Once we've reconnected after the phone interview with Christian comedian John Crist suddenly drops, I suggest the cause of the interference: "It's Satan doing it."
"Totally. The enemy at work," he delivers in the same dry drawl he uses when he embodies the "Lady Who Has a Bible Verse for Every Situation," a recurring character in his wildly successful viral videos. When at the mall: "No, thank you, I don't need any skin care samples -- I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Oh there's Starbucks, thank heavens, streams in the desert!" When in Vegas: "Look at how she is clothed -- not in strength and dignity!"
Crist is part of Winter Jam 2018 Tour Spectacular that will be performed today at 6 p.m. at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena. He's the funnyman in a lineup that features Christian musicians, worship leaders and speakers, including headliner Skillet, and Kari Jobe (featuring Cody Carnes), Building 429, KB, NewSong, Jordan Feliz and Nick Hall. A pre-Jam party features Dan Bremnes, Mallary Hope and Westover.
Central Arkansas is toward the end of the tour that started Jan. 5 and concludes March 31. By no mistake, Crist says.
"They organize the Winter Jam by what city has the best Christians. You guys are like way down on the list, you know what I'm saying?" he says, adding with a sinister laugh, "I'm joking. I'm just joking. I'm joking."
It's what he does best after all.
While he now lives in Los Angeles, Crist was born in Georgia. And so was his comedy.
"Whether you are a mainstream comic or Christian comic or black comic or urban comic or white comic, male, female, the best comedy is always going to be the comedian that writes about what he knows about, what he thinks about, what he lives. ...
"As a comic who grew up in church, I was homeschooled, and I worked at Chick-fil-A and my dad's a pastor with eight kids ... in the South. I'm suited to kind of razz this community that we all live in and grow up in. And luckily it's been well-received."
Like his video "Christian Alexa: The Believer's Alternative to the Amazon Echo." In it, Crist, about to serve dinner to a date, says, "Let's eat!" Christian Alexa pipes up: "How about, 'Let's pray?'" And like his video "Christian Breakup Lines," that includes "All things work together for good ... but we ain't together and this ain't good," and "Are you about to be wrongly accused? Because this is about to be our Last Supper."
But it's not just about videos for Crist, a stand-up comedian of nearly a decade.
As for being part of Winter Jam, he says, "It's fun. ... Usually it's like me and another comedian in like a normal sedan or something like that. Here we've got, like, 15 tour buses. You pull in and it looks like some kind of circus or something like that." With him as the clown. As for his place in the lineup, he says, "I go out right in the middle, right after KB, a good hip-hop artist that gets the crowd all riled up."
Speaking of all riled up, his comedy, though clean, has its share of detractors too.
"If you post a video and let's say it gets, like 35 million views, just based on the numbers alone, there are going to be some people that find something wrong with it," he says. "If you hear one critic or somebody saying this is inappropriate or this isn't funny, you've got people, we get emails all the time, in all seriousness, to our website: 'You know I've got chronic depression and your videos lift my spirits.' 'I'm going through some debilitating health problem ... and I watch your videos and it lifts me up.' ... People say laughter is good medicine."
He catches his mistake at the same time I do.
He says, "People don't say that ... the Bible says that."
Simultaneously, I correct him: "The Good Book says that!
"I'm telling your daddy!"
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Spin Cycle is a weekly smirk at pop culture.
Style on 03/11/2018