Robinson and Gardner star alongside Sarah Silverman and Jason Mantzoukas in the unique, sketch-based live comedy show ‘All Out’ on Broadway through Feb. 15.

Craig Robinson reveals wild dares from SNL’s Heidi Gardner he’s been sneaking into their live sketch show

Robinson and Gardner star alongside Sarah Silverman and Jason Mantzoukas in the unique, sketch-based live comedy show 'All Out' on Broadway through Feb. 15.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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February 12, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Craig Robinson and Heidi Gardner perform in 'All Out'. Credit:

- Craig Robinson tells EW that Heidi Gardner, his costar in the Broadway sketch comedy show *All Out*, has been goading him into wild dares during their nightly performances.

- "She'll come up and challenge me to say, 'Please Hammer don't hurt 'em' at some point, and so I found a way," the actor tells EW.

- Robinson and Gardner appear in the production by Simon Rich and Alex Timbers alongside Sarah Silverman and Jason Mantzoukas through Feb. 15.**

The golden rule of improv: when Heidi Gardner says jump, you ask how high, not why.

Craig Robinson has been abiding by this rule even as the *Saturday Night Live *alum pushes his comedic courage to extremes during their run in Broadway's live sketch show *All Out*. Written by fellow *SNL *alum Simon Rich, directed by Tony winner Alex Timbers, and featuring music by soul band Lawrence, *All Out *gathers four comedians to perform live sketches on the theme of ambition.

Past cast members of the show, currently running through March 8 at the Nederlander Theatre, have included Eric Andre, Abbi Jacobson, Jon Stewart, and Cecily Strong. Robinson tells * *that he and costar Gardner have a special rapport.**

"We just played a married couple on Tracy Morgan's new show *The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins*," he notes. "She's brilliant. She has a writer's mind and is an incredible performer. So we just work together and it's like kismet — boom."

Gardner's grounding in improv and Robinson's years spent on some of TV's most beloved recent comedies, including *The* *Office *and *Brooklyn Nine-Nine, *blend well, but the unpredictability factor that Gardner brings has definitely pushed through in their four weeks on stage together.

Craig Robinson and Heidi Gardner perform in 'All Out'.

"Heidi is the one. Heidi will dare me and bet me," Robinson says, shaking his head with a laugh. "One day she was like, 'You should come out just skipping,' so I would do it, and we'd be laughing. Or she'll come up and challenge me to say, 'Please Hammer don't hurt 'em' at some point, and so I found a way."

Robinson reflects that "taking chances with the characters" during his sketches with Gardner has kept the grueling eight shows-per-week schedule "lively and fun."**

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***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

The actor recalls "one of the best moments that happened - I stepped on one of Heidi's lines, but through it, I just created this character."

The 54-year-old is no stranger to live comedy himself. He got his start doing stand-up, sketch, and improv at Chicago's famed Second City comedy theater while still in college at Illinois State University. He parlayed the groundswell of buzz over his comedic talent to guest spots on late night shows like *Jimmy Kimmel Live*, before finding his footing on shows like *The Office *and *Eastbound & Down*.

"Things happen, but it's never too, too bad where it throws people off," Robinson says of accidentally running into one of Gardner's lines. "Everything's open to improvisation and it's funny when something kind of goes awry. So I stepped on one of Heidi's lines, but we went into this character kind of thing, and it kept getting funnier and funnier throughout the scene."****

Craig Robinson in 'All Out'.

Gardner, Robinson, Silverman, and Mantzoukas' run in *All Out *ends this Sunday, at which point they'll be replaced by a fresh all-star cast including Ray Romano, Nicholas Braun, Jenny Slate, and content creator Jake Shane.

In a January interview on Sherri Shepherd's recently-canceled daytime show *Sherri*, Gardner called her Broadway debut in *All Out *"unbelievable, unreal," and "a dream that I could have never dreamed."

"For as wild as this cast is, I feel like it was our Broadway debut, so we were all kind of just apt pupils, just very, 'We'll do whatever!" she continued. "So, we were actually very just tame because I think we were nervous, and now it's going to get wild."**

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Source: “EW Broadway”