past followers. Dave Portnoy, the 48-year-old founding father of Barstool Sports activities, known as Wooden the “prime 1 most annoying dude” as a result of, seemingly, Wooden is just too pleasant.
It is true: Wooden is pleasant. That heat may lead individuals to learn extra into his relationship with Averick, however actively disliking somebody for being good is a fairly wild stance.
Mashable Development Report
And being pleasant is likely one of the causes Wooden has so many followers displaying as much as his exhibits. He began touring along with his comedy — and with out Averick — in 2024, together with doing two sold-out exhibits as a part of the New York Comedy Competition and two exhibits within the UK and Eire. Nonetheless, he is usually confronted with being the “TikTok Man at comedy golf equipment,” a reputation he does not precisely adore as a result of, as he sees it, his work on TikTok is not all that totally different from what comedians used to do — it is simply one other medium.
Connor Wooden: West Village Lady
Credit score: Joseph Maldonado
“I learn all these books with comedians, and [they talk about] doing exhibits each single night time,” he informed me, referencing books like Jerry Seinfeld’s Is This Something? “We’re posting TikToks each single day. And it is not the identical, however it’s speedy suggestions that we take to the golf equipment and check out longer bits. We simply have this further device now to make use of as a sounding factor earlier than we go to the golf equipment.”
He does not put up a set variety of TikToks daily, however he posts a number of every week, most of which garner a whole bunch of 1000’s of views, and a few of which garner tens of millions. He makes use of TikTok as a device and listens to his viewers — what do they discover humorous? What do they discover fascinating? He gathers all of that data to create a set. After which, he heads on tour. Proper now, Wooden is ending up his “Fibs and Associates” stand-up tour, after performing all over the place from Virginia to Hawaii.
Connor Wooden: Loves a park
Credit score: Joseph Maldonado
We cease at one other kitschy retailer filled with girlboss gadgets with exorbitant costs for about 20 seconds, after which attempt to go to a few vintage shops which are all closed. Wooden is attempting to buy one thing to brighten his house with, and he is additionally attempting to indicate me round his neighborhood, so it is not going precisely as he pictured, however he is taking it like a champ.
“That is actually fabulous that all the things’s closed,” he says with fun after the second failed try.
Throughout our stroll, Wooden strikes with the unfastened, barely crooked power of somebody not sure of the place he’s going, however sort of OK with that. He pauses to admire canine, grows distracted by instructions, and tells me he as soon as rerouted his total day simply to drink a espresso close to Will Ferrell in reverent silence.
Wooden’s jokes do not are inclined to hit like punchlines in individual; they unfurl, extra confessional than performative. It is all amusing and fascinating, nevertheless it’s arduous to get via to Wooden’s real vulnerability. He is engaged on one thing he will not inform me about. He is forgotten about his New Yr’s resolutions, or refuses to share them with me. After I press him on upcoming tasks, he doubles down.
Connor Wooden: What??
Credit score: Joseph Maldonado
“And I will not [tell you],” he says, playfully confirming his quiet technique. Should you overlook your objectives fully, possibly that is the actual secret to undertaking them. Retaining that distance is one thing I can respect — though he is not completely tight-lipped and feels effective sharing how sweaty he’s (very, though you’ll be able to’t inform). “There’s a stage of fame the place I need to cap out,” he says, describing his dream profession arc, and joking that “nobody on his group needs to listen to that.” “However I am unable to think about not with the ability to go for a run on the West Facet Freeway or exit to eat.” It is like he is already envisioned the price of notoriety and determined he needs to maintain a number of elements of himself untouched.
Nonetheless, it does not seem to be he thinks he is wherever close to that but. Wooden has a predominately feminine fan base, and once I ask if he’d like extra males within the combine, he laughs and says: “I want I had extra followers. I do not care who they’re,” then, pretending to flag down a waiter: “Please, extra followers! I will do a double.”
That stress between ambition and groundedness drives a lot of what makes Wooden compelling. He’s bold, however not insatiably so. He’s self-aware, however not tortured. He needs to be humorous, however not on the expense of care. He’s a type of uncommon personalities who appears to get that each comedy profession, irrespective of how digital, remains to be simply an ongoing pilot season. You attempt issues. You see what sticks. You rewrite the script. You hope the viewers grows with you.
After a last cease at Restoration {Hardware}, which we stroll via for a second earlier than giving up, we sit down at one of many tables on Little Island, a small and exquisite synthetic island in Hudson River Park. The humidity is at its peak. I am considering that my episode with Connor would have been known as “The Vintage Retailer,” paying homage to that Seinfeld episode the place everybody will get misplaced within the parking storage.
Wooden doesn’t seem to be he needs to impress me, and it really works. I am not impressed by him. He does not have a larger-than-life aura. Often, that sort of detachment solely works when you’re gifted sufficient that your work speaks for itself, or cool sufficient that your style emanates past your silence, however Connor is simply…some man. And that is what so many individuals love about him. That is what I like about him.
If Wooden’s life actually was a TV present, the current season could be thought-about monumental. The solid is altering, the set is flipped, and the profession has advanced from youthful TikTok jokester to on-stage comedian. It is nonetheless about hijinks — a full episode could be dedicated to the “I’ve purse” line from their podcast, a joke reminiscent to me of Paul Rudd’s “I like lamp” line in Anchorman — nevertheless it’s additionally about craft. He is displaying as much as open mics, specializing in his inventive partnership with Averick that’s half podcast, half friendship remedy (and in no way romantic), and studying methods to steadiness visibility with one thing that appears like actual life.
And that, truthfully, feels just like the sort of finale that deserves a inexperienced mild.
