With original jokes often focusing on the Christian subculture, comic John Crist, best known for his YouTube sketches and stand-up comedy, has been making a name for himself among the comedy world, and he’s about ready to hit it big time with a special on Netflix.
In an exclusive sit-down with PopCulture.com, the 35-year-old Georgia native, who was once homeschooled and is the son of a pastor, revealed the exciting news for the first time and what fans can expect from it.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“It’s called I Ain’t Praying For That,” Crist told PopCulture.com exclusively, before adding it would release later this fall, speculatively around Thanksgiving.
“Whenever we go home for the holidays we would always watch standup, but we couldn’t watch certain standup ’cause my grandpa and my nieces were like … John Crist comedy!” he said. “Although, that’s gonna turn anyone off, ’cause comedy that’s family friendly sounds terrible, right?”
However, when it comes to Crist’s comedy, while he touches on iffy topics, he manages to keep it clean and without derogatory language.
“I do clean comedy and anytime someone’s like, ‘It’s a clean [comedy]’ I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be horrible,’” Crist said jokingly.
Athough Crist jokes about clean comedy being boring, it has earned him a massive following on social media with more than 1 million followers on Instagram and over 2 million on Facebook. It seems as though his lack of foul language is propelling his career. In fact, someone who helped inspire a few of his jokes is his former girlfriend and country music singer,American Idol runner-up, Lauren Alaina.
“Okay first of all, she gives me like a funny idea. But everybody gives me funny ideas,” he admitted while they were still dating, adding how he gets “inspired” by just about everything. “I’m just with her a lot, so she’s like, ‘I’m turning 25 on my birthday,’ I’m like, ‘Yea, when else would you turn 25?”
Country music fans can expect to hear at least one joke that came straight from her in the upcoming Netflix special as he shares exclusively with PopCulture.com.
While Crist has been doing comedy for years now, he grew to fame after posting hilarious videos to different social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook, mainly highlighting stereotypes involving millennials and the Christian church. However, he does so in such a precise fashion that’s earned him more followers and likes that one could fathom when thinking of someone walking such a thin line.
“Somebody told me one time, ‘If you’re gonna be a great transcendent comedian, you gotta write what you know about’” he explained. “I grew up in church, my dad’s a pastor, I was homeschooled, I went to [a] Christian college, first job at Chick-fil-A.”
The hilarious social media sensation confessed that he never anticipated his videos would go viral the way they have. One of his most popular clips is of him at Disneyland
“I saw a commercial for Disneyland, the kid was like hugging the mom, licking an ice cream cone, Minnie Mouse was walking by, the fireworks were going off … I’ve been with my parents and it’s not like that,” Crist said.
That’s when he decided to shoot a video on the popular getaway on what it’s really like for families at the magical theme park.
“I literally flew down there, and all day, in the park, with the camera, walking around. If it never would have released, I still had a blast,” he explained.
Crist says he just enjoys “making stuff” regardless of how popular the video becomes or not.
The comedian is now shooting pieces with Trey Kennedy — another popular face on social media — and fans can’t seem to get enough of the pair. Two of their most famous bits were in Nashville talking about bachelorette parties — because Music City has seemingly become the bachelor and bachelorette capitol of the world currently — and the other in Target that feature every woman without a man on Valentines Day.
At one point in time, followers mistakingly thought that they were the same person, so that prompted them to link up and start pushing out videos together.
Crist will be starting his Immature Thoughts comedy tour in October. Visit his official website for tour dates and more.
