16 people entered, one man left and that man is Mike Lawrence. Lawrence is the 2016
Roast Battle Champion. He was crowned Sunday evening after a live telecast on Comedy Central and 4 night competition from Montreal’s
Just For Laughs Festival.
Lawrence took down Sarah Tiana to take the title. It wasn’t an easy route for the freshly minted Emmy nominated comedian and writer, as he took on some heavy hitters to take the title. Starting off with Matt Broussard (the runner-up at last year’s event), Lawrence then decimated Ralphie May in the quarterfinals to get to the semifinals where he went head to head with Canada’s own K. Trevor Wilson. He was was neck and neck with Wilson but edged him out to make it to the finals against Tiana, who herself edged out Earl Skakel to make it to the finals.
In the final match, Tiana made a rare bad joke which enabled a solid Lawrence to take the advantage and win the title as all three judges (Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Ross) unanimously awarded the title to him. In addition to hard prepared jokes, Lawrence was equally powerful with quick comebacks and side quips that just kept his level of roasting high. After soundly defeating May in the quarterfinals, it appeared to be Lawrence’s title to lose.
Lawrence follows up Jimmy Carr who was the
2015 champion.
