Andy Richter Details the ‘Fun Part’ of Recording New Audible Original Series ‘Vroom Vroom’ (Exclusive)

Elevating the aural realm of storytelling with its growing catalog of brilliantly written and entertaining projects, Audible’s latest Original scripted series Vroom Vroom is throttling at full speed as the streaming platform’s funniest addition yet. Starring Andy Richter as the manager of a “certified pre-owned” car dealership in upstate New York, the scripted audio comedy about a workplace driving toward their dreams is one the comedian admits exclusively to PopCulture.com was a “fun part” to play.

“I love doing voice work, and I apparently have a knack for it because I continue to get to do it,” Richter told us for our series, PopCulture @ Home, further sharing how he’s an active subscriber of SiriusXM and listens to its Radio Classics channel often, which is similar in format to his own scripted series. While he doesn’t think the radio comedy of yesteryear holds up as well today, he’s a big fan of the suspense and crime genre, crediting strong writing for being an anchor in interest. “It’s just stories. It’s stories and there is a component, people know this from audiobooks — to be able to visualize yourself, is a very powerful thing.”

Richter goes on to share one of the reasons he wanted to do the Josh Koenigsberg-written series was because of its hilarious situational comedy that held up well, audio-wise. “I did this because it was funny — it was a good project,” he said. “It was a fun part to play. It’s basically a pretty funny sitcom that you can experience while you’re driving. You can’t really watch The Office while you’re driving, but Vroom Vroom — you can enjoy a comedy show. It’s written, original programming with a great cast.”

Joining Richter is a long line of comedic actors, including the likes of Yvette Nicole Brown and John DiMaggio. Sharing how working with the cast was “really fun” for him, he admits he only knew Brown a little bit but has worked with DiMaggio a number of times on animated projects. “We’re also kind of outside friends. In the real world, we’ve actually socialized a little bit, but it was a great group of people, really fun and no issues, everybody got it done,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of somebody that wasn’t getting it and wasn’t selling it right. It’s about sales. It’s always sales, car sales, selling your character, it’s all sales.”

One of the things listeners can automatically tune into when hearing the seven-episode series is how the cast of characters get along so well with an appreciated chemistry raising the charm of the show. Recorded together as opposed to solo sound booths, Richter said while it doesn’t alter the overall chemistry, recording together worked out for this series because of its timeline. “I’ve done plenty of projects that work out great where nobody ever saw each other, where you go in and you read your lines and there’s a producer or somebody that reads the other person’s lines, and when they cut them together, you can’t hear any difference,” he said. “But this is a long project and we shot it over a relatively short period of time. It was kind of a scheduling thing and also just made it more fun.”

Richter goes on to share when performing longer scenes with more dialogue, it helps to have another performer to play with. “It’s easier to keep the energy up and the performance level up because when you’re by yourself, after the third take, you don’t have anything to bounce off of,” he said.

When it came to performing with his co-stars, he praises Brown’s character, Janelle, as the “most grounded person” in the whole series, compared to his character Gary of Gallea Motors who the comedian calls “kind of a loser” as he works to keep his dealership out of business with the employees over the course of a week. “He’s the well-meaning loser,” Richter laughed. “He used to be kind of a hotshot, big car salesman. His better days are behind him, but he tries really hard and he cuts some corners, now and then. But it’s a family business, he feels like there’s this legacy he has is to keep up, so that’s a burden. He’s got these employees that he wants to keep, obviously employed and keep getting paid, and that’s a burden.”

Richter goes on to share as most good stories, the team of “ragtag” employees forms a sweet family structure. “While that also can be a burden, it also is his whole reason for keeping this whole thing going in the first place,” he said, further adding how he didn’t want to make Gary a “big character” since he’s the center of the show.

With all seven episodes currently available on Audible, Richter is most certainly up for a second season if they hire the writers to do it again. However, if the show were to ever translate to a visual sitcom on a major network, the comedian echoes Brown’s sentiments in hoping that is a reality one day. “Do I want to be on a TV show? Yes, I do,” Richter laughed. “That would be really fun. I don’t know. Like I say, one of the strengths of this thing is, it was always meant to be this. Sometimes they turn a book into a movie and you lose what was great about the book, whereas this is what it was supposed to be, and it could easily be a television show, but it would be different. There would just be tweaks, but yeah, it certainly could work, the comedy is strong enough and the actors are strong enough.”

While we will have to wait and see how it all turns out, Richter encourages listeners and lovers of comedy in the meantime to tune in to the Audible Original available to download now. “I think you owe it to yourself, especially in times like this where it’s very stressful. You’re limited in terms of what you can do and where you can go, so why not take a little vacation from yourself with an Audible Original about people who are probably worse off than you are.”

The Audible Original production Vroom Vroom is now available exclusively on Audible and within the Audible Plus catalog. For more on Andy, Audible and all your favorite stars, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the very latest!