Nick Swardson will bring his stand-up comedy act to New Orleans for the first time when he takes the stage at the Joy Theater on Friday night as part of the Hell Yes Fest, an 11-day comedy extravaganza that kicked off last week. That doesn’t mean it will be his first time working in town.

“The first gig I ever got outside of stand-up was a commercial with Barq’s Root Beer,” Swardson recalls. “I was the Barq’s Root Beer boy for 5 years. We would film the commercials in New Orleans, out on the streets in and around Bourbon St. I was so young, like 24 years old. We would come and film these commercials and I would get fucked up. It was so gnarly.”

It’s quite alright if you don’t remember Swardson from that ad campaign; it did take place in the late ‘90s after all. He’s had a lot more roles since then, from roller-skating prostitute Terry Bernadino on Reno 911 to countless parts in Happy Madison productions like Grandma’s Boy, Grown Ups and That’s My Boy, as well as wildly popular comedies like Superbad. Yet he’s probably most famous for Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time, an outlandish sketch comedy program he hosted on Comedy Central in 2010-11.

If there’s one thing that ties all of his characters together–particularly those on Pretend Time–it’s that they’re all really, really weird. Swardson has a penchant for breathing life into the strangest of fictional beings, often in a way that is extremely uncomfortable, to say the least. His stand up doesn’t go quite that far, but he’s happy to slip back into character if that’s what the audience is looking for.

“My stand-up is observational weirdness. I don’t get too bizarre,” he explains. “When I had Pretend Time, it was one of those things where I really made it a point to be crazy. I thought, ‘I’m gonna make the craziest fucking show anyone’s ever seen.’ The people that were fans of the show, that’s what they gravitated towards. I still have people coming up to me saying, “Dude that one sketch I still can’t get it out of my head, man. Like what the fuck was that.’ And that’s what I wanted.”

“But I’ll sometimes go in and out of characters during my show,” he adds. “If people yell stuff out –Terry from Reno 911 or lines from a movie–I’ll always do it. I don’t get super upset or shout, ‘that’s not what I’m doing right now! stop yelling!’ I’m totally malleable and accommodating with the crowd. That stuff is fun for me.”

It’s probably fun for his fans too, many of whom are more familiar with his film and television work than with his stand-up comedy output. They’ll get a chance to see that side of him–and maybe a few of his signature characters as well–when he performs at Hell Yes Fest. And if they’re smart, they’ll check out some of the other national talent the festival has on hand from Silicon Valley’s Alice Wetterlund and The Daily Show’s Hassan Minaj to Girl Code’s Carly Aquilino and comedy titan Sarah Silverman.

“I’m happy to be going to New Orleans specifically for stand-up and specifically for this festival,” says Swardson. “I’ve spent a lot of time down there and I’m really excited to come back. New Orleans is one of the best.”

Nick Swardson will do two stand-up shows at the Joy Theater on Friday, October 14. Tickets for the performances are on sale here.