Most students think of celebrities that come to campus as unapproachable, but two students got to learn first
hand how approachable comedian Erik Griffin was last Friday night.
Erik Griffin is a comedian, actor and writer, mostly known for his character Montez on the hit Comedy Central show Workaholics. During his comedy, show he covered topics that ranged from relationship advice, music, sex education, and even his pet peeves. His personal pet peeves were displayed whenever the phrase, “I will purge!” was heard, based off the summer horror film, The Purge.
While the show was a highlight for freshmen Chris Mazza, 18, Business Management major, and Dillon Kline, 19, Criminal Justice major, it was after the pictures that they got to meet and spend time with Griffin.
“After the show I sent him a few tweets and he responded to them and eventually followed me on Twitter,” explained Mazza.
It was during this Twitter conversation that Mazza and Kline were invited to spend some time with Griffin in his hotel room. In this conversation, Kline said, that Griffin was curious about what there was all to do in Slippery Rock.
The two students then drove to the Fairfield Inn, where Griffin was staying, and when they went into his room he was watching the Harry Potter movie marathon, according to Mazza.
“We were trying to get him to come to the Heights, but because of his 6:00 a.m. flight we did not leave,” Kline said.
According to Kline, the majority of the night they spent time together talking, and Griffin even showed the two boys his Twitter and all of his followers.
“We talked about how we enjoyed the show and if he enjoyed doing stand up for colleges,” Mazza explained. “He said it was a lot of traveling for instance he had a flight at 6 a.m. the next day.”
“He [Griffin] said the campus was beautiful and a lot bigger than he expected here,” Mazza said.
Griffin also explained to the two students that they should stay focused and continue to go to school and in reality they could do anything in the future, Kline said. According to Kline, when they asked Griffin how did he become a famous comedian, he answered that he started just doing a lot of open mic nights until he became famous and well known.
“My overall opinion of him is he is a great dude,” Mazza said. He was easy to talk to and was down to earth, according to Mazza. Compared to other celebrities he did not act like he was better than anyone and treated them like an equal, Mazza said.
According to Kline, both him and Mazza stayed with Griffin until 12:30 that night before heading out. According to Kline there were no phone numbers that were exchanged, so the only way that they can stay in contact with Griffin is through Twitter.
“If he is in the area again I will definitely send him a tweet and see if we can arrange a meeting like that again,” Mazza said.
