If you were at the Stars Under the Stars event, you might wonder if Jeff Ross would have made the same masturbation jokes when he began roasting random volunteers from the audience had he began with roasting the thirteen year old girl. Tossing out some uncomfortable quips, Ross even asked the girl’s twelve year old male friend (also on stage) if they would kiss. Granted, he is a comedian and he is certainly allowed to be edgy. And it was very respectable of him to tell the other random people on stage to knock off the peer pressure when they began hollering for the children to kiss. But you could sense the audience’s discomfort, even more pressing than any forecasts for rain.
Fortunately, during the actual event, precipitation held off. However, only one hour before the 8 pm show, a brief deluge was released from the sky. With the audience clamoring for good views of some of Comedy Central’s talent, there were many who had arrived when the Central Park Summerstage doors opened and, as a result, got soaked. I’ve been trying to avoid wet shows since the mud and puke pits of Governors Ball, and luckily I was able to do so. I got to laugh and wince without being wet.
The diverse bill included Adam DeVine from the show Workaholics, former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney, roast/insult comic Jeff Ross and Amy Schumer the star Inside Amy Schumer. And the host for the evening, was “Fluffy” Gabriel Iglesias. After being introducing by one of his friends, Iglesias related a story of how he and that friend were traveling and his friend was mistakenly recognized as ‘Machette’ (Danny Trejo) in the airport. He also expressed some fear of falling off the stage. He then devoted the bulk of his set on jokes about the use of the term Latinos (an easier, collective term that non-Latinos can use to not offend Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans or anyone from a different country). Then he explained the differences between many of the US immigrants from those countries — Puerto Ricans can proudly wave their flag while Mexicans can’t because the former group won’t have any fear of being deported.
DeVine’s set worked in multiple uses of the term “tight butthole”, the Workaholics term for something awesome, and how a fan complimented him on his once — in a way that was taken more literally than comedically. Mulaney followed him with perhaps the least possibly offensive set of the evening, though one that was consistently funny. Amy Schumer was great as well. Her jokes also touched on race and body image from a recent trip to Miami where she found all the beautiful women on the beach in their bikinis. She couldn’t even compare her lumpy name “Amy Schumer” to that of the attractive hotel clerk, the sultry “Jordana”.
But it was Ross who stole the show, deliberately or not, when he invited the motley bunch of folks on stage. There were a couple of people who were unemployed and either played video games or smoked pot, a few babes that he “invited” to his hotel room, “Jackie Chan’s nephew” (or something), the drunk who dropped his beer on stage and the two children amongst others. Those moments under the lights under the stars may have earned the older folks some cred amongst their friends, but you gotta wonder what the children were thinking when they volunteered to be roasted. Ross asked the boy how many pubes he had, to which he replied, ‘I don’t count’ and asked Ross the same (“Thirty-seven” I believe was his response). Let’s hope they aren’t traumatized. After dismissing that group, Ross invited a friend and a backing band up so that he could play guitar for the sizable crowd. It wasn’t the best song and it seemed made up on the spot, but it was sort of a way for people to forget Ross’s jokes at the expense of the prepubescent. Hilarious for those that aren’t easily offended, but maybe too much edge the family friendly Summerstage space.
Dan Soder
Gabriel Iglesias
Gabriel Iglesias
Adam DeVine
Adam DeVine
John Mulaney
John Mulaney
Jeff Ross
Jeff Ross
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer
***