COMEDY PREVIEW
Jeff Ross
8 p.m. June 18. $25 in advance, $28 at the door. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta. www.variety-playhouse.com.
When roaster extraordinaire Jeff Ross recounted on Conan O’Brien’s TBS show recently that he smoked pot between commercial breaks during the Justin Bieber Comedy Central roast with Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg earlier this year, the story went viral.
“I couldn’t believe it got so much traction,” said Ross, promoting a June 18 Variety Playhouse show. “I love Martha Stewart. I’m sleeping on her sheets right now. She sent us all sheets after the roast.”
His Comedy Central special that aired this past Saturday is not a typical stand-up concert or roast. Instead, Ross wanted to challenge himself by facing an audience he has never faced before. “Since I couldn’t get access to a Ku Klux Klan rally, I decided to roast criminals instead,” he cracked.
Ross spent three days at the Brazos County Jail in Bryan, Texas. He interviewed inmates and detention officers, played basketball with the convicts and even sampled solitary confinement.
He said he managed to get out unscathed but “some of these convicts will get out of prison and if I keep doing press, they’ll know where to find me!”
Ross shows surprising empathy for the prisoners, asking them what they miss about the outside and how they manage on the inside.
He thinks if he were in prison, his humor would keep fellow prisoners sane. “I spoke with a lot of ex-cons for research, and they said gallows humor helps them get through it,” he said. “This may be some of the only happiness they’ll get out of prison. Some of them deserve that.”
But he wasn’t Mr. Nice Guy when it came to speed-roasting prisoners. To one: “You’re one of those rare people who looks like a child and a child molester at the same time.” When someone says he’s “an alleged dope dealer,” Ross says: “In reality, you’re what? A kindergarten teacher?”
What would land Ross in jail? “Murder,” he said. “Something intense!”
Ross is familiar with Atlanta. He came here twice last year: once at the Atlanta Improv, then two weeks later at the Funny or Die Festival at Lakewood Amphitheatre.
During his last visit, he checked out both the Jimmy Carter Center and the nearby Clermont Lounge strip joint, which has been frequented by everyone from Jon Hamm to Pink.
Ross said he got a lap dance from one of the veteran strippers. “She even let me share her insulin!” he joked. “It was really hot!”
He tries to get to any city early enough so he can learn enough about it to make city-specific jokes: “I’ve visited Atlanta so many times, I know the people. I know the lay of the land. I can’t wait to rip into everything!”
