My homie Marcus is the duke. Not only do we both share a passion for ridiculous cars from the 60s, 70s and 80s (@idwhipthat) but we also used to share a wall (he was in the warehouse next door to ours). These days Marcus wears many hats, one of which is to travel with the comedian Hannibal Buress, grab amazing content and manage his social media presence.
Two weeks ago Marcus was in town with Hannibal for the Roast of Justin Bieber and being the coolest guy on the planet, he hooked me up with a +1 to the live taping. Here’s the highlights in no particular order of importance:
1) Driving past a pack of tweens straining their necks to get a glimpse of Beibes as I drove onto the Sony Pictures lot was strangely powerful. I guess this was the red carpet in the form of a driveway.
2) The very fact that Martha Stewart was part of the roast was probably the biggest draw for me. I was so curious to see how she would participate in the debauchery, such a wild card! Fortunately I was seated with ‘team Martha’, some of her friends from New York who flew in for the roast. They provided the play by play responses to how Martha was taking every joke and jab and when it came time for her to roast Justin we all agreed she did quite well.
3) WILL FERREL’s surprise roast as Ron Burgundy was insane. Of all surprises guests that could have walked on stage, this was definitely the best. Will stayed in character and kept his cool, as he always does, as he ripped Justin apart.
4) Kevin Hart was a really solid roast master. I don’t know his work super well but I saw him getting coffee with Jerry Seinfeld once, he didn’t seem too funny and I wasn’t expecting him to be particularly hilarious but the dude held it down. He took a royal beating on his shortness and kept the rowdy crew in line.
5) SNOOP DOGGGGGG – Wow, there’s a lot to say about Snoop’s performance. First off he was rocking some super fresh black bandana print all night which looked familiar. In pure Snoop fashion he was smoking blunts on stage next to Martha Stewart like it wasn’t a thing. When it came time for him to roast Justin, he was almost completely off book just freestyling joke after joke. Every one was better than the last, sharp, smooth delivery, consistent, very impressive work Snoop.
6) Going to the bathroom and peeing next to John Legend and Blake Anderson was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I also gave Blake and his lady Apliiq buttons at the afterparty. Apparently Adam reps his apliiq corn dog hoodie hard.
7) Dave Chappelle was in the crowd. There was an air of comedy royalty hovering around him and one or two roasters shouted him out. He definitely commanded a high level of respect from the audience. I heard he hadn’t really been in the Comedy Central scene since his show went off air. Dude should have been roasting if you ask me.
8) Pete Davidson – I’d never heard of this guy but apparently he’s the new kid on the SNL block. He had a very sour, sarcastic demeanor but was very relaxed taking the pulpit and preaching to Justin, especially for being the youngest and one of the most green on stage. His joke about Jeff Ross looking like someone put Seth Rogan in the microwave was apparently recycled by Natasha Leggero.
9) Hannibal’s sunglasses collection – Marcus and I went on a hunt for wild glasses that Hannibal could rock on stage every time the camera cut to him. We ran into my homie Brent from Future Eyes in Silverlake. Look out for Hannibal in some of these babies!
10) The After Party – Sony Studios had a pretty wild afterparty complete with corn dogs, a moving Photo Booth that was decked out as a fangirl’s room, ramen, elbow rubbing and some super kooky twins dancing non stop for hours. It wasn’t intimate, but it was definitely a scene and I got a chance to meet some great people.
So… all in all it was a pretty solid Hollywood evening. Can’t wait to see it tonight without all the Paul Walker jokes!
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