- Comedian John Crist planned a fake award show to trick a reporter.
- Crist got comedian Nate Bargatze and his wife to help him pull it off.
- The venue? The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.
What do you do when the Christian comedian you like so much that you even moved to a different state for announces he’s getting the “Nashville comedian of the fiscal quarter award” at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center during the Nashville Comedy Impact Awards?
If you’re WSMV Channel 4 reporter Lydia Fielder, you head home to change fast after work, dress to the nines and cross your fingers that he’s got his acceptance speech prepped, because that beau, John Crist, seems a little nervous.
That’s exactly what Fielder did in late August.
As she described the night to The Tennessean, Crist’s tour manager met them at the door — totally expected — and ushered them into the symphony hall, talking about seating and the guests and other details of how the evening would unfold. Inside, a string quartet was playing “Hallelujah.” The venue was decked out with gorgeous bouquets of white flowers.
But the seats were strangely empty, the hall too quiet.
Maybe that award wasn’t really that big a deal, if no one showed up. No wonder Crist was crying.
Then she spotted the giant heart-shaped flower arrangement spelled John and Lydia in large letters.
Of course she said “yes” when he proposed.
As he put the engagement ring on her finger, the quartet played their song: “Steady Love.” Fielder said when the quartet played “Goodness of God,” they prayed together. That was the background music when he first said he loved her.
They toasted with grape juice — Crist doesn’t drink alcohol — in flutes that said “The Crists” and then, manager in tow, they went outside to take photos. Or not.
She heard a boat horn and cheers and turned to see “The Pontoon Saloon” barreling across the Cumberland River toward them, friends and family from near and far easily spotted on deck.
The boat was decorated for a party and that’s what they all did.
Crist’s version of the event
Crist announced his engagement for the first time on Nate Bargatze’s podcast, “Nateland.” And talked about it — and how he put it together ever so quietly — on his own Net Positive podcast when he’d been engaged 48 hours.
He gave Laura Bargatze, Bargatze’s wife, some credit as a coconspirator. She was tasked with helping Fielder figure out what to wear to the prestigious award show.
He made up a program, which his publicist sent Fielder.
And, as The Tennessean reported in August, he dumbed down the award he was getting because “she’d wonder why Nate Bargatze wasn’t getting that award.”
And out-cooling an untold but huge number of grooms-to-be, he called out-of-town relatives and friends and invited them to celebrate right after the proposal.
He even arranged with Fielder’s station manager to make sure she’d be free that night.
On his podcast, he said he asked and was told you can’t rent out the Schermerhorn. Somehow he did, joking that if you see him doing a Christmas show or something with the symphony, you’d know why.
“There were so many moving parts to this thing,” he said, noting he couldn’t imagine how they’d keep it a secret.
He asked another comedian, with Lydia on speakerphone, to talk through what he could say in the roast of comedy clubs he’d supposedly been asked to prepare for the award show.
Seems that of nearly everyone they knew, she was the only one who hadn’t heard about the coming proposal.
Back in time
Crist and Fielder met at a little comedy club in Lowell, Arkansas. She told The Tennessean she doesn’t usually go to comedy clubs, so maybe it was meant to be. They talked that night but didn’t immediately start to date. It’s not that easy with Crist based in Nashville, while she lived in Arkansas.
But they kept in touch and within about four months they started to date. She’d sometimes go on tour with him — his star has been rising pretty well on the comedy circuit and he’s even been on “The Tonight Show.” She told the Tennessee news outlet that there’ve been times when she interviewed him at red-carpet events. And they’ve vacationed in Montana, among other shared moments.
When her TV contract ended, she moved to Nashville to be closer to Crist, to see where things would go, she said. That’s how she ended up at WSMV as a weekend anchor.
To the future
The wedding date isn’t public yet and maybe isn’t even decided. Fielder said they wanted to enjoy being engaged and the timing will be something they pray about together, but probably within a year.
She said the wedding has no choice but to be big: Crist has seven siblings, most of them married.
She admitted to The Tennessean they are an unlikely pair. ”One of us is supposed to stay neutral and unbiased, while the other makes a living ruffling feathers for laughs. Still, I couldn’t feel more blessed to marry John — a man who sees the world with empathy, fairness and wisdom and somehow manages to crack the exact joke we need to bring us back down to earth."