By Addison Gernenz | Intern
On Sunday night, people poured through the doors of Waco Hall to watch comedian John Crist perform. The show sold over 1,900 tickets, and Waco Hall was packed with audience members across generations, including President Linda Livingstone and first gent Brad Livingstone.
The last time Crist visited Baylor’s campus was in 2019, and he spoke highly of his past visit and of the city of Waco, calling both beautiful.
John Crist is a native of Georgia but now lives in Nashville, Tenn. Crist hosts the pop-culture-meets-comedy podcast “Net Positive with John Crist” and has appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Good Morning America” and a variety of other shows and podcasts.
The event began with a prerecorded video of Crist and his parents talking about the upcoming tour. Even in the video, Crist interacted with the audience, an aspect of his show several attendees spoke highly about.
Before Crist came on stage, openers Mason James and Caleb Elliott both performed a 15-minute set. James is the husband of a Baylor alum and lives in Houston with his two kids.
His comedy was very family-focused, and he poked fun at the Baptist “no alcohol” stereotype. He claimed to have bought a beer and charged it to the hotel room Baylor paid for, not even consuming the beer, but just making the purchase for the joke.
Elliott is a Generation Z comedian from North Carolina, and a lot of his comedy revolved around his young age. He joked about the demographic of the audience being mostly alumni, telling the crowd, “he was single if any of them had any grandchildren.”
Both openers catered to the audience and drew laughs around the auditorium, but they were rivaled by the applause Crist received when he walked onto the stage.
Throughout the show, Crist interacted with the audience, joking with some front-row attendees and eliciting applause and laughter multiple times.
He captured the attention of the room well, telling stories with excellent timing and delivering punchlines with precision.
Stefani Davis, an attendee at the event and a Baylor economics department employee, spoke highly of the show and the three comedians performing.
“All three gentlemen were really fun and clean,” Davis said. “I actually cried, I laughed so hard, I loved it. I had a great time.”
Crist’s set centered around the idea of censoring yourself or keeping your thoughts to yourself. He sent the crowd into uproarious laughter with stories of his fiancee and her misspoken phrases, such as “bit yourself in the foot” and “turned a 360” instead of “shot yourself in the foot” and “turned a 180.”
He also joked about bonding with his future father-in-law, who is a hunter, the disconnect from growing up in the 90s and growing up in the 2010s, Christian parents and being homeschooled.
Fairview freshman Faith Nunnenkamp and Yorba Linda, Calif., freshman Taylor Moore both enjoyed the show and found it entertaining.
“I thought they did a great job engaging with the crowd,” Nunnenkamp said. “I thought they did a great job integrating things about the community, like Baylor overall, to get the crowd involved.”
Moore elaborated that the comedians’ delivery was spot on.
“I thought it balanced well with engaging with the crowd and joking about their own lives and integrating that into something everyone can relate to and everyone can laugh about,” Moore said.
