The Vintage Retailer: Connor Wooden is not simply ‘that TikTok comic’

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 a great TV present. Broad Metropolis, Curb Your Enthusiasm, It is At all times Sunny in Philadelphia, Seinfeld, and Veep make the highest of his checklist. So, naturally, once 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 dad and mom’ 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 instances 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 wish 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.

Shortly after Wooden moved to the West Village in February, The Reduce printed 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. Once I deliver 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 would not essentially determine with — however as a result of he was in a rush to discover a place and his new condominium has “superb mild” which permits him to “movie all day” and likewise 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 deliver 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 an alternative. 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 artistic companion, Brooke Averick, recognized 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 gasoline.

“That degree of friendship is the inspiration of a wedding,” one particular person wrote in a subreddit devoted to the duo. “I believe it’s doable 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 buddies who’ve in all probability made out whereas drunk,” one other posted. To be clear: It would not appear 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. “Individuals have quite a lot of time.”

Leaving the espresso store, we embark on Wooden’s objective for the morning: purchase some tchotchkes for his new condominium. We wander into a unusual West Village store, the place Wooden is taken by a collection of artwork prints depicting well-known folks as sandwiches. Then, Wooden’s press particular person, who’s tagging alongside, will get yelled at for touching a kind of prayer candles with a star on it. We shortly depart.

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, referred to 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 would possibly lead folks to learn extra into his relationship with Averick, however actively disliking somebody for being good is a reasonably wild stance. 

Mashable Pattern Report

And being pleasant is likely one of the causes Wooden has so many followers exhibiting as much as his exhibits. He began touring together with his comedy — and with out Averick — in 2024, together with doing two sold-out exhibits as a part of the New York Comedy Pageant and two exhibits within the UK and Eire. Nonetheless, he is typically confronted with being the “TikTok Man at comedy golf equipment,” a reputation he would 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.

“I learn all these books with comedians, and [they talk about] doing exhibits each single evening,” he advised me, referencing books like Jerry Seinfeld’s Is This Something? “We’re posting TikToks each single day. And it isn’t the identical, however it’s speedy suggestions that we take to the golf equipment and check out longer bits. We simply have this additional software now to make use of as a sounding factor earlier than we go to the golf equipment.”

He would not submit a set variety of TikToks daily, however he posts a number of every week, most of which garner lots of of hundreds of views, and a few of which garner tens of millions. He makes use of TikTok as a software and listens to his viewers — what do they discover humorous? What do they discover fascinating? He gathers all of that info to create a set. After which, he heads on tour. Proper now, Wooden is ending up his “Fibs and Buddies” stand-up tour, after performing in every single place from Virginia to Hawaii.

We cease at one other kitschy retailer stuffed with girlboss gadgets with exorbitant costs for about 20 seconds, after which attempt to go to a few vintage shops which might be all closed. Wooden is attempting to buy one thing to embellish his condominium with, and he is additionally attempting to point out me round his neighborhood, so it isn’t going precisely as he pictured, however he is taking it like a champ.

“That is actually fabulous that the whole lot’s closed,” he says with fun after the second failed try.

Throughout our stroll, Wooden strikes with the free, barely crooked vitality of somebody not sure of the place he’s going, however form of OK with that. He pauses to admire canines, 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 likely to hit like punchlines in particular person; they unfurl, extra confessional than performative. It is all amusing and fascinating, however it’s laborious to get by means of 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. Once I press him on upcoming initiatives, he doubles down. 

“And I will not [tell you],” he says, playfully confirming his quiet technique. In the event you neglect your targets utterly, possibly that is the true secret to undertaking them. Maintaining that distance is one thing I can respect — though he is not totally tight-lipped and feels tremendous sharing how sweaty he’s (very, though you possibly can’t inform). “There’s a degree of fame the place I wish to cap out,” he says, describing his dream profession arc, and joking that “nobody on his crew needs to listen to that.” “However I can not think about not with the ability to go for a run on the West Aspect 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 components of himself untouched.

Nonetheless, it would not appear to be he thinks he is anyplace close to that but. Wooden has a predominately feminine fan base, and after 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 am going to do a double.”

That pressure 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 kind of uncommon personalities who appears to get that each comedy profession, irrespective of how digital, continues to be simply an ongoing pilot season. You strive issues. You see what sticks. You rewrite the script. You hope the viewers grows with you.

After a remaining cease at Restoration {Hardware}, which we stroll by means of for a second earlier than giving up, we sit at one of many tables on Little Island, a small and delightful synthetic island in Hudson River Park. The humidity is at its peak. I am pondering that my episode with Connor would have been referred to as “The Vintage Retailer,” harking back to that Seinfeld episode the place everybody will get misplaced within the parking storage.

Wooden doesn’t appear to be he needs to impress me, and it really works. I am not impressed by him. He would not have a larger-than-life aura. Normally, that form of detachment solely works in the event you’re proficient 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 latest season could be thought-about monumental. The solid is altering, the set is flipped, and the profession has developed 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 — however it’s additionally about craft. He is exhibiting as much as open mics, specializing in his artistic partnership with Averick that’s half podcast, half friendship remedy (and in no way romantic), and studying tips on how to stability visibility with one thing that appears like actual life.

And that, truthfully, feels just like the form of finale that deserves a inexperienced mild.