Roast!

Roasting a person is a fine art. A lot of what you say depends on the person.  A little bit is determined by the audience.  For example, if you’re roasting a preacher, you don’t drop the F-bomb on the crowd.  You figure out where the line is and you dance on it. You cross it occasionally and kick the person’s butt.  Then you jump back. It can be as difficult as threading a needle while riding a motorcycle — one false move and someone will get hurt. (well, the wrong person anyway).

Tonight I helped roast Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann at the Marriott in downtown Jackson.  I got to dress up in my tux (I looked like a waiter ) and tell a few jokes at Delbert’s expense.  Mother Theresa would have been easier to roast.  Making jokes about Delbert is like trying to cut down a Boy Scout  — you can do it, but it kind of feels wrong.  But since it was for such an important cause (the roast was for the Mississippi chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.), how could I say no?

Most of the roasters were good friends of the Secretary of State — so they had childhood stories.  All were brief and most were very funny. I’m sure the audience appreciated it. Two things I like at a roast: 1. Funny and 2. Brief.   But I didn’t have stories.  I just had cartoons.  And I didn’t write a script.  Heck, I had no idea what I was going to say.  I included seven cartoons I’ve done of him and winged it. I think I did ok. I heard lots of laughs which is usually the universal sign you didn’t suck.

A few observations:

1. From the comments I heard and the applause I got, I am amazingly blessed that the people in this community support me like they do.
2. Delbert Hosemann has a very dry wit and is very funny.
3. If I had started a drinking game that said that you had to drink when a joke was made about “Dilbert” or another name from the commercial, we’d have been passed out by the third roaster.
4. It was a huge honor to be invited to help out for such an important cause. It’s love giving back to a community that has given me so much.