ROASTED

Last night we went to see Jeffrey Ross  at Caroline’s on Broadway.  My thoughtful wife got us the tickets as a Christmas gift.  If you haven’t already noticed we really enjoy stand-up comedy. We do like to laugh as often as possible, and a live comedy show is a great way to partake in our little hobby.  With us, there’s always a side story to our adventures, and last night was no exception.

The past year has been a mini comedy tour of our own.  We’ve managed to get ourselves involved in some shows – usually inadvertently.  I was invited to show off my dance skills at a show last year on our family vacation. We’ve had opportunity to meet some of our favorite comics, Lewis Black, Jon Reep, Josh Blue, Susie Essman. We went to last night’s show fully expecting to be roasted. That is of course what Ross is known for, and, as typically is the case with us – we managed to get seats right near the front. Well, we didn’t get picked on – but my wife wound up being a part of the show – as the piano player.

It was a great show. The emcee for the evening was Rachel Feinstein, a local comic who lives in Brooklyn, and she was really funny. James Smith, whose shtick seems to be that of an Australian slacker, was absolutely hysterical. Jeffrey Ross did over an hour and had us cackling like a couple of demented schoolgirls. He was brutal – just like we had hoped.

Towards the end of his set – he asked for a volunteer to come up to the piano that was at the side of the stage to accompany him as he read some “poems”. The place was packed, probably three or four hundred in the room, yet there didn’t seem to be any piano players available, or frankly, anyone brave enough to step up and risk being insulted by the guy who’s known as the Roastmaster General.

No problem, the Giddys are in the house.

Chrissy can tickle the ivories, and occasionally actually plays the piano. I can see her looking at me as if she was saying “Should I go up there?” What she actually said was “Should I go up there?” Not to be accused later in the evening of volunteering her, I discreetly pointed in her direction and mentioned to the couple sitting next to us that my wife plays the piano. They of course took the bait and further encouraged her to go up to the piano – which she did.

So she sits down and answers the usual questions and comments; where are you from, who are you here with, you sure have some big fucking tits …she mentioned that she had gotten me the tickets for Christmas, for which Jeffrey wished me a Merry Christmas. As too then did pretty much everyone in the place on the way out, and at the bar after the show. It was nice.

She’s playing some poetry music; actually it was Stu’s song “Doug” from The Hangover. She’s been recently teaching Junior Miss Giddy to play it. One of the ways that people get themselves into trouble at a comedy show is by trying to “out-funny” the pros. Having been to enough shows, she knew full well to just play it straight and she’d look much better, although I know how hard it must have been sitting there knowing there was a live mic right in front of her.

Each of the poems in the bit had ridiculous titles. One of them Ross entitled “I Think we should See Other People” to which Chrissy could hold back no longer. Upon hearing the title she instinctively said “Can I sing that one?” A well timed zinger designed to roast me got a great response from the room and from Jeff.

Figures, she gets me tickets to see an insult comic and she’s the one who ends up roasting me. Just another typical Saturday night out.

 

Some other Stand Up Posts:

Check out Boneheads Stand Up debut on the Giddy Mystery Cruise

Beers with Josh Blue

Chrissys interview with Susie Essman on SpotOnLI

BUY YOUR JEFFREY ROSS BOOK HERE!