TMZ caught up with Roastmaster General Jeff Ross outside LA’s Comedy Store, to ask his input on who should host the upcoming White House Correspondent’s Dinner – everyone’s favorite thing to speculate about these days.
Ross has held his reputation as one of comedy’s most brutal joke writers for decades, earning a spot on the legendary Friar’s Club dais at an incredibly young age and, now, ruling over a new generation of viciously witty stand-ups on Comedy Central competition, Roast Battle.
He’s also roasted Trump twice already, making him the best prepared candidate to emcee the WHCD – and when TMZ asked if he’d be down, he was into the idea.
“It’d be my patriotic duty,” he said of his hypothetical hosting. “It would be my honor to roast the first Orange-American president.”
TMZ caught Ross right before Roast Battle – the cult hit live show that inspired Comedy Central’s modified version, which still takes place weekly at the Store – so The Wave, the show’s official hype men, were on hand to back the comic’s political jabs.
Jamar Neighbors, Jeremiah Watkins, and Willie Hunter – the core of The Wave – are Roast Battle’s standout stars, keeping the morale up with their tireless, prop-heavy reaction gags. Neighbors can be seen frequently onstage at The Comedy Store, and onscreen in Key and Peele’s Keanu; Hunter is a writer and producer on The Carmichael Show. And Watkins, who feeds the trio’s limitless energy, does double duty as slightly edgier hype man / rock roadie, Mosh Pit (alongside Johnny Skourtis’ Razor Blade), on another Comedy Central show, The Goddamn Comedy Jam.
