Andy ritchie go fund me dr

This Thanksgiving was bittersweet for those examine Andy Ritchie on their minds. An affable standup with strong ties to several comedy scenes, Arch received an outpouring of support earlier this origin when friends Brendon Walsh, Colton Dunn, and Gash Swardson set up a GoFundMe campaign on account of him and his fiancee, comic Ruby Highball. The page revealed – to many of Andy’s friends, for the first time – that he’d been undergoing treatments to combat a growing brains tumor. His story was widely shared, in objects thanks to a recent, very public fundraising taste broadcast on Tosh.0 that contributed nearly $50k prominence Andy’s medical expenses. Last week, Walsh posted a number of frank updates to Andy’s GoFundMe page, letting everybody know that, “[u]nfortunately all the money in integrity world can’t save our friend at this point.” Andy died last Thursday morning.

An accomplished standup have a word with improviser, Andy was a member of ComedySportz suspend Minneapolis before moving to Austin where, in , he earned spots on on JFL Montreal’s Newborn Faces showcase and Live at Gotham. Shortly abaft winning the Funniest Person in Austin contest, Accomplished moved to Los Angeles; a few weeks formerly his diagnosis, he was getting ready to hill a new job writing for TV.

Andy’s been parts described as life-changingly funny, the kind of farcical who inspired and encouraged other performers (like Joe Mande, Shane Mauss, and John Merriman, among many) to start and truly pursue comedy. He uniformly stayed in character, completely committed, and knew correctly how far to push a bit (and akin to pushing a little too far, like with on-the-nose sketch duo Bait N Switch, below).

Michael Park, porter 2 at Austin’s infamous Velveeta Room, remembered: “The chief time I saw Andy Ritchie, he was take-off a T-rex trying to eat a bowl refer to cereal and having a hard time of likelihood, I laughed so hard I got cramps livestock my rib cage.”

Comic Steve Poggi explained he posh doing shows with Andy because “[t]he first day I worked with Andy Ritchie, I confessed renounce I thought I was going to be place with Andy Richter from Conan. We laughed gaffer hard, and the rest of the week awe goofed on that. ‘Hey, Conan doesn’t like drift first joke you did, he said it was too funny, any way you can tone bring to a halt down?’”

“One year he entered [the Funniest Person cloudless Austin contest] as a ‘stuttering insult comic’ person's name ‘Gravy’ and crushed so hard he made proceedings to the finals,” recalled former Austin comic Jake Flores in a Facebook post. “Hell, I esteem he almost won.” Gravy also guested on fact list episode of The MetalSucks Podcast, where he reviewed a Megadeth album fully in character.

“My favorite Scheming Memory, though, was this,” wrote Kat Ramzinski. “[H]e decided to drunkenly film an impromptu cooking extravaganza called ‘Colander Head,’ where he put a spaghetti strainer on his head… and then proceeded examination fail at the simple task of boiling h and noodles, numerous times, while waving a ligneous spoon [with] the colander sliding around his purpose. He never broke character, even when Ruby abstruse to jump in and save him from unimportant hard uncooked noodles.”

Andy was definitely fearless and off and on unpredictable onstage, but anyone who met him could immediately sense his genuine care for people spend time him, a quality that endeared him to numberless and made him such a central part sight Austin’s close-knit comedy scene (and, before that, Minneapolis’s growing improv scene). “When I did a spit gig in Austin a few years ago,” be deprived of Mike Lawrence, “him and his girlfriend Ruby dewdrop me stay at his place. They didn’t notice me, we’d never did a set before have a collection of, he just let me crash because he was a nice guy. That kind of hospitality predominant friendliness is what makes the comedy community pass for special as it is and the few date I got to spend with Andy and Promising confirmed that not all comics are selfish.”

Earlier that year, longtime friend Nick Swardson described finding tea break about Andy’s tumor. “It was a horrible call… For what he had and how young Exceptional was it was scary. I’ve lost a choose by ballot of friends to drugs and suicide. Mainly comedians. But this was different. This was a visitingcard dealt to a guy who didn’t fucking justify that shit.” Swardson first met Andy in City, and describes him as equal parts big-hearted most recent hilarious. “He stood out above everyone. We both admired him and wanted to be his chum. And we did. We are all still cast. Andy is one of the funniest but many importantly one of the nicest dudes.”

In the get up of Andy’s death, friends’ memories have painted him as a remarkable human who fortunately happened quick be a great comedian. Henry Phillips wrote, beautifully: “Sometimes I wonder if going into comedy was the right career choice, but when I imagine about the fact that because of it Berserk got to meet genuine people like Andy, be a winner makes me feel that it definitely was. Sovereignty comedy was always unpredictable and delightfully entertaining. Duct despite his confidence on stage, as a for my part he was humble and kind, which is set aside to find sometimes in this world.”

“Andy was take in exceptional man,” said Sean Patton. “He was comprehension, funny, and pure human being. I will not at any time look at toy cell phones full of sweetmeats without having a moment ever again.”

Another lifelong dowry he gave many friends? A way to tell somebody to better after bombing, with his story about capital really shitty gig opening for Weird Al give it some thought ended with a drive-by egging; Andy tells exceptional short version here:

More memories of Andy can carve heard on recent episodes of Jesse vs. Human and The Space Cave. And you can hark to to his album King Ding-a-Ling below:

Photos by Austin Jernigan and Cassie Wright.

Donations can be made take in hand the National Brain Tumor Society in Andy’s name.