RISK! Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: Shit Happens
Release Date: September 16, 2025
Host: Kevin Allison
Theme: Stories about wastefulness, evacuations, and when nature calls – literally and metaphorically.

Overview

In classic RISK! fashion, this episode, “Shit Happens,” dives into the bodily, the embarrassing, and the uproariously human moments people rarely admit out loud. Host Kevin Allison sets the tone with a hilarious, very personal origin story, followed by two shorter audience tales from recent live shows—each about answering nature’s call (sometimes with questionable strategy or results). The episode is a joyously uncensored embrace of our most secret mishaps and the humor, vulnerability, and connection they create.

Key Discussion Points & Story Breakdowns

1. Kevin Allison’s “The Pickles Pickle” (Main Story)

Timestamps: [07:00 – 24:08]

Setup:

• Kevin reflects on growing up undiagnosed with ADHD and always getting into inexplicable scrapes.
• Flashback to 1988: At 18, he moved to New York to attend NYU but, due to finances, lived in his older brother Dave’s bachelor apartment near Coney Island.
• Dave’s primary decoration: beer cans. Only notable grocery: a massive jar of jumbo pickles.

The Filmmaking Predicament:

• As a nervous, scholarship NYU film student, Kevin must make a film using a rare Super 8 camera and do all edits “in camera.”
• The plot of his film: take a medication or the “bottle will explode.”
• Problem: His camera can’t do close-ups. He needs a “giant” bottle for the scene. Solution? The giant pickle jar.

When Shit (and Pickles) Hit the Fan:

• Critical Problem: How to get rid of a gallon of pickles without Dave noticing?
• ADHD Moment of Genius:
  • “I know what I’ll do. I’ll flush these pickles down the toilet. Because pickles are kinda shaped like poop.” (Kevin Allison, [17:25])
• He describes desperately fisting 8 jumbo pickles down the toilet to maintain plausible deniability over the missing contents.

The Fallout:

• His film is a success, wins laughter and attention, and indirectly connects him with members of the future comedy troupe The State.
• Upon return: The apartment’s toilet is catastrophically clogged.
• Dave’s confusion and struggle:
  • “Did you give birth to a haggis in there?” (Dave, [22:20])
• Plumber’s discovery:
  • “Look at this. This kind of looks like it’s a part of a pickle… Yeah, that’s definitely pickles.” (Plumber, [23:30])
• Kevin’s sheepish admission completes the tale, which now lives in family lore.

Broader Reflection:

• He sums up by connecting the story to ADHD and how “the subconscious often has ideas that are rather special.”
• Toasts to the inner weirdo in all of us—with a pickle, not a drink.
• Memorable Quote:
  • “If you ever find yourself in that situation where you’re thinking, ‘oh shit, I don’t know how to explain what I just did’—give a little toast in the weird part of your brain to me… not with a drink, but with a pickle. I love pickles.” (Kevin Allison, [23:54])

2. Rachel Frost – “The Inside Scoop”

Timestamps: [31:28 – 34:44]

The Struggle for “Girlfriend Perfection”:

• Rachel admits to pretending she doesn’t have bodily functions when she starts dating.
• Dating “Craig”—the self-described “rolling sixes” man (six feet tall, six-figure salary, six inches).
• At a fancy Brooklyn apartment birthday party, Rachel faces a bathroom emergency (“number two”) while Craig waits outside.

Ingenious (and Mortifying) Solution:

• Toilet won’t flush.
• Desperate, she crafts “Edward Scissorhands” hands out of paper towels, scoops the evidence, and buries it at the bottom of the trash.
• Tremendous embarrassment, obsessive hand-washing, and the slow realization that true love includes bodily reality.

Reflection:

• Eventually, she and Craig (who turns out to be “not a very nice person”) move in and later break up.
• Message: “Being a full-fledged human being is perfectly acceptable and lovable, and you all should [know that] too. But sometimes we have to look at our past to know more about ourselves in the future.” (Rachel Frost, [34:32])

3. Luke Euler – “Shit for Shits and Giggles”

Timestamps: [35:25 – 37:53]

A Dare Gone Messy:

• Luke always wanted “to shit my pants just once, just for shits and giggles.”
• Picks spring break and his least favorite pair of pants for the occasion, while visiting friends at Coastal Carolina University.

Public Execution:

• Intentionally soils himself in a cafeteria right before friends’ golf outing.
• The involuntary spectacle:
  • “Somebody from a neighboring table stood up and said, ‘what the fuck is that smell?’” (Random Student, [36:35])
• Attempts to walk out discreetly, but friends are alarmed; onlookers horrified as he tries to shake the evidence loose at the smoking gazebo.
• Cleans off in a pool, ditches the pants.

The Gist:

• A wild, irreverent story that embodies the “RISK!” ethos—abandoning shame and embracing absurdity.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Kevin on ADHD Meltdown Solutions:
  “The subconscious often has ideas that are rather special.” ([23:42])

• Rachel on Womanhood and Shame:
  “I just started dating this guy… I like to pretend that I don’t grow hair on my labia and I don’t have bodily functions and that kind of thing.” ([31:37])

• Luke on His Childhood Dream:
  “I had always wanted to shit my pants just once, just for shits and giggles.” ([35:26])

Key Segment Timestamps

• 07:00 – Kevin’s “Pickles Pickle” story begins
• 15:00 – “And I realize, holy shit, how am I gonna get rid of these pickles?”
• 17:25 – “I know what I’ll do. I’ll flush these pickles down the toilet.”
• 22:20 – Dave: “Did you give birth to a haggis in there?”
• 23:30 – Plumber: “This kind of looks like it’s a part of a pickle.”
• 23:54 – Kevin’s closing reflection/toast
• 31:28 – Rachel Frost begins “The Inside Scoop”
• 34:44 – Rachel’s takeaway: “Being a full-fledged human being is perfectly acceptable…”
• 35:25 – Luke Euler’s story begins
• 36:35 – “What the fuck is that smell?”
• 37:53 – End of Luke’s story

Overall Tone & Takeaways

RISK! leans hard into what makes it legendary: unashamed, vivid, and sometimes filthy stories that hit at the stuff we all hide, but all share. This episode is especially comedic, gross, and liberating—reminding us that everyone screws up, freaks out, and sometimes flushes pickles down the toilet.

Kevin’s warmth, self-recognition, and celebration of neurodiverse “logic” set the tone: “If you’re overwhelmed and do something inexplicable, you’re not alone—toast to it!” The audience stories reinforce the universal awkwardness of being a body, in public, and remind us that shame fades fastest when shared with compassion and laughter.