In a video recently uploaded to YouTube, Christian comedian John Crist can be seen performing onstage and opening up about his experiences with rehab, sexual addiction, and mental health. During the performance, he shared about the pivotal role some kind words from strangers at a local Five Guys Burgers and Fries played in his healing process.
Crist made headlines in November of 2019 when it was revealed that he had been accused of sexually manipulating five young women. Charisma News released the initial report detailing the testimony of the anonymous women. While it was noted that the allegations were not criminal in nature, they were nevertheless grievous, especially for a Christian public figure.
After the allegations came to light, Crist canceled all public engagements. His upcoming Netflix special, which had been set to come out later that month, was put on hold. Crist also took an eight month hiatus from all social media, where he had been actively sharing content for years.
Crist later returned to social media, posting a video wherein he shared that he had been in an inpatient rehab center for sexual addiction. He apologized for the hypocrisy of presenting himself to the public as one person while being someone else behind closed doors.
“I can look at you eight months later and say that those choices were on me…I point the fingers at no one else but myself,” Crist said in that video address, going on to explain that “if I am part of the problem, then I can also be part of the solution.”
Crist has now returned to performing comedy, and has even begun to incorporate aspects of his rehab experience, battles with sexual addiction, and his mental health into his routine, oscillating between irreverent remarks and sincere moments.
In the recent video on YouTube, Crist joked about his time in rehab, saying that he once called a close friend in tears to share about how difficult it was.
“I was like, ‘Dude, this place is terrible. You gotta wake up at dawn. You gotta go to breakfast. You gotta go to meditation. You gotta go to yoga. You gotta go to Bible study,’” Crist recounted. “I was crying. His wife grabs the phone and says, ‘I don’t want to interrupt here, but we have three kids under five. This place sounds incredible.”
When Crist complained about having to talk to a therapist all day, she responded that it must be nice to talk to an adult. When Crist complained about being drug tested, she remarked that it must be nice to have only one person watching you pee. She also brought up how nice it must be to have someone cook you breakfast. When Crist said, “You don’t understand; this place has no sexual activity,” she responded, “This place sounds perfect.”
Aside from jokes, Crist did open up about how serious his crisis was, saying, “I’ve been through a lot in the last two years of my life.”
“You can Google—well, don’t Google it,” Crist joked. “It’s probably on page two by now, but who knows?”
