‘What We Do in the Shadows’: Who Is Richie Suck & What Happens to Him?

If one had to pick and choose between the funniest episodes of What We Do in the Shadows, you’d have a very hard time. However, one has to admit that the third episode of Season 4 – The Grand Opening – belongs at least among the top five. In it, for the first time, we meet a vampire celebrity called Richie Suck. But, who is Richie Suck, and what happens to him in the show?

Richie Suck is an extremely popular vampire rapper in The Grand Opening episode. Nadja hired him to perform at the opening of her nightclub after a decade of being off-stage. Richie cancels at the last minute due to being manipulated by his familiar, Tom.

Tom wants Richie to throw out the rap and start performing new music backed by his awful jazz trio. In the end, Richie Suck comes to perform, but his performance goes in a horrible and unpredictable direction. Luckily, an inexperienced young performer saved the day and Nadja’s club from flopping before it opened properly. Let’s hear more about Richie Suck.

Who is Richie Suck in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’?

As I’ve mentioned, Richie Suck is a character that appears in Season 4, Episode 3 of What We Do in the Shadows called The Grand Opening. As Nadja said, Richie is an incredibly famous vampire rapper – possibly the greatest of all time.

Every vampire knows his songs, like ‘Sun Down, Funtown’ or the greatest hit he ever produced – ‘Throat Juice.’ Nadja even gives spits some bars from the song when explaining to the camera who Richie Suck is:

“Gonna bust loose, on the club roof, sucking throat juice, like it’s Grey Goose.”

Yeah, Richie Suck got that flow. And, the thing is, he is insanely popular among vampires – a part of their popular culture, you might say – but the human population has never even heard of him. Also, when I say ‘got that flow,’ I mean that in the past tense – because Richie Suck hasn’t performed in a decade.

That’s why it was such a huge deal when Nadja managed to book him to perform at the grand opening of her new vampire nightclub. When the word spread that Richie Suck would perform again, every vampire in NYC – and beyond – was ready to come to the club’s grand opening to hear Richie perform again.

The problem was, Richie canceled his performance at the last minute, when people (or vampires, that is) were already lined up in front of the club, eagerly waiting to get in and spit bars with their favorite rapper.

What happens to Richie Suck?

After Richie Suck cancels his performance in Nadja’s nightclub at the last minute, she pays him a visit to try and persuade him to knock it off and come perform, as was agreed upon before.

That’s when Nadja – and we, as viewers – realize that Richie Suck was heavily influenced and manipulated by his human familiar, Tom, who also serves as his manager and semi-psychologist.

Tom persuaded Richie into thinking that his old music was simply too violent and gory and that he ought to turn a new page in his life. They have been writing new music together in a completely different style, including Tom and his horribly bad jazz trio. Nadja shares that, after all, it’s not the first time that others manipulated an artist for their own benefit:

“It is something that happens… Not so much with vampires, but all the time in the music business.”

We feel you, Nadja.

Nadja somehow manages to persuade Richie to come to the nightclub to perform after all. He starts playing the god-awful new music with Tom, but after seeing the crowd reacting poorly, Nadja convinces him to break free of Tom’s manipulation and ‘be himself.’

Suddenly, Richie Suck picks Tom up and throws him into the crowd to be devoured by bloodthirsty vampires, and everything seems to be trending in the direction or new nightclub owner wants – Richie is going to start blasting his old hits.

Instead, he listens to Nadja’s advice to ‘be himself,’ and instead of performing his old hits, Richie shares that he had discovered a new passion – observational stand-up comedy. His jokes are terrible and flop miserably, much to the dismay of the huge crowd that is on the brink of exploding in chaos and violence.

Luckily, another performer in the club saves the day – and the nightclub – from its inevitable doom before it even opens its doors properly.

Who saves Richie Suck and Nadja’s nightclub?

Throughout the episode, we learn that Baby Colin Robinson has grown exponentially and is now in his ‘tweens.’ He enjoys Legos, started a YouTube channel, and developed a strong liking for musical theater. Laszlo – the boy’s father figure – tries to discourage Colin from engaging in musical theater, but Guillermo convinces him to let the kid follow his interests.

Luckily, Laszlo agrees because Colin is the one who saves the day when the crowd starts going wild over Richie Suck’s poor performance. He jumps onto the stage and performs a song from the popular 1936 musical, Born to Dance.

The crowd is amazed at his skills and performance, and they vow to return to Nadja’s nightclub every time that teenage Colin Robinson performs. As it turns out, there’s something about talented child stars that vampires find incredibly captivating, and he eventually makes Nadja and the nightclub a ton of money.

That is, until he grows even older and bigger overnight and realizes he has no interest in musical theater anymore… but that’s a story for another day.

Who portrayed Richie Suck?

Richie Suck was portrayed by Affion Crockett, a young American actor, rapper, and comedian. Affion gained attention after his awesome performances and interpretations of famous rappers in Nick Cannon’s MTV show called Wild ‘n’ Out.

He had appeared in numerous TV shows and films, like First Wives Club, Tab Time, or Fifty Shades of Black, but most of his best work actually came online, on social media. He amassed a huge following on socials, with over 2 million followers on Instagram, over 1.6 million followers on Facebook, over 275K on Twitter, and over 165K subscribers on YouTube.

Affion is a brilliant comedian and a great rapper, which kind of made the role of Richie Suck perfect for him.