Friends: Kritzman was destined to be a successful comedian

Friends said Jeremy Kritzman, affectionately called “Germ,” was one of those kids who could always put a smile on your face. \n“He was the funniest kid around no matter what was going on,” said Greg Cox, a friend of Kritzman’s. “People just always wanted to be around him.”\nKritzman, an IU junior who passed away early Thursday morning, was a therapeutic recreation major and aspired to be a stand-up comedian, said senior Bennett Fink.\n“We’ve been friends since Welcome Week of his freshman year,” Fink said. “He was just a very funny, very energetic and very outgoing guy. He was one of those kids that was always happy.”\nCox said that Kritzman had been his best friend since his freshman year in high school. They hung out with the same kids and grew close.\n“He’s been like a brother to me,” Cox said. “You really couldn’t ask for a better friend.”\nEven though Cox goes to school at the University of Southern Maine, Kritzman made sure to stay in close contact despite the distance, he said. They had spoken just three days ago.\n“He had been planning to come to one of my soccer games,” Cox said. “We hung out every day this summer when he was home.”\nKritzman spent a good deal of his summer in New York City interning with the Big Apple Circus, Cox said. \n“He told me that he set up promotional stuff, but he mainly just hung out with the clowns,” Cox said, laughing. “He was more of a clown than they ever could have been.”\nCox recalls thousands of the funny memories and times that Kritzman sent classes into a fit of laughs, including as a speaker at his high school graduation.\n“He was delivering his speech and he had 500 kids laughing,” Cox said. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe he’s actually saying this at graduation.’”\nKritzman’s comical tendencies led friends to believe that he would make it in Hollywood. He was a brilliant actor, Cox said.\n“He was the next Conan O’Brien,” he said. “There’s no way he wouldn’t have made it. His talent would have been recognized.”\nKritzman and Cox had been planning to study abroad together next year, regardless of the location, he said. They had talked about going to Italy or Israel, and even though Cox didn’t particularly want to go to Israel, he said he would have made the sacrifice just to spend time with his best friend.\n“There’s no one else in the world like him,” Cox said. “He was a truly unique person. I’m just really glad that I got to know him.”