Boundaries John Crist Adheres to With His Comedy

“I would say that never make a joke about someone that if they were in that crowd that they would be offended by, like if it was easy to pick on let’s say, Kim Kardashian or Tiger Woods or maybe recently Bill Cosby, it’s easy. But if that guy was in the crowd would you do that joke? I have jokes about my dad, but my dad has been to shows and he loves the jokes. I have jokes about my roommate. I have jokes that are at the expense of people, but I have another comic I tour with and his name is Tim Hawkins and he’s one of the biggest guys that you would call “Christian Comedy” maybe.

Our whole goal is if a mom is cooking and her kids are in the living room You-Tubing John Crist, that she should have no worries about what she’s going to fine. As a comedian that’s kind of a fine line and I have overstepped the boundaries a million times and I’ll be the first guy to admit that if something was to cross the line.”

The Current State of Comedy

“That’s where I think, let’s say in the 90’s, the early 2000’s, shock value was a thing in comedy. Like, “Oh my gosh, he talked about whatever that taboo topic was,” but it’s 2015 now. The internet exists. There’s nothing shocking anymore. Right? If you go to a comedy club, about every topic has been uncovered, and mined for humor and now people I think, there’s a renaissance back to people like Jimmy Fallon, who are like, it’s all clean. Right? If you notice the difference between Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno, Jay Leno is full of innuendo. Full of it and Letterman is the same.”

John Crist’s Worst Standup Experience

“Ooph. You know what stand up, I often say the difference between, let’s say music. There’s no way to practice stand up. I can’t run a joke by you because you might think it’s hilarious and then I do it and it bombs, or you might think it’s a terrible joke and it’s actually a good joke. There’s no way to do it instead of in front of a group of people which boggles my mind. It’s the worst and the best because that adrenaline is what we thrive on.”

How John Crist Defines Humor

“Sometimes you have a joke. I have a joke that I wrote early on. I don’t have a church to go to, so I’ve been giving my tithe money to this Christian organization that feeds the hungry: Chick-fil-A. That joke in the south because we grew up with Chick-fil-A. It crushes because I did that joke in California and I got booed. Not only did it not work, I got booed. So jokes often times, aren’t not that they’re not good, it’s just that it’s a poor choice for that venue.

I mean if you do a casino, that’s generally an older crowd vs. if you do a youth group, it’s younger. So if you have a joke about, you know this girl favorited one of my tweets or something in a casino, they would have no idea what you’re talking about but the kids. I have jokes bomb every night, but you keep going. Well now if you’re going to do a new bit, you would sandwich it in between your best two good ones, so if you get a big laugh, you do it and then you can bail out at any time and have a line that could rescue you in essence.

The crowds-their memories real short, so if you have a great joke they forget, and then you close on something big every night and it’s the best night of their lives. That’s kind of a cocky statement. I shouldn’t have said that, but you know what I’m saying, “Oh, it’s a great show.”

Does John Crist See Humor in The Bible?

“If you could imagine we read a lot of these stories and we’re like, “Hold on. Hold on. What?” Jonah, imagine that. I think it’s funny; it’s not funny, but like imagine watching that. I’m trying to think if there’s any direct, like people saying things that are, maybe humor is different back then.

My pastor says, “Try to read the stories like you’ve never heard it before.” and then new things come out.  I think a lot of those stories, we have a joke about making fun of it. We’re not making fun of the Bible. We’re not being disrespectful. It’s a funny. Can you imagine being Michael Junior? Can you imagine being Jesus’ brother?

He can’t do anything. I used to have a joke about it. When Jesus when He turned the water into wine which was His first miracle when He was thirty, was He practicing over like when He was a kid? Did He get the water to grape juice? and then He got the water to…It’s not wine, but keeping working on it. You’ll get there.

I used to have a bit about how Jesus what if you sell the furniture? And what if the furniture was not good and He made a table and it didn’t balance or something like that. People come up and say, “Who made this?” You’re like uhhh…God. God made that. (laughter) That’s just stupid. But can you imagine? He was perfect but was all of His furniture perfect? I don’t know. I don’t know the answer.”

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video by John that we talk about during the interview.

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