Jeremiah Watkins says Crazy Pizza has zero crowd work
The Stand Up on the Spot host went back on Are You Garbage after three years to pitch an hour of nothing but written jokes.
Jeremiah Watkins says his new hour Crazy Pizza contains no crowd work at all. He made the pitch on Are You Garbage with Kevin Ryan and H. Foley, his first time back on the show in three years, in the episode titled Tricked-Out Cars w/ Jeremiah Watkins.
The framing matters because Watkins is the guy behind Stand Up on the Spot, the show built almost entirely on riffing. He told Ryan and Foley that both of them have done it over the years, and that he puts out so much riffing content that this special is deliberately the opposite. Pure material, start to finish.
"I don't talk to the crowd at all. It's just jokes, baby," he said.
I don't talk to the crowd at all. It's just jokes, baby.
The rest of the episode is chaos
Are You Garbage being Are You Garbage, the special was maybe the fourth most memorable thing discussed. Watkins talked through a childhood in Kansas that included a Y2K bunker in the basement, which he described as shelves in a closet kind of area, and a dad who would sometimes have the kids shoot guns in that same basement.
He also said he helped his mom steal from Olive Garden and Red Lobster. The headline job was a potted plant from Olive Garden that he said took two people to carry. He said she has also walked out of restaurants with full glasses of beer, napkin placed over the top.
Then there is the car. Watkins drives a 2012 Honda CR-Z, discontinued, with rims and a special grill, and he defended it to the hosts by insisting it is a tricked out car. He said he has been hit many times in LA in that car and pockets the money every time. He also said he puts his kids in the back with no seat belts and does donuts around the neighborhood, which is the kind of thing a comedian says on a podcast and not the kind of thing anyone should read as a sworn statement.
On the domestic front, he said he bought his wife's engagement ring at Marshalls for 118, and that his wife told him she does not think their son is going to know what his real voice is, because he reads bedtime stories in character.
The real story
Watkins has spent years building a reputation as the fastest guy in the room with a crowd. An hour with zero crowd work is him making the case that the written jokes hold up on their own. He signed off by telling listeners to check out Crazy Pizza, his new one hour special, and then go watch Stand Up on the Spot on YouTube.